Any Stephen king fans who can advise on book for teen son?

Yes, I shout you dirty bird at people when they piss me off.

And thanks to Misery, I still get uncontrollable urges when someone's pissing me off to shout at them you.....DIRTY BIRD! thank god I never have!

'Misery' is a good rec, actually. DD2 doesn't 'do' reading (I'm sure she is a changeling) but loved the film, so I might try throwing the book at her!

Cote - Under The Dome isn't bad at all. It felt rather like a return to good form at the time it came out. The teenage characters are actually really quite endearing, more so than some of the adults. It allows him to do a lot of what he's good at - ie look at a group of pretty interesting people and watch how they interact with each other, to good and to bad. It's just that the reason for the dome, and the way the resolution occurs, is (imvho) ridiculous.

How about Misery? Not sexually graphic, that I can remember. Tense and creepy though!

I must have missed the woman with several breasts

I read Tommyknockers in my teens and the only thing I remember from it is a glowing spaceship and a woman with several breasts.

Another vote for different seasons, I think I read it at about the same age.

I couldn't get in to under the dome, maybe I was just going through a tired couldn't focus phase - Dts may have been teething. It just didnt grip me but felt like it should. I gave up halfway and re read The TommyKnockers instead.

I couldn't get in to under the dome, maybe I was just going through a tired couldn't focus phase - Dts may have been teething. It just didnt grip me but felt like it should. I gave up halfway and re read The TommyKnockers instead.

I downloaded Under The Dome to my Kindle recently, when it was the deal of the day but haven't read it read. Is it good? Apart from the teenage characters who generally just piss me off these days, I mean. God help me when DC become teenagers.

I read Cujo when I was around the same age as your Ds, in the book the little boy dies which I found really hard to take on board. I have re read it a couple of times and still don't really like it.
The shining, Misery and Salems lot are all good to start with. The Stand is his best book in my opinion, although I haven't started on the dark tower series yet.

Yes, I also didn't get on with Duma key or Cell. I thought the idea for Cell was brilliant but it just didnt really come together.

Pmsl at 'Dumas Key' - I suspect that's something else entirely! :)

'The Long Walk' is superb but maybe too subtle for a generation used to the drivel that is The Hunger Games.

'Cell' is poor BUT it might well appeal to a 13 year old boy in a way that I suspect 'Dumas Key' really wouldn't. 'Cell' has pretty much instant blood and guts and a couple of interesting teenage characters. 'Under The Dome' also has some key cool teenagers (but lots and lots of people die, if that matters - and the ending is stupid).

Gerald's Game is pretty rubbish imho and The Tommyknockers is one of his weakest.

I love King and really would buy anything he wrote, even a shopping list, but that doesn't mean I think he's always brilliant. At his best, he is absolutely out of this world and at his worst he writes mindless schluck.

See, I loved Cell and hated Duma Key.

I'm watching with interest as my Ds is also itching to get his paws on my horror collection.

definitely the short story collections, brilliant, to the point and scary

Cell is the exact opposite of brilliant. It is a moronic zombie story that makes no sense, doesn't even come together properly, and is, afaik, the only Stephen King book to have only 3 stars on Amazon.

I have no idea how the same man wrote Duma Key and Cell.

Maybe Cell is an experiment. To see if people will buy whatever he writes.

The Long Walk (possibly a Bachman one) is about a troop of teenage boys who have to er..keep walking. Very very good.

Not Gerald's game, it is overtly sexual and quite disturbing. Christine is brilliant, and Tommyknockers, ooooooh he'd never sleep again!

Cell is brilliant, and if he's the type of thirteen year old always attached to a mobile it might make him think

The green mile
Carrie
Thinner
Misery
My fave is IT but I was about 15 when I read that one.

(no advice but marking place, very useful thread!)

the girl who loved tom gordon is a very good, not too graphic starter

Salem's Lot is a good one too.

Dean koontz novels seem to start off with a little more oomph if you're looking for something engaging (as lots of stephen king novels are brilliant but slow burners).

the face or life expectancy are both quite easy but very engrossing, exciting reads

"I think Koontz is vastly inferior to King"

Very true.

I'd recommend either 'The Green Mile' or 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' as a starting point, or yes to Cujo, or maybe 'Christine' which isn't his best but might well appeal to a teenage boy.

Carrie hasn't aged terribly well and 'The Stand' is quite a challenge in its sheer scale, so better to save until he knows he likes King.

Herbert books are v rude and not v good, and I think Koontz is vastly inferior to King.