Best Stephen King book?

[PurpleDaisies]

My husband read a book on writing by a Stephen King and really enjoyed it. Neither of us have ever read a novel of his. Any recommendations? I don’t really like horror….

Thanks!

I second (third?) 11/22/63. Not horror, really engaging characters, plot that keeps your wanting to know what happens next. It's something like 1,200 pages and I was a third of the way through before I even realised.

I like the early stuff.
Carrie
Salem's Lot
The Shining
The Dead Zone (fantastic , also a really brilliant film starring Christopher Walken).
Firestarter
Christine

His short stories are masterful - the Bachman books showcase his very early style brilliantly, the Long Walk and The Running Man are incredible! But all of the short story compilations are worth picking up.

The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon I almost didn't read because it sounded like some sort of tragic love/horror/stalker combination, but it was absolutely brilliant. Not giving away the plot but the girl uses her adoration of a famous baseball player, Tom Gordon, as something to focus on when she's in trouble hence the title.

The Dark Tower books are absolutely epic (nothing like the film) and if you read them you'll need to read Insomnia (although this does venture into horror territory if you're sensitive to that) and the other linked books which are mostly set in fictional Derry

Lisey's story is the best book I've ever read from the perspective of someone with fragile mental health - it's a tough book to get into because his style matches the way the character views the world but honestly it's an exceptional read and worth persevering.

There are very few King books I won't re-read. Pet Semetery and Cujo are included in that - I find them far too upsetting as a parent to enjoy and appreciate the horror in them.

Great choices! I would also add Pet Sematary

Odd that after maybe thinking a few were terrible you continued to read them. But I suppose I can admire you powering through over 250 books that you didn't enjoy.

Billy Summers is a really good one!
Also the Mr Mercedes trilogy. I love Stephen King 😊

Different Seasons Book (this is 4 short stories by SK) & includes Shawshank Redemption (called Rita Hayworh in the book) and Stand by me(called the body ) in the book. Running Man, Dead Zone. TBH all his books are great

Stephen King is probably my favourite author and there are so many out there:

11/22/63 - brilliant if you don't like horror
The Dead Zone - likewise
Different Seasons, particularly for Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption - the film did it justice
The Bachman Books - particularly for The Running Man and The Long Walk. If you have ever seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, ignore everything in it!
The Green Mile

For horror:
Pet Sematary - stayed with me for a long time. Now pregnant with my first and not sure I'm brave enough to pick it up again
Salem's Lot
Misery
The Shining
Carrie
IT
The Stand (although I was beginning this right at the start of the pandemic and had to put it down and come back to it!)
Gerald's Game

Carrie is a good one to start with as it is very short and doesn’t waste any time in long digressions. I think it was his first published novel. If you enjoy it, you could go onto Firestarter, which is more science than horror based. Pet Cemetery is gripping and rather sad, but manageable in length. I agree thé Thé Green Mile is excellent .Salems Lot is good if you don’t mind vampires.

Christine, the Shining and TommyKnockers are probably my favourites amongst the ‘long ‘ books, Cell is prescient, The Stand is good although be sure to get the edited version, the one he brought out with a different editor later is…..a good argument for a good ( and ruthless) editor.

For me , everything after his accident with the exception of Buick is just too long, diffuse, often a bit incoherent and madly political ( he has a Trump fixation). There’s also a lot of old bloke and gorgeous younger girl wishful thinking which is a bit yuck.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Dark Tower Series
The Green Mile
Liseys Story

for the less/non horror books

I have read all of them and he's written some absolute turkeys, but completely avoiding horror/supernatural means missing some of his best work. My personal favourite is Duma Key, not because of the supernatural aspects but because it details King's own journey of recovery from a serious head injury. Bag of Bones is an outstanding ghost story and not to be missed. I actually don't get on so well with his pure thriller novels.

And if you're up for fantasy rather than horror I would highly recommend the Dark Tower series.

Pet Sematary didn't stay with me unfortunately. In fact I can't remember what happened! I did enjoy The Long Walk and ds17 loved The Shining.

When I was 15 I had a penpal who told me she was reading IT. I went to my library but the only King book they had was The Eyes of The Dragon, which is a fantasy novel and I think one of his lesser known works.
Rather beautifully this book ties in with his later Dark Tower series. These are a real committment in terms of reading but well worth it if you like immersive and complete worlds. (and for the proper fan there are lots of nods to his other works)

But I think starting with his short stories is wise, or reading The Green Mile in it's orginal format which was as a series of novellas rather than one big book.

My favourite King books are ‘Pet Semetary’ and ‘Dolores Claiborne’.

I couldn’t get on at all with ‘Doctor Sleep’, nearly got to the end and then gave up.

Pet Semetary made me cry. I was a teen when I read it. For some reason, I couldn't get into The Stand though. I find him a bit wordy at times. He's a bit...why use one word when you can use 15.

Another one here for The Stand. The unabridged version is so long my hardback version is on the paper they use in bibles

My faves are:

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Green Mile
From a Buick 8

The long walk was one of his most chilling in my opinion 😉

The Stand is one of my favourite books.

The Shining is good, much more scary than the film.

Couldn't get on with 11/22/63 at all.

I definitely think his short stories/novellas are amongst his best works, he has to keep it tight and his writing seems to benefit. Not to say I don't love his other stuff but the short story collections are always worth reading and I will buy them over a new full length novel. Check for his writing as Richard Bachman as others have said, I don't know if all the stuff he wrote under that name has now been republished under Stephen King. Oh and if you've watched Shawshank Redemption then the joy of reading it afterwards means you get Morgan Freeman narrating in your head, (or at least I do!).

The Long Walk is incredible but very dark and depressing.

No one seems to have mentioned the mist. It's a fairly easy introduction to Stephen king.
The rest of my favourites have all ready been recommended.

Also worth a mention are Joyland and Later, the Crime Club ones, which are generally shorter than his other novels. Stephen King did say himself he gets carried away and is more wordy than he should be... I read Later in three hours on holiday, it's a good job I didn't need the loo during it as I genuinely couldn't put it down, was gripped from the first page. Roadwork is really good too. I loved Billy Summers, got really fond of him.

So many are absolute crackers, some I read once but won't bother again, it's all down to personal taste really.

I'm not a huge King fan, but his short stories are excellent, particularly 'Skeleton Crew' and my favourite story "Mrs Todd's Shortcut"

How many have you read?

Dolores Claiborne is an amazing story and so well written.