A fantasy novel with unique writing characteristics by Stephen King – Stephen King has published more than 50 works. Every time a new book is published, it is almost always a bestseller. His books have been translated into various languages. As of 2013, his works have sold over 350 million copies worldwide. A career as a writer for more than 45 years, Stephen King has published books under other names. He used the name Richard Bachman to publish four of his books: Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982), and Thinner (1984). The use of pen names or “alias” names was done by King because he felt that at that time, one would not want to buy or read more than one book a year written by the same author.
1.SALEM’S LOT (1975)
The second book published by Stephen King, and is also one of the most popular because the story is different from other novels. The novel received nominations from The World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1976 and The Locus Award for best fantasy novel of all time in 1987. This 439 page thick novel tells about a vampire who terrorizes a village. Ben Mears, a writer, came to a place called Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his latest novel. There he befriends a teacher Matt Burke and has a relationship with local woman Susan Norton. He also began writing his latest novel by looking for inspiration from his native village.
Until he found an old house that gave him a bad experience as a child. The house had long been neglected and uninhabited because it was bought by an immigrant. A series of strange events began to occur starting with the disappearance of a child named Ralphie Glick who turned out to be the first vampire and spread it to the surrounding population.
2. THE SHINING (1977)
Tells the story of a family consisting of a father, mother, and a child. The father’s name is Jack Torrance, mother Wendy Torrance, and son Danny Torrance. They visited the Overlook hotel because their father got a new job there. This hotel turned out to be no ordinary hotel. A hotel that has its own story from the past. When the weather is cold and snowing, the family stays there temporarily.
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Strange things begin to happen due to supernatural powers that can influence humans to do evil. Danny the son is the one who is possessed until he can see the past of this old hotel. As time goes by, Jack begins to be influenced and endangers his wife and children because he tries to kill them both. Meanwhile the other occupants also looked not like ordinary humans. The novel was made into a film in 1980 and was starred by Jack Nicholson. Followed by a sequel film in 2019 with the title Doctor Sleep.
3. PET SEMATARY (1983)
Horror novel with a very good story and has been included in The New York Times Bestseller. First published in 1983, Pet Sematary has been named one of the most successful horror novels in the world. Stephen King himself continues to consider this novel to be one of the scariest. One of the quotes in the book Pet Sematary is quite terrible. “Sometimes, Louis, dead is better.”
Pet Sematary tells the story of a land that is a cemetery for animals. The land is across the road which is often passed by large trucks. The sad thing is that the animals buried in the Pet Sematary are animals that died when they were hit by a truck. This mass burial is known to be mysterious and magical which is said to be able to give life again after death. Narrated a family Creed, consisting of Dr. Louis Creed, his wife Rachel and 2 children recently moved near the cemetery. At first they ignored and did not care about the mysterious stories of the cemetery. Until one day their pet cat was hit by a truck to death, and was buried in the so-called mysterious place. Since then strange things have happened.
One day the pet came home healthy without the slightest injury. But something was different with their cat this time, followed by evil curses every time the grave gave life. The novel was made into a 2019 film of the same name and was directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer. Stephen King’s book is considered very scary. The horror and sadness in this book had made Stephen King reluctant to publish the book after he wrote it. But it was finally released in 1983 for business reasons. Therefore, after its release, there was no promotion for the novel. Until finally the book was released, Stephen King could not believe his book was selling well in the market.
4. MISERY (1987)
The story is about a writer named Paul Sheldon who had an accident while driving a car to return to his home in New York City. Due to very bad weather accompanied by a storm, the car went off the track and hit a person who made him unconscious. A nurse named Annie Wilkes found her and took her home for treatment.
The story sounds normal, but it’s not. It turned out that the nurse was a rabid fan of the novelist, and it could even be said that she was too adoring to the point of being too overbearing and tending to be “creepy”. The core of this novel tells of the writer’s misery while being cared for by a mad nurse, with an exciting and tense storyline.
5. IT (1986)
legendary released in 1986. Tells about a clown named Pennywise who terrorizes a city called Derry once every 27 years. It was made into a film in 2017 then a sequel in 2019 with the same title, namely IT (2017) and IT Chapter 2(2019). Both are equally good but not as detailed as the novel story.
IT 2017 is a horror film with the highest grossing 700 Million USD, beating other horror films such as The Conjuring Universe. There are many differences between films and novels, one of which is that some scenes were not included in the film because they were perhaps too vulgar.
In the novel, the story is more in-depth and detailed because the novel is over 1200 pages thick. Each character is described in such a way that it is so detailed that we feel like we are entering the world of IT. Among Stephen King fans who are called Constant Readers, it is customary to recommend this novel as the most must-read list before starting to enter the horror world of this legendary author.
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