# Worst Stephen King novel



## raychensmith (Jul 11, 2012)

I believe Stephen King is the most talented commercial writer working today, and his best novels, like his recent 11/22/63 and Full Dark, No Stars, are so beyond the abilities of most novelists, it's not even funny. His way with prose, character development, and most especially dialogue is just stellar. Even minor characters (for example, Lee Harvey Oswald's mom in 11/22/63) are fleshed out to an extent that rivals other writers' MAJOR characters.

Having said this, some of his stories are pretty bad. Long and meandering and anticlimactic. I nominate Under the Dome as probably his worst book; at least, his worst recent book. This novel is like 1000+ pages long and has the most ridiculous protagonist in it (this wimpy soldier guy [I forgot his name] who is somehow entrusted by the US government to help out but is promptly arrested and stays in jail for like half the story). Worse is the ending. It's like Stephen King said to himself, Hey, my novel's starting to get too long, and he just threw his arbitrary tragedy into it that abruptly ends everything. I can't really explain it more without spoiling it (though this turd of a story can't really be spoiled), but it just truly sucked.


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Contrarian that I am, I've never finished any of the 4 or 5 of his novels that I've tried, so I'm the wrong guy to ask. I'm not saying the writing is bad, but nothing he writes seems to resonate with me at all -- in particular I don't connect with any of the characters. Then again, he's not really in any of my preferred genres, but I think the reason is deeper. I read his _On Writing_ and ended up skipping most of the autobiographical parts as I found them alternately annoying, boring, and/or pretentious. As a result, I think his world view is just too different from mine for us ever to connect on anything. (Which probably means if I ever met him, we'd hit it off and become best of friends.  )


----------



## Shelley K (Sep 19, 2011)

I've read several of King's novels and loved many of those. The only one I ever started and didn't finish was "Gerald's Game." My god, how I hated that book. I wanted her to hurry up and die and be done with it. Right after I gave up on that about a third of the way through, I read Dolores Claiborne and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which probably both rank in my top 5 favorites of his.


----------



## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

shelleyo1 said:


> I've read several of King's novels and loved many of those. The only one I ever started and didn't finish was "Gerald's Game." My god, how I hated that book. I wanted her to hurry up and die and be done with it. Right after I gave up on that about a third of the way through, I read Dolores Claiborne and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which probably both rank in my top 5 favorites of his.


Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, even the best of us. And it's often the case, during the course of a writing career, that you end up writing something that is deeply personal to you, but means not a great deal to most other people. That's part of the whole process of discovering what you're about as an author. The trick is not to do it very often.


----------



## BevAnneS (May 11, 2010)

shelleyo1 said:


> The only one I ever started and didn't finish was "Gerald's Game." My god, how I hated that book. I wanted her to hurry up and die and be done with it.


And that was one of the few that I really liked.


----------



## gspeer (Nov 10, 2010)

I absolutely agree with you on Under the Dome. I made it about 1/4-1/3 of the way through the thing and gave up. Guess I didn't have your stamina to watch it finish.  

I absolutely loved 11/22/63. It was comforting to me, as an Old Guy (I think I'm a year younger or older than King), to see he can still turn out something really, really good.

Gary


----------



## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

My favorite of King's is Misery, my least favorite, Needful Things.


----------



## cvwriter (May 16, 2011)

I liked _Needful Things_, up until the trap door ending. That pretty much ruined it for me. I also thought the protagonists didn't have enough "screen" time, so I didn't really care about any of the characters. I haven't read enough of his works to make a fair assessment on his worst, but of the books I've read, I did love _The Stand_. I read the unabridged version. I'll pick that one as my favorite.


----------



## Michael Cavacini (Aug 2, 2010)

I've only read two books by Stephen King: _On Writing_ and _It_. Both were excellent. Having loved the film _Misery_, I'm very much looking forward to reading the book. But I'll make sure to avoid _Under the Dome_.


----------



## Nova_Implosion (Jul 20, 2012)

From a Buick 8 did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't get far into Lisey's story before I gave up on it. I didn't even try Cell. The real world has plenty of cell phone addicts to keep me entertained.

I have mixed feelings about 11/22/63. I just finished it, and a couple of things erked the living bejesus out of me. 
1. Jake Epping has got to be the worst time traveller ever. While keeping a low profile in Fort Worth and Dallas, he becomes this small town legend in Jodie. He saves lives, inspires kids into acting, throws benefits, etc . . . He basically does everything but scream, "Remember me!" Which is the one thing a time traveller should never do. 
2. He falls in love. King then focuses the majority of the book on Jake's relationship with Sadie. Come on, Steve! Really? Let's explore Dallas's seedy underbelly. Let's have Jake make more bets. Let's examine the conspiracy theories.

I did like the alternate 2011, though. And Oswald's mother was memorable. She _almost_ made me feel sorry for Lee.


----------



## Steve D Palmer (Jun 28, 2012)

Wolves of the Calla. I loved the first four books to bits and re-read Wizard and Glass a dozen times. Wolves felt like a million pages of filler and it was such an effort to get through it. I kept going and going, hoping that he'd finish his exposition and move on to some action but when he finally got there it was only a fizzle.


----------



## Mark Lord (Jun 29, 2011)

Most of the Stephen King books I have read have been pretty good. Carrie and Misery in particular are great, and his On Writing book is very inspirational. 

But I did struggle with The Gunslinger, the first novel of the Dark Tower series. I just couldnt get into it at all. I think maybe it was because it was so different from his other work, but also I just didn't feel that bothered about any of the characters. But still not a terrible book, just one I couldn't get into.


----------



## CoffeeCat (Sep 13, 2010)

Misery and Full Dark, No Stars are my favorites by King. I am currently struggling through reading Wolves of Calla. I've picked it up and put it down a few times since starting it and as much as I want to love this series, it's taking me forever to get through the books. Even the ones I enjoy I feel like I have to take a few days to process them (or even read a different book) before I can go on to the next one which is not my usual style when reading a series.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I got the _Buick 8_ one accidentally -- it was when we were in one of those monthly book clubs and I'd lost track of the card to return if you don't want something. So it showed up. Tried to read it. . . .couldn't. . .so sent it to the charity shop.

My brother, though, who shares my Kindle account, is a huge King fan. . . .so I have _Under the Dome_ and _11/22/63_ in my library. I guess I also have _Full Dark_.

I actually started _11/22/63_ as a sample and kind of got sucked in. . . .so I'm definitely interested in reading it. Have heard both good and bad about _Dome_. Anyway, I'll probably give 'em all a go at some point, since they're there.


----------



## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

For me, he doesn't write bad books, but I didn't finish two because they were boring to me.  "From a Buick 8" and "Black house". My favorites are "Misery", "Dolores Claiborne" and "Green mile".


----------



## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

King was my favorite author in the 80s, but I started to lose interest in his writing and thought his books started to get weak and silly in the 90s around the time of _Needful Things_.



Bleekness said:


> ... and then the slop that was the final three books, with him inserting himself into the story as "the creator."


Book 4 might be his worst. Metafiction is very hard to do right, requiring a fine set of tools like a watch repair kit, to be careful and precise on a complex problem, but King used the monkey with sledgehammer approach. Good meta fiction: _Money_ by Martin Amis, _Some Clouds_ by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and to a lesser extent, _In the Lake of the Woods_ by Tim O'Brien.

But what really irked me in Book 4 was the gunslinger's "hoedown" dancing. I know what King was trying to do, but he completely failed, and I rolled my eyes. Then next two gunslinger books were almost as bad.


----------



## KTaylor-Green (Aug 24, 2011)

I liked Under the Dome. While I agree that he writes no bad books, there were a few that didn't interest me as much. I think Dreamcatcher was probably my least favorite.


----------



## lindnet (Jan 25, 2009)

Ohhhh, thanks!  You all reminded me to order Full Dark No Stars!  I meant to do that awhile back.

I liked Under the Dome.  Not my fave, but I did like it.  I think the only ones I have really struggled with were the Dark Tower series.  I read some of them years ago and didn't care for them.  I thought I'd try again, now that I'm older and wiser....ok, maybe just older.  Nope!  Still don't like them.  I sent them to my son, he loves them.


----------



## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

King's writing has always entertained and educated me. One of my favorite nonfiction books is _Danse Macabre_. So not only does King write great horror himself, he led me to _Dark Shadows_, _The Haunting of Hill House_, _The House Next Door_, and so many other horror books/movies/tv shows that I wouldn't have necessarily discovered on my own. And the story he relates in _Danse Macabre_ of how _Frankenstein_ came to be is priceless--as he puts it, "one of the maddest British tea parties of all time."

If I had to pick my least favorite of his books, I would probably go with _It_ or _Pet Sematary_ because I really don't like the endings of either. However, that said, the beginning and middle portions of the those books contain really scary, heart-rending stuff, so I'm glad I read them.


----------



## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

I did not care for this one. And yet, parts of it still linger in my brain 20 years later. I guess because it made NO sense. It's like a bad David Lynch movie. (redundant sentence)


----------



## Tiffany_Rose (Jun 7, 2012)

I never finished the first Dark Tower book. I just didn't get it, didn't understand it. The Stand was another one that I made it through but it was very long and drawn out. I know he was experimenting with all the characters and doing something new, but it ended up being too crowded. And I still don't understand how it changed from deadly virus outbreak to good vs. evil. 

My favorite was Eyes of the Dragon. I thought it was well done fantasy with some mystery and a good twist tossed in there. My husband couldn't get into it, though. The Body (on which Stand by Me was based) and Shawshank Redemption were two of my favorite short stories. 

My son and I watched Rose Red on television. It was well done and scared us silly. Then I picked up the Diary of Ellen Rimbauer to read. They went all out with this one, even had a website made for the professor's college. It was so well done there were people who SWORE it was a true story. 

I haven't read any King in a long time. I may pick up the time traveling book at the library and see how it is. I did read On Writing. I read it all the way through once, including the autobiographical part one, and I still refer back to part two often.


----------



## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

As a lifelong avid reader, I hate to admit this, but I haven't read nearly all of Stephen King's novels, so I'm not able to tell you what I consider to be his worst novel. His _'Salem's Lot_ is among my favorite books. The writing, in my opinion, is so good that I can almost smell the mustiness of the basement in the Marsten house, and throughout the really scary parts of the book, I can almost feel cobwebs on the back of my neck. In fact, when I read the book, I have to sit with my back to a wall, with no windows or mirrors nearby. (I read the book around Halloween every year or so.) I really liked _11/22/63,_ by the way. The book of his that really gave me the creeps was [/i]Needful Things._ Yikes. I did manage to read it all, but I found it to be very unsettling._


----------



## Mel Odious (Feb 29, 2012)

The best I've read from him is short: _Strawberry Spring_. I may be mistaken, but I believe _From a Buick 8_ was in-progress when King was struck and nearly killed by a car. I've always attributed the loss of focus in the narrative of that book to this real-life circumstance.


----------



## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

I love Stephen King, but even I have a few stinkers I care not to read again.  Black House was pretty bad, even worse because it was a sequel to the excellent Talisman.  Insomnia was another I couldn't take: kind of boring, characters I could have cared less about etc.


----------



## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

I find that King can be uneven, but when he's cooking there's almost nobody who can touch him. If I had to make a short list of writers whose work will still be read in a hundred years, King would be on the list. Sure, there are some of his I won't go back to (Desperation and _The Regulators_ come to mind) but overall I think the man earned his place in Writers' Heaven a long time ago.

In a book called _The Four Seasons of Success_, Budd Schulberg likened a writer's body of work to a mountain range -- not every mountain in a range is Everest.

And before posting this, I checked that title in the Kindle store -- it will be out on July 31 under the title Writers in America: The Four Seasons of Success. Highly recommended.


----------



## Aaron Scott (May 27, 2012)

Strangely enough, the Dark Tower series never did it for me.  I didn't hate them, I just never got so engrossed that I couldn't put it down.  I sort of read until the end of the second one, then just went on with my life.  

As much as the literary establishment wants to dismiss him due to certain weaknesses and tendencies, he undeniably has a narrative force that's almost biblical.  When people who don't normally read will go without sleep for a week to finished an 1100 page book, that is just not something to be taken lightly.


----------



## jeffaaronmiller (Jul 17, 2012)

I'll agree with those who said _From a Buick 8_. That book just did nothing for me. Having said that, I have really, really enjoyed Stephen King over the years, so a few stinkers here and there don't really affect my overall views of his writing. _It_ and _The Stand_ are particular favorites.


----------



## raychensmith (Jul 11, 2012)

I'm surprised some people picked Wolves of the Calla as one of Stephen King's worst.  I personally liked it--a lot more so than the final book of the Dark Tower series.  Someone said this already, but proper structure isn't one of King's strengths, and The Dark Tower series, surely one of the greatest works of imagination, ended pretty badly, IMHO.  But not Wolves of the Calla.  Come on, the final battle between the "wolves" and Roland and his gang was pretty awesome (and you gotta love Susannah's plate-throwing; never seen that in a book before!).  

One thing that might help with longer Stephen King novels is to LISTEN to him rather than read them.  I've never read a single Dark Tower book but all listened to the unabridged versions while I'm walking, driving, etc.  The actor who does the Dark Tower books is simply superb.  I recently finished listening to to Duma Key, and while interesting, I doubt I would've finished it if I'd been reading it.  

As for Under the Dome, I listened to it, and it still pretty much sucked!


----------



## Michael Cavacini (Aug 2, 2010)

Good point about listening to the longer books, instead of reading them. It makes it less overwhelming, and an excellent narrator can bring a great - or not so great - book to a higher level.


----------



## Guest (Jul 23, 2012)

Whats great about such a post, is that its subject was to find what we didn't enjoy, but all of of want to talk about what we did enjoy.  What a great writer he must be 

Personally, never really got into the Tommyknockers.  Loves Gerald's Game, but The Dark Half was one of my favourites.

I never read The Shining, because the movie scared me senseless at the age of 12 or 13, and I didn't watch it in full until many years later!  !  I should change that and go get that book!


----------



## MadCityWriter (Dec 8, 2011)

Okay, this isn't a "worst book" comment, but Salem's Lot scared me so badly in the first few pages, I put it down and never finished it or read any other of his scary books.  Guess I'm a big wimp.


----------



## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I used to read all of King..  but stopped after "IT"  - there were too many subplots going on - and I don't like clowns..hah!  But I adored "Salem's Lot" (one of the only books I've read multiple times and still enjoy) and this year - "11-22-63" is the best book I've read so far.. I was told that for awhile - he had an addiction problem - and you can see a swing in his writing.  Since recovery - the old King is back and I say "bravo"!


----------



## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

bordercollielady said:


> I used to read all of King.. but stopped after "IT" - there were too many subplots going on - and I don't like clowns..hah! But I adored "Salem's Lot" (one of the only books I've read multiple times and still enjoy) and this year - "11-22-63" is the best book I've read so far.. I was told that for awhile - he had an addiction problem - and you can see a swing in his writing. Since recovery - the old King is back and I say "bravo"!


I agree with you completely about _'Salem's Lot_, as well as _11/22/63_. Both are fantastic, albeit very different from each other, of course.


----------



## CoffeeCat (Sep 13, 2010)

Geemont said:


> King was my favorite author in the 80s, but I started to lose interest in his writing and thought his books started to get weak and silly in the 90s around the time of _Needful Things_.
> Book 4 might be his worst. Metafiction is very hard to do right, requiring a fine set of tools like a watch repair kit, to be careful and precise on a complex problem, but King used the monkey with sledgehammer approach. Good meta fiction: _Money_ by Martin Amis, _Some Clouds_ by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and to a lesser extent, _In the Lake of the Woods_ by Tim O'Brien.
> 
> But what really irked me in Book 4 was the gunslinger's "hoedown" dancing. I know what King was trying to do, but he completely failed, and I rolled my eyes. Then next two gunslinger books were almost as bad.


I never hear people say ill things of Wizard and Glass. I enjoyed the concept of the story but it just felt so freaking long. With the dancing, are you thinking of book 5 or have I forgotten something already?

I know the last three are post accident and a lot of people feel a huge difference in the books because of that but I can't make up my mind yet. I enjoy the concept of the story but I find myself skimming a lot of passages since book 3. I just want to be done with the series but I've been bored with it for a little while.

I also agree that while there are King books I haven't loved, I still admire his writing abilities in anything of his I've read.


----------



## rmcclannen (May 19, 2012)

King has written some of my favorite books, but I agree, he's written some stinkers. The first that comes to mind is Insomnia, followed by The Regulators, and I found the first couple of Dark Towers books entertaining, but I couldn't get any further than that. His wife Tabitha's books are consistently good, though!


----------



## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

I've read Stephen King's _Dark Tower_ series, _11/22/63_, _On Writing_, _Apt Pupil_, and _The Breathing Method_. I liked them all, thought they were very good. But I've never read any of his "horror" stuff, which I believe is generally considered to be his worst work.


----------



## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Sean Patrick Fox said:


> I've read Stephen King's _Dark Tower_ series, _11/22/63_, _On Writing_, _Apt Pupil_, and _The Breathing Method_. I liked them all, thought they were very good. But I've never read any of his "horror" stuff, which I believe is generally considered to be his worst work.


Really? _Salem's Lot?_ _The Shining?_ _Christine?_ All pretty good novels by any standard, and a good-sized handful of his short horror stories aren't too rusty either


----------



## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Tony Richards said:


> Really? _Salem's Lot?_ _The Shining?_ _Christine?_ All pretty good novels by any standard, and a good-sized handful of his short horror stories aren't too rusty either


As I said, I haven't read them. But they are, in general, the books I hear the most complaints about. Take that as you will.


----------



## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

jeffaaronmiller said:


> I'll agree with those who said _From a Buick 8_. That book just did nothing for me. Having said that, I have really, really enjoyed Stephen King over the years, so a few stinkers here and there don't really affect my overall views of his writing. _It_ and _The Stand_ are particular favorites.


I completely agree about the Black Tower series. I never could get through that. Same with Gerald's Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom what's-his-face.

The Stand remains my favorite along with Desperation.


----------



## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

CoffeeCat said:


> I never hear people say ill things of Wizard and Glass. I enjoyed the concept of the story but it just felt so freaking long. With the dancing, are you thinking of book 5 or have I forgotten something already.


You're right, it was Book 5 not 4 that was truly awful. (Book 4 was simply meh.) It shows that good authors can go bad, losing their writing mojo. I know some people liked it but I thought it pales in comparison to how he once wrote and would have been silly and dull and forgotten if it had come from an author with a lessor reputation.


----------



## Audrey Finch (May 18, 2012)

I find his horror stuff to be pretty horrific.


----------



## Robert A Michael (Apr 30, 2012)

I am an avid Stephen King fan.  I fell in love with his writing in the early eighties when I was a teenager and have read close to 75% of everything he has written.  I even read DANSE MACABRE, his non-fiction ode to old horror movies.  

With that said, I can trumpet the worst King books.  I have several that I wish he had never published.  GERALD's GAME, THE DARK HALF, and perhaps my least favorite: THE TOMMYKNOCKERS.  

His worst novels were the ones he wrote under contract.  When S & S contracted him to a (I think it was a 5) book deal, he churned out some crap.  I even think that THE DARK HALF was his way of lashing out at publisher, if you read between the lines.  I think sometimes writers resent being pushed artificially to produce creatively. 

I haven't read some of his more controversially "bad" novels:  CELL, UNDER A DOME, FROM A BUICK 8, or INSOMNIA.  However, I did read DUMA KEY, a book many lauded as awful.  I liked it.  It wasn't his strongest writing, but it had the standard King elements, plus a twist.  I like that he has ventured out of Maine.


----------



## Joel Arnold (May 3, 2010)

I'm a big King fan, but haven't read _everything_ he's written (yet!) I really never got into *The Tommyknockers*, however, and put it down after about reading a third of it.


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

I gave _Duma Key_ 3 stars. It was too long and not one of his best stories.


----------



## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Rose Madder or Madder Rose...I forget.  His only novel I could not finish.  I just jumped to the end to see how the bad guy got it and stopped reading it.


----------



## Alexandra Sokoloff (Sep 21, 2009)

I've read almost everything King has put to paper, and Lisey's Story is the only one I couldn't finish - just could not get into it.

Other people love that book, though, which is a good reminder that you can't please every reader all of the time, and you shouldn't try to!


----------



## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

shelleyo1 said:


> I've read several of King's novels and loved many of those. The only one I ever started and didn't finish was "Gerald's Game." My god, how I hated that book. I wanted her to hurry up and die and be done with it.


I read that book when it came out and I didn't like it. Mind you I was 16 and had just finished reading THE STAND, so anything would suffer in comparison. But I went back to GERALD'S GAME a few years ago as a more marute, open-minded reader and I now think it's quite brilliant.

Among his worst have to be INSOMNIA, THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, ROSE MADDER, Even he admits those books were not good. And I think THE TOMMYKNOCKERS was written during the peak of his coke and booze addiction. It certainly reads like it.

But my pick for the worst of them all is DREAMCATCHER. That book was a compilation of all of King's standard tropes but done in such a stupid, ham-fisted way it's almost unreadable. Mind you, I also think it was the first book he wrote after his accident, so I guess we can blame the painkillers for how crappy it is.


----------



## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

raychensmith said:


> As for Under the Dome, I listened to it, and it still pretty much sucked!


Interesting. I listened to it and really liked it. The narrator took a bit of time to get used to, but once I got into his voice, the story sucked me in and didn't let go.

Pet Sematary and Cujo made me stop reading King for a long time. I thought they were horrible.


----------



## SuzieHunt (Sep 12, 2011)

Personally, I much prefer his shorter (better edited!) work. The Dark Tower series.... eargh. After a while it feels mindless, which is a shame because there's some great ideas/scenes in it. I kind of feel he needs the tighter structure for his books to be readable. Otherwise he gets lost up his imagination's metaphorical backside.


----------



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

cvwriter said:


> I liked _Needful Things_, up until the trap door ending. That pretty much ruined it for me. I also thought the protagonists didn't have enough "screen" time, so I didn't really care about any of the characters. I haven't read enough of his works to make a fair assessment on his worst, but of the books I've read, I did love _The Stand_. I read the unabridged version. I'll pick that one as my favorite.


Needful Things was the last King book I read. I'd felt for years that he wasnjust pumping out book after book without regard to quality and the ending just disappointed me .... and I just never picked up one of his books in the 20 odd years since then...


----------



## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Geoffrey said:


> Needful Things was the last King book I read. I'd felt for years that he wasnjust pumping out book after book without regard to quality and the ending just disappointed me .


I remember disliking the ending too. It was all flashy and pyrotechnic. I usually think of this novel as when I realized for sure that King could write bad books.


----------



## scottnicholson (Jan 31, 2010)

I've read most, but far from all, of his novels, and Rose Madder's banality still lingers.

That said, I would love to write one novel in my life half as good as his worst...


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

_From a Buick 8_ was by far his worst book, in my opinion.

Prior to owning a Kindle, I had every one of King's books in hardback, except that one. I was so angry after reading it that I actually put it in the trash. (A year after I got a Kindle, I donated my entire paper library to various places.)

Generally, I donated or traded in books. I put that one in the garbage because I didn't want anyone else feel as disappointed as I was after reading it. 

The book seemed to have no ending. It was as if he came up with a great idea, wrote a HUGE book, then at the end, thought, "Gee, I have no idea where to take this idea or how to make it make sense. Oh, well, I'll just stop."


----------



## Craig Halloran (May 15, 2012)

I loved the _On Writing _ audiobook. It was highly entertaining. I read _Misery_ just because I wanted to read a full King novel and it was great. I was all pumped up for _Dark Tower_, because I love westerns, but it lost me. The writing was good but the story wasn't there, so I decided to not continue the story.


----------



## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

Lynn ODell said:


> The book seemed to have no ending. It was as if he came up with a great idea, wrote a HUGE book, then at the end, thought, "Gee, I have no idea where to take this idea or how to make it make sense. Oh, well, I'll just stop."


I think you'll find that a common complaint with King. He's fond of the phrase "It's about the journey, not the destination", which seems to be him explaining away why so many of his books (even the great ones) have poor endings.

But still, Stephen King literally changed my life when I read SALEM'S LOT when I was 11. I've loved the vast majority of his work have so many of his characters in my heart like old friends. If he delivers a clunker every now and then I can forgive that.


----------



## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

If I was Stephen King, I'd be really ticked off about this thread. On the other hand, I'd be rich enough to let it all wash over me. "Worst novel, huh? Meh!"


----------



## jasonzc (Dec 23, 2011)

jeffaaronmiller said:


> I'll agree with those who said _From a Buick 8_. That book just did nothing for me. Having said that, I have really, really enjoyed Stephen King over the years, so a few stinkers here and there don't really affect my overall views of his writing. _It_ and _The Stand_ are particular favorites.


I kept waiting for the story in that one...

I think the Dreamcatcher movie kept me from ever wanting to read it. Insomnia is a great book, to me. Possibly one of his best.


----------



## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

jasonzc said:


> I think the Dreamcatcher movie kept me from ever wanting to read it.


What in heaven's name went wrong with that movie anyway? Famous director. Great cast. Absolute stinker of a feature. But I wouldn't let it stop me reading King's version ... if anything, I'd be interested to see what the differences were.


----------



## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

Tony Richards said:


> What in heaven's name went wrong with that movie anyway? Famous director. Great cast. Absolute stinker of a feature. But I wouldn't let it stop me reading King's version ... if anything, I'd be interested to see what the differences were.


Yeah, the level of talent both in front of and behind the camera on that movie is simply staggering. The problem was that they were doomed from the start by adapting a terrible book.


----------



## jasonzc (Dec 23, 2011)

If you're gonna make poop jokes...they should be extremely good ones.

My analysis of Dreamcatcher, and why it sucked.


----------

