“The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.” – Stephen King
It’s October. Halloween is only a week away. The monsters are just waiting to jump out and scare us. But hopefully the only ones you’ll see this month are the ones between the page of a book. So with October being the spookiest of all months, of course our featured author is Stephen King.
King is a prolific writer of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and crime. With a career that has spanned multiple decades, King writes in a way that allows the reader to be absorbed into the narrative, and allows us to experince a wealth of emotions as he drags us down sometimes terrifying paths.
Looking back, we were almost certainly too young to read Misery when we first read it. It is the claustrophobic tale of writer Paul Sheldon who has survived a car crash but not must survive his biggest fan.
After killing off his most popular character, Paul Sheldon is just relieved to be able to get on with some real writing. But after barely surviving a car crash on an remote country road, he awakes in Annie Wilkes house. She saved him, yes, but now, she has him and she’s not letting him go until he changes the end of his last novel and brings Misery Chastain back to life.
(Written long before social media, one can only wonder the damage Annie Wilkes could have done with a twiiter account!)
A taut psychological thriller, Misery will pull you into the hopelessness and desperation of Paul as he fights for survival. Perfect for a bit of late night reading when you’re looking to scare yourself before you go to sleep!
Everyone loves to see a band of plucky kids join together to fight the forces of evil. In this case, it is the government Luke Ellis fights.
He despearately wants to escape the institute he was dragged to in the middle of the night because of his exceptional gifts. Telekinesis and telepathy bring the children together in this chilling adventure as they fight for their freedom.
Nobody writes children quite like King does; he captures their innocence, their hopefulness and their resilence like no other, and it shines through in ths book. That’s if you can manage to survive the awful things that happen to the kids throughout the story.
As always, King is the king of horror and manages to keep his title with this gem of a novel.
There is nothing creepier than being stuck in an abandoned hotel as your spouse slowly goes insane. Well, we can only assume.
Another one of King’s books that focuses on a writer (we have to question his commitement to the theme of bad things happening to writers) and his struggle to finish a book.
Oh, and the haunted hotel which is slowly driving him insane.
The book is filled with imagery that will be slow to leave you, a building tension that will leave goosebumps crawling along your arms, and a fear of snow storms and empty hotels. And after you read it, you can always watch the classic Simpsons episode to help calm your beating heart!
