Prompt: horror piece inspired by The Shining and it has to be red

In The Drawing of the Three, Roland ponders which way to go having come from the east across the mountains and being unable to go west because he's reached the sea. He decides to go north.

He then walks with the sea on his right and the mountains on his left... so, south!

A little further on he notes a certain object casting a shadow to the left in the setting sun (so still headed south).

But is later still saying they go north.

Will he learn the mistake he has made or is this an error by Sai King or something else?

Carrie being ‘obese’ in the book is being vastly overstated by the general audience; many of whom I would bet haven’t read the book.

She’s not ‘comically fat’ like people would have you believe. However, she is not beautiful, which is my single biggest grievance with the 2013 movie. She’s someone who’s neglected her appearance her whole life, and actually grows into herself a bit during prom.

In Full Metal Jacket from 1986, Private Pyle was considered comically fat, yet today, his body type is very common nation wide and wouldn’t make someone bat an eye. I say this because if novel Carrie was as obese as seemingly everyone is saying now, King (especially early King) would have reminded us every other page.

Obviously this isn’t a big deal, but it’s a massive sentiment being expressed both here and on X, and to me it’s a classic case of people running with misinformation for engagement, virtue signaling, or just to feel like the ‘in crowd’.

I've spent a few weeks researching what happened directly before and directly after Donald King walked out on the family in 1949. Here's the summation of that archival research, tied together with Thea King's firsthand account.

I think King has some incredible villains , just wondered who your favourite female villain is out of all his books

Hice la Tortuga como la visualizo al leer la novela. He hecho incluso las galaxias en las uñas.

This book hit all the boxes for me with King. But on one page in particular King had me nearly in tears and then drops the hardest hero one liner ever. I was nearly leaping out of my chair.

Ralph and Lois are in Atropos lair figuring out what all the items are. The first quote comes in a string of findings as they assess objects in the heaps of collections. Their sanity on a thin string after months of not sleeping and then encountering otherworldly entities on new planes of existence. Within a paragraph or two Ralph puts everything aside and commits to getting revenge on Bald little doctor #3.

Page 634

-“A little boy who had fallen into an overgrown cellar-hole and died in the dark, died in agony, died with no voice left after six hours spent screaming for his mother. “

-“Maybe we could teach him what it’s like to lie awake at night. “

Before this I almost felt bad for Atropos. His place as the arbiter of “the random” isn’t his fault. Someone has to do it to keep the balance. BUT the fact that he enjoys it so much is what had me cheering Ralph on through this whole chapter.

I’m 13 and I just finished Salems lot. I finished it with no probs. I didn’t think it was too scary or gory. In fact it was the best book I’ve ever read. I want to know what Stephen king book I should read next. Nothing too gory. Any ideas?

Im curious how many liberties the person who adapted it took. We'll see!

I picked this up along with a few other King books earlier this week. I have added it to my little collection as he contributed Nona to the book.
How many of you have this one?

I have a Christian ran book store that has Stephen king books from time to time i walked in and was floored to see these beauties all for 50$

Watching the last episode of the Carrie TV series, and noticed when Carrie’s mom is outside seeing the destruction caused by Carrie, the cross-street shown on the street sign is “Calla Bryn St”. Later in the episode, we see a flash of “Hambry” on another street sign. Both of those are locations on Roland’s journey! Very excited to see if this lands long-term!!

I reread Needful Things recently and the thing that hit me differently this time wasn't Gaunt's merchandise at all.

It's how incredibly well he understands what each person is willing to be embarrassed by.

The objects get everyone through the door, obviously, but the real currency of the book feels like humiliation. People will do things they would normally consider ridiculous, petty or beneath them because Gaunt somehow finds the exact desire strong enough to make them explain the behavior to themselves afterward.

That's the part I find nastier as an adult.

Most people probably wouldn't commit some enormous evil for a magic object. But would they make one anonymous phone call? Move something that belongs to a neighbor? Tell themselves a small lie? Do something mean if they were certain nobody could trace it back to them?

That feels much closer to real life than the supernatural part.

And once Castle Rock starts reacting to all those tiny actions, almost nobody has enough information to understand what's actually happening. Everyone just sees one more piece of evidence that the person they already dislike is even worse than they thought.

It made me wonder whether the store could work without anything supernatural in it at all. Maybe the objects have to be extraordinary for the plot, but Gaunt's actual talent is recognizing the exact combination of want, resentment and plausible deniability that will make somebody cross a line.

On this reread, THAT was the horror for me.

Did Needful Things change for anyone else when you read it older?