wow! what a great finale to Different Seasons. definitely my favourite of that collection.

I had absolutely no idea what it was about which got me thinking. when you begin a new book, do you usually have some idea what it’s about? or do you have no clue?

Marko Hautala is commonly referred to as "the Stephen King of Finland" in my country. I like his books a lot, and I notice similarities to King myself. Is there an author in your country who is compared to Stephen King?

So for this of you that have read both series of books.

I read all the Dark Tower books a few years ago and had decided that it’s time to enter Midworld again.

While finishing another book I read that SK had said that you can consider Other Worlds Than These as not only the last of the Talisman Series but also the last of (or an epilogue to) the Dark Tower series.

So would you read them as standalone series OR as I have the opportunity right now as I’m just about to start Black House leave Other Worlds until after I’ve re read the Dark Tower books as a final trip to Midworld?

I started 11/22/63 last week on my kindle during a deploy review. Great book, but I screwed up and watched the Hulu series trailer beforehand. Now the main character is permanently James Franco in my head. Super distracting. Same thing happened with The Outsider. I couldn't separate Ben Mendelsohn from the book's detective. When I read The Stand years before any miniseries, my mental cast was totally original and the immersion felt way stronger.
I'm curious if visual media kills that natural imagination part of reading for anyone else. Do you avoid trailers and adaptations until you finish the book? Or does having a face attached to a character actually help you keep track of everyone in these massive novels? I usually prefer my own mental images, but with an 800-page book, a familiar face can anchor things when my brain's fried at the end of a coding session.

FWIW I’ve read some of the “classics” like The Stand, Pet Sematary, The Shining, It, Different Seasons, etc. more times than I can count and I love the Bachman books. I just couldn’t get into anything “recent”.
I don’t do The Darktower. Please help and don’t judge lol. Which recent books should I read?
Also, watching The Outsider and loving it- how did you like Holly and books involving her character?

Maybe it’s because I’ve recently heard Will Patton, Steven Weber and Frank Muller but Patton Oswald’s voice is grating to my ears.

No gift for voices of different characters. Odd choice.

I guess I’m spoiled by the best and might have to give them up. This is not good and detracts from me getting into the story.

I drive a lot for work and my job is stressful so audiobooks are my comfort, what makes driving enjoyable.

This is not doing it.

Anyone else?

And Im glad I waited. Man what a ride. If I had to break the book into sections it would look like this:

First 50% - alright we got a good mystery cooking up here. I wonder who is gonna catch on first. This Leland Gaunt guy is a real prankster. Wow, Wilma and Nettie and really hate each other. Dang, the ladies in this town REALLY like Elvis. Aw shit Nettie and Wilma offed each other.

44% - What the hell is going on? Wait, who is that? Wait, who is THAT? Doesn’t anyone in this town talk to each other? Why are you all so stupid?? Catholics vs Baptists. Glad Polly’s hands are feeling better. Buster, you prick. Ace Hole loves “Colombian booger juice.” Poor Brian Rusk.

1% - George T. Nelson “You killed my parakeet and shit on my mother!”

5% - Hell yeah, Sheriff Alan Pangborn is an eldritch warlock? Finger shadow puppets for the win.

All in all, loved it. I did get really frustrated with how dumb everyone was for almost half the book but I guess that was kinda the point.

A question for King Readers. Does Leland Gaunt show up again in TDT or anywhere else. Needful things is the only Castle Rock story I’ve read. I didn’t realize it was the last one but I’m planning to go back for those. Gaunt, at the finale, kind of reminded me of Randall Flagg.

I know there have been a lot of opinions about the ending of Carrie and I've heard a lot of people say they dislike it for several different reasons. But I'm here as someone who has read the book and seen & read literally every adaptation of Carrie to say why I think Mike Flanagan's ending for the first season was a great idea.

People say Emaline was unnecessary and that her possessing Carrie at the end to enact the prom scene takes agency away from Carrie.

I don't agree with this because of this simple fact: Carrie is the one who CHOOSES to give Emaline control during the prom. She already knows that Emaline is violent and willing to do violent things up to and including murder if it means she "gets even". She mentions several times to Carrie that she would like to see Carrie harm others. So when Carrie gives Emaline control during the prom scene, she knows full and well what Emaline is going to do, but feels like because it's Emaline doing it and not her, she is absolved from guilt and the death of her other classmates. This is a story about how people believe that what they are doing is 100% justified or "not that bad" because hey, those people deserved it, right? And Emaline uses that logic to convince Carrie to finish off Chris herself. Carrie is not innocent in the climax of this story. She is simply allowing the destruction to happen because like Emaline says after Carrie kills Chris, "You did nothing wrong. You didn't break anything but shackles."

And what's even more brilliant is how Flanagan twists that logic back onto the audience. How many people watching the show cheered or laughed when the phones exploded into students faces? How many watched just hoping for the moment that Chris would get the axe? I mean...they deserved it, right? That's what they get. I mean, sure a lot of them didn't even know about the blood or even take part in Carrie's bullying, but that's what they get for laughing at her suffering, for filming her. They all had it coming...right? "I'm not doing anything wrong by laughing at them because I would be the one rooting for Carrie. I'm one of the nice ones who would NEVER do something like that."

It's the same logic people use on the Internet and in real life every day. How many videos have skyrocketed in views of someone falling and hurting themselves? Of someone doing something embarrassing or stupid? How many videos have people watched about "fails" or "public freakouts" or "instant karma"?

And it's fine right? Because those people deserved it...right? And besides even if they didn't deserve it it was still funny...right?

Emaline (like every antagonist in this show) is basically the embodiment of that logic, just on a more destructive scale. She literally calls all of the people around Carrie "NPCs", like they're just characters in a video game and not real flesh and blood people. She is the disassociation of people's humanity that is used to justify cruelty and violence. Just like Chris, she thinks "you did this to me, therefore I have the right to do this to you." Just like Margaret, she thinks "they hurt Carrie and therefore must be made to suffer. And Carrie is too nice to do it so I have to do it for her." Purely eye for an eye logic. And now, just like Chris and Margaret, she is influencing and manipulating someone who can unleash disasters of monumental proportions in the span of an hour or two with a single thought.

Just like Stephen King did at the end of the novel, Mike Flanagan is contemplating the implications of what this ending means for the entire nation. What does it mean now that we have someone with that level of power unleashed upon the world? What happens when that person is rejected, made an outsider? What happens when cruelty and violence is seen as the logical response to strangeness, to otherness? And what happens when that outsider, that person with that level of power, reflects that logic back on to us?

Why would a fucking bikeride cure the dudes vegetable wife? That litteraly makes no sense, hell that actually ruined the miniseries for me, I was having fun up until that part.

A bunch of actors said yes to this crap

Been really enjoying Other Worlds than These. Really good to be back in Midworld.

I just got to the point in the story were Arrowhead Project is mentioned. I knew that name seemed a bit too specific so I looked it up and apparently it plays a big role in The Mist. That has to be one of the only King books I have yet to read. I certainly don't plan to take a detour at this point, but I'm curious if I will miss very important context. Also, will this book spoil anything important from The Mist which I do plan to read after this.

For whatever reason, I always envisioned Charles Dance as the King and Ralph Fiennes as Flagg. This is probably in part because I mostly associate them with villain roles (Voldemort in "Harry Potter" for Fiennes and Tywin Lannister in GOT for Dance). However, there is no doubt a plethora of great actors that could portray these two forces of evil (There's also Flagg's father Mearlyn, but I don't know who could play him).

Does anyone else find this book to be just not very good? I find it to be plodding and dull. I'm 729 pages in but I'm struggling to actually finish it.

I got this lot for $25 very happy

My husband and I just finished the Carrie series and started chatting about other remakes that could be, and started debating on a remake of Christine.

Now the original car was a '58 Plymouth Fury and the movie was released in '83, making the car 25 years old. If created in 2026 what would Christine's equivalent be?

Hubby is saying a PT Cruiser and I'm not sure how I feel about that. 😂

When I was a mother to 3 children I read Pet Sematary. I’m scared myself so badly with that book that I actually slept with the hallway light on.
Anyone else get scared stupid?

"What is our deadline?"

"Right here and now!"

"I am putting you on a PIP. Do ye ken PIP?"

"Ken?"

"Aye. Aye. A PIP. Ye have forgotten the face of your father."

"We finished the TPS report."

"Thankee-sai. Ye have written it true."

I guess I don’t have to read It again for another 27 years.

Bonus pics of a Pennywise tattoo I saw while reading, and my Jade Turtle shell for good vibes!

Here’s what I’ve already read in order of enjoyment:

11-22-63
The Stand
The Institute
Mr. Mercedes
Joyland
The Outsider
Finders Keepers
Salem’s Lot
Needful Things
End of Watch
The Gunslinger
Billy Summers
Fairy Tale
If It Bleeds

I’m trying not to read all of the absolute must-reads right away! Books like It and Misery are high on my list of books I want to read, but you only get a first read once!

Yep, The Long Walk is my favorite. I think these are the right answers.

For those of you who have read it, how connected is the book to the Dark Tower series? Is it like a brief reference or like an actually important part of the plot. I’m not planning on reading it until I finish the series but i’m still curious. Also no spoilers, I’ve only read the first 2 dark tower books and The Talisman.

I’m a younger reader (35), but the dude is a legend. He’s probably this century’s equivalent to Shakespeare’s some such. His work is masterful. Dude can probably write anything. I think we’re all a bit lucky to be sharing this time with him, the same way the Elizabethans were to live in the age of Shakespeare. Happy to be here.

Hace 8 meses compré It como primer libro y lo leí el 75% por que no le gusto del todo, pero después compré el resplandor y se volvió mi libro favorito absolutamente todo me encanto y lo leí en 1 semana jaja, ahora estoy leyendo misery e igual me está gustando aún que se me hace un poco lento, que más libros de King me recomiendan?