The F is for FEAR Programme - Hail to the King Baby
Aww well done you have survived the programme – 7 days have increased your tolerance for FEAR!
But what’s this you’ve done it all why are you still here. Well Dr R Womble Esq thinks like all the best horror stories you need a good surprise twist *pulls lever for trapdoor* enjoy your final assignment
Halloween – Hail to the King Baby
No not an Elvis singalong but everyone has favourites and in horror for me it’s Stephen King someone I’ve probably been reading now for thirty years and importantly I’m always still interested in what he’s got coming out. Why do I like their work? Well not always for the fear factor…
Characters – I love the way King creates characters and while it’s particularly in early books often about a writer or a teacher you really in each novel get a deep understanding of the character. That may be Roland in the Dark Tower, Dolores Claiborne; or Jack Torrance in the Shining and my personal favourites the vast casts of It and The Stand. Sometimes authors don’t get voice - King really does and for me each book presents a different cast to discover.
Worlds – If you’re familiar with The Dark Tower series then you suddenly see that King has invented a whole connected multiverse and readers like me love those little nods to other books. Each story can live on their own but it’s fun to see connections. The Stand is an epic apocalyptic road trip across a dying world; The Dark Tower merges Epic Fantasy and the Western to a surprisingly deep level where knights have guns rather than swords, but king also loves the personal. But my favourite is Derry in It. By the end of that novel I KNOW that town – each section; it’s history and the key thing I think is easily missed in the various retellings onscreen the feel that this city is poisoned by It’s presence. People here are mean; it’s past is bloody and blind eyes are turned from the most horrible things.
Variety – As someone who hates reading the same thing very often King particularly as I was catching up on their work early on. It’s the variety of King’s work across a career that also likes to shift. I don’t love every book but it’s never dull – killer cars; haunted hotels; vampires, crime novels and portal fantasies. Every book is a new direction. I can see lots of influences in King’s work, but they feel fresh and repurposed rather than just repainted.
Your home work - Well I’ve mentioned some favourites but I also have a huge love of King’s short story collections so Night Shift; Skeleton Crew and Everything’s Eventual may be a good place to start
Feel free to add your own in the comments
