Stephen King, one of the most famous American terror authors, turns 78 this Sunday (21). The writer, born in the state of Maine in 1947, published his first tale, “The Glass Floor” in 1967, in the magazine “Startling Mystery Stories”.
Since then, King has published 65 soap operas -including seven under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman and five non -fiction books -plus more than 200 short stories. And he continues to active, having published in May this year the book “Never Flinch” (“Never Delump”, in free translation, because the work is not yet available in Brazil).
Some of the “king of terror” books are well known, especially for their cinematic adaptations, such as “The Enlightened”, “Carrie, The Strange”, “The Cursed Cemetery” and “Christine”. However, with such a productive career, there are several less known books, but showing different facets of the author, such as “The Black Tower”, a fantasy series consisting of nine books that he releases a lot.
But there is more to explore in your bibliography. To help those who would like to deepen more in his work, CNN has separated seven books outside the obvious Stephen King to dive:
1. “Dangerous Game”
This psychological suspense book starts from a simple premise: Jessie and Gerald decide to spice up their relationship in bed to save the marriage of a crisis, and by playing a game in which the wife is handcuffed to bed, Gerald ends up having a heart attack, which makes her wife trapped in an isolated house and no one to call for help. From there, she will have to fight her own mind to survive and be able to escape hunger, thirst and her past trauma.
The work is much more a psychological than physical terror, despite maintaining some supernatural elements, they are due to the protagonist’s imagination. The book was adapted to a film directed by Mike Flanagan, in which Jessie is lived by actress Carla Gugino. The feature is available on Netflix.
2. “Waiting for a miracle”
Not everyone knows the movie “Waiting for a Miracle” was based on a book written by Stephen King. The book was released in 1996 and tells the story of Paul Edgecombe, an elderly man who lives in an asylum and tells about his youth experiences when he is a guard in the corridor of death during the period of great depression in the United States. At that time, he met John Coffey, a death sentenced to death, but who was not being able to hurt a fly, operated small healing miracles.
Despite maintaining the fantastic element common to Stephen King’s works, the story has no elements of terror.
3. “Skeleton crew”
The book is one of the compiled short stories by Stephen King and has stories that inspired adaptations in movies and series such as “The Fog”, “The Monkey”. In addition, there are stories where the author explores different formats, such as “a beach world”, which tells the story of astronauts trapped on another planet; “Survivor type” in which he explores a castaway capable of everything to survive; and “The Excursion,” where he explores a future when traveling in time is possible, but there are mysteries about how they are made.
4. “The eyes of the dragon”
Defined as “a fairy tale written by the master of terror”, “The Eyes of the Dragon” was written by King for his youngest daughter, Naomi. It is a fable that tells the story of a kingdom in which a wizard arms to seize power, destroying the royal family and how the union of two brothers can save this reality. The book has fantastic and medieval elements, with political plots and text narrated in the first person, who talks to the reader.
5. “Insomnia”
King’s book “Insomnia” brings fantastic elements to tell the story of Ralph Roberts, who starts not being able to sleep well at night and seeing strangers and figures, the “small doctors” who manipulate people’s fate, bringing their death. So he is involved between two forces and needs to prevent a death at random that could change the course of the world. Like other works of the king of terror, this story of Passes in Derry, a fictional city in Maine (the writer’s home state), always marked by supernatural and frightening events. This story has a connection with “The Black Tower”, an important saga for King.
6. “Rose Madder”
Initially, “Rose Madder” seems to be just about a very real terror in the lives of many women: domestic violence. Rose McClendon believes he is realizing his dream when he marries policeman Daniels, until he begins to commit various types of aggression against his wife. She runs away to another city, is chased by the ex, but a painting in her home puts her in contact with a supernatural force that can turn this game.
The book brings several common elements to King’s universe, but innovates by addressing domestic violence in 1995, when the theme was less addressed.
7. “Despair” and “The Justicers”
You have not read it wrong, the list brings two books in a single topic, but by an interesting peculity: both bring completely different stories, but setting the same characters, which keeps their personalities, but have completely different life stories and contexts. In “Despair”, a city with that name is visited by some passage travelers, who are forced to stay there and realize that something strange is happening at the site. “The Justicers” was published under the pseudomy of Richard Bachman and takes place in the city of Wentworth, who will have his suburban routine broken by the arrival of vigilantes who will bathe the blood poplar street.
Both books were published in the same year in 1996, and are called soap operas “Mirror”. “The Justicers” has a slightly different pace of King’s books, being faster and shorter, while “Despair” has a more detailed narrative.
