I read both The Shining and Pet Sematary while alone looking over a farm, far away from anyone. Can't even describe how much Pet Sematary messed me up. Easily King's scariest book ever (in my opinion)
I read Pet Sematary as a teen in my room during the late night, cant even begin to tell you how vivid the family dynamic was and then that's when everything spirals downhill. It is one of the only books I've ever read where it almost felt as if the pages were turning Grey as I went on reading.
Pet sematary never used to bother me the first time I read it but after becoming a father of twins a boy and a girl (Luke and Leia ) I've been dodging it for years but literally just started reading it again tonight and I'm already scared 😅
Agreed. The Shining and IT literally made me too scared to read them at night. Pet Semetary was also very scary but I read that as an adult so it didn’t have the same affect were I to have read it as a teenager.
I haven’t read any of the full non scary novels but there’s some gems in his novellas and shorts. If it bleeds is great in its entirety and bizarre of bad dreams is 90% perfect 1 or 2 May not do it for you but it’s all preference
That’d be easy IMO. 1) The Stand 2) Shawshank Redemption 3) 11/22/63 4) Eyes of the Dragon 5) The Green Mile 6) Misery 7) The Body (a.k.a. Stand By Me)
I just finished Pet Sematary last week! I was mind-blown by the combination of horror, tragedy, and the intense impact of grief explored. I can only imagine the different experience after having kids!
Pet cemetery wasn't scary for me as it was just pure grief and tragedy. Yes there were some very scary parts. But I just remember ending the book and thinking what a tragic tragic ending. It left me empty for like 2 weeks thinking about the ending. It's just pure grief and what it can do to a family. Pet cemetery and Alas Babylon are two of the most tragic books I've ever read. They both left me feeling horrible.
@@CompetitionChris I agree! I wouldn't consider Pet Sematary a jump-scare book. When saying horror I mean the horrific situations that occur involving death and tragedy. It does explore grief in a profound way. I'll have to check out Alas Babylon.
I can testify that having read it years ago didn't bother me much but after becoming a dad to twins a boy and girl (Luke and Leia) I've started reading it again tonight and I'm already scared 😅
Yep. When I was in my first apartment I woke up one night to scratching at my screen. I was on the third floor. I didn't look. I didn't get back to sleep either. It happened again a few nights later. I thought it had to be a squirrel, right? And then again, a week later, and terrified, I tore open the curtain and the wind was blowing this oak tree over against my screen. I ripped the screen off, grabbed that branch and cut it off with a pair of scissors. My hands were bleeding by the time I was done, but there was no more scratching.
Fantastic list, Mike. Misery is the novel which renewed my love for reading last summer. One of the scariest stories that has stuck with me is 1408. I still think about (and hear internally) the unsettling phone calls Mike receives while in the room.
Glad you included Geralds Game and The Library Policeman, those usually get swept under the rug but they are extremely scary. Those will leave you thinking about the terror you felt reading the last chapter when your head is on your pillow trying to sleep.
Whats weird is ive read the Shining twice and the part that is ingrained in my memory more than 217 is Danny and the hedge animals. I think its even broad daylight when it happens to him but that sense of helplessness was strong.
I’ve read all of these books on your list and agree 100%. I read Salem’s Lot at too young of an age and as a 55 year old man that window scene still freaks me out. I’ve only read number one on your list once because that book hit me hard when it first came out.
One of the main things I’ve found about King is his ability to go extremely deep into the oceans of the mind; it’s not so much the horror but it’s the way he tells a story and the psychological deepeness he puts your mind into because of his portrayal of the psychological psyche that a particular character is going through in the story. Like recently I’m almost finished reading dreamcatcher and the deepness of the psychological story and plot will just send you on a roller coaster mindjob. So apart from the fact that he’s just such an OP Storyteller but the psychological deepness aspect of the characters is just WOW. Dreamcatcher; finally got around to reading it after such a very long wait but it’s now easily one of my top favourites of King; I’d no idea it was gonna be this good WOW
I am SO GLAD you talked about the jaunt… because WOW. By far one of the best not only Stephen King short stories of all time, but best short stories PERIOD.
Gerald's Game scared the 💩 out of me. Now The Stand had some freaky parts As a whole, not so much but that tunnel scene makes me freak out when we go through a big tunnel 20 years LATER!!!!!
I'm glad you included some shorter works, because I think this is the best format for horror fiction. I think it's because you read them in one sitting (if you can). The atmosphere is never interrupted and you're just taken on a journey of growing intensity that doesn't let up. "The Jaunt" is a great one. But I think I have to give the edge to Nightshift as far as King collections. I'm not as big a fan of King as some but I do still enjoy reading him and I definitely think he's a writer that deserves loads of respect and admiration. I do really need to read Salem's Lot, Gerald's Game, and Misery. Misery was going to be my next dive into a Stephen King book actually, though I haven't decided when. maybe soon!
Salem's Lot was the first King book I've ever read, and it got me absolutely hooked! But for me, the scariest book by him is Cujo, by a long shot, followed by the short story The Moving Finger
So glad to see Skeleton Crew getting some love- easily my favorite short story collection by King, The Jaunt, Survivor Type, Beach World, The Raft, The Monkey- what a killer collection! Awesome list and definitely agree with #1, Pet Semetary will always hold a special place in my heart especially after scaring me so badly on my first read in high school!
There is a description in Christine that has always haunted me - she drives around with all those she killed inside. That would've creeped the crap out of me if it were in the movie. And, in Pet Sematary, the description of what Gage looked like when Louis dug him up also haunts me.
Salem's Lot was my first King book. Bought through a 6th grade book order and I couldn't bring myself to read it. Finally read 15 years later and it's still my favorite King book to date.
Thanks Mike I finally gave mr. King go and I enjoyed IT. Literally lol. Took me like two decades to overcome slander I read about him in a magazine as a wee boy. It took me forever to finish but I think I will try some more in the future. So, thank you sir! You are literally the most addictive RU-vidr after Sanderson! Have a great day!
Love the idea of non horror King stories. A personal favorite in that regard is Dolans Cadillac from Nightmares and Dreamscapes. The slow pacing making the agony of the labor more evident, leading to the ending, wonderful story. Would love to see if it made your short list.
I just love all SK stuff on your channel (that's how I found you) so yes please to the list of non scary ones. I still need to read most of them tbh but The Shinning is definitely one of the scariest ones. I planned on reading Salems lot this spooky season but I'm still making my way through the stand. Great video as always! And bonus points for the shirt and the cup :)
Killer list! Those real life scenarios are the truly scary ones for me (The Library Police Man, Gerald's Game, Misery, etc) I do think the shorter form lends better to the scary medium. There are so many good short scary stories in his collections.
Literally was having a convo with my friends about this yesterday. They are huge King fans but I've never read a single novel and am wanting to read a scary story over October. Pet Seminary and Cujo were their recommendations too!
Top review as always Mike agree totally with your number one I read that book when my child was at that age .. And in my personal view the best ending line to any Stephen king ever .. from Liverpool,England
For me, in The Shining, it was the playground scene when Danny thought about going into the tube tunnel but there was something at the other end. It still gives me shivers.
The Shining is my favorite fall/winter read. I'll sit outside by the fireplace and read late into the night hoping the hedges start moving so I have somebody to talk to about the book.
I want to choose something you didn't cover in this video. There is one story in the Just After Sunset collection called N., that I find very disturbing. I don't know if it should disturb me, but it does. I did audio for that book, and I was glued to every word written in that story. It's one of those stories I think about from time to time.
Awesome list, a few that I’ve and read and a lot more that I need to pick up. I’ve not read a lot of the short story collections, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got Skeleton Crew on my Kindle, so might have to look at starting that one soonish :)
Just finished IT after coming by your channel. What an incredible book. Would have never taken on such a mammoth of a book if I hadn’t found your channel.
So far, the scariest overall book of King’s for me is Salem’s Lot. But that scariest single chapter in the Shining is the scariest 10 minutes of a read I’ve experienced.
I just read Pet Semetary for the first time. My son is 5. And it effed me up so much, I kept thinking about what would happen if something happened to him. If I lost him like Gage. And I would hug him and stare at him and make sure he was ok constantly.
@@mikesbookreviews My brother (huge SK person) read it before and after having his kids and said the same thing. You can’t understand that capacity of love until you are a parent so you can’t comprehend the grief that would come with it. Not entirely.
I just read Misery, after avoiding it and yeah, so far.. that and Salem's Lot are the scarest books he's written. I'll read Pet Semerty and come back to you.
Finished Pet Sematary last week and I completely agree with you.Throughout the entire book I had some strong emotions,never felt like that reading a book before,it will remain in my memory for a long time.Yes Mike,please make more Stephen King videos,a non-horror list it would be great considering that 11 22 63 is the only one I know 😅.
This is a great list! I've been reading all of King in chronological order, and currently reading From a Buick 8. For me, an honorable mention for Barlow, but it's got to be IT (the library scene kept me from going to my public library for weeks!) and then number one is the hose scene from The Shining. I think it got me because it's not in the movie so I didn't know what to expect. I'm also a full grown adult, and became so scared of my own house it was ridiculous.
The short story of the Boogeyman terrified me for years. I couldn't go to bed without checking my wardrobe. Just that last scene where he sees what's inside the closet. Gave me chills.
Scariest Stephen King stories I've read over the years 1. Salems Lot 2. The Shining(the Mark Torrence dinner table scene flashback) 😱 3. The Library Policeman 4. Pet Semetary 5. The Dark Half 6. The Stand (complete and uncut edition) because you dont know what people are truly capable of in a super flu outbreak. 7. Secret Window, Secret garden scary to me because you truly dont know what lengths a person will go to to right what seems an unjust wrong (if you look at it from a different lens). 8. The Langoliers mainly Craige Toomies upbringing flashbacks of how his mother and father treated him; and now we end up with the older craige Toomy we know in the langoliers story event. Those are the 8 scariest king books I've read each one of these still linger in the back of my mind from time to time.
Mike, thank you from the bottom of my heart because youre the reason i started reading The Bound and The Broken and Red Rising series and im alternating between each series and i gotta say those two authors are S-tiers thanks 🙏🏻
IT, The Shining, and Pet Sematary are some of my top picks of scary King stories too. I love the Dark Tower shirt too by the way. I know not too many people will pick up on what KA means, but yeah, gotta be a Constant Reader for that. 😊😁
I still haven't read Skeleton Crew, but I watched The Raft in Creepshow (2?)when I was a young kid, and that TERRIFIED me!! I still think of it, to this day, especially when I see those floating docks out in a lake. You know what else got me? That story The Moving Finger. It turned out to be a little absurd, many Nightmares Dreamscape stories were... but just the concept of it freaked me the F out. I think I read that one in 6th grade
I'm glad you included some short fiction in here. I'm actually planning on rereading King starting with all the short story and novella collections first, as those ones haven't stuck with me as well. I'm definitely looking forward to Skeleton Crew now!
Totally agree with your list! Glad you mentioned the stories from Skeleton Crew; those were my earliest encounter with King and they scared the crap out of me. Also Library Policeman was horrifying. The only thing I disagree with is The Shining. Don't remember being scared by this one, but I read it at least ten years ago, so it's maybe time for a re-read. I actually had a nightmare about the Moonlight man looking in at me. King created nightmares and dreamscapes for generations........god bless the man
Thank you! Great video. Oh my. It still does it for me. Even now that I am 43, I am almost afraid to read again, in fear of getting near panick attacks when seeing clowns. I have that drainpipe thing always going with me, however much I am telling it is nonsense! I will always look in one expecting a white clown with blood red lips in it and yellow eyes :) Not withstanding that I think, very scary of King was Larry Underwood going through the Holland Tunnel in the Stand. Pet Semetaryhas the most raw emotion ever. Oh my lord, I cried so much reading it. My throat hurt after reading certain parts. The Mist was the most bleak story I read. Especially the Novels' end and not the alternative ending of the movie.
“The Moonlight Man,” as King slowly, sadistically unfurled him, was, without _competition,_ the gotdam scariest thing anyone could’ve stretched an imagination to create, especially in THOSE circumstances! 😯 (Timmy Baterman in the salute description was as close as any other character got for me.) 🤔
The beginning of the Stand, with all of the fallout and bodies all over the streets is pretty scary to me. But when Larry Underwood is going through that tunnel in the dark with all the dead bodies. 😳😱 WOW
Watching your channel, and seeing your enthusiasm for Stephen King, it became infectious. I picked up my first Stephen King book (Pet Semetary) last year, and I absolutely loved it.
It is my favourite. Have found the other works mentioned give me the chills or unnerve me but nothing will probably ever both freak me out and absorb me like It did.
The Outsider in my opinion is one of the scariest novels King has written. The barn scene and the scene in the little girl’s room had me jumping at shadows.
My list mirrors yours pretty close. There were times during my read of IT, where my skin was crawling in the middle of the afternoon and I don't think I will read Pet Semitary as an adult it's too brutal on parents. I think the scariest book he has written in the last few years was Revival, such a great lovecratian tale with an absolutely great ending.
Salems Lot was a fantastic book! I wish it didn’t end lol, if a part 2 came out Ben and Mark going on the offense after the cigarette butt, I’d read it in a heartbeat. Just finished it tonight, tomorrow I start Misery
man, Pet Sematary was the first Stephen King book i've read! i borrowed it from the local library, somewhere around New Year's Eve and was down with a fever, so i started reading the bloody thing - i was not a good idea; for all the time i was sick i was sure that a small dead kid with a scalpel would come out form under by bed - the thing is, my bad is down to the floor, there is no space beneath, but so what? he was still coming from under there :)
Thank you for putting Gerald's Game on this list. I read it and was absolutely horrified and it really sat with me. I had to read a romantic comedy just to pull myself out of it. But excellent list! I agree - Pet Sematary is #1....because it has the classic scary stuff but then it has that horrific realistic aspect. What parent wouldn't do what Louis Creed did?
Skeleton Crew was the first SK I ever read- in the fifth grade. I don't know what my family was thinking letting me read that. But, my second was The Stand, which I read in a week while on a camping trip through Colorado, sixth grade.
here is my exp with King -Pet Semetary-i got rly bored,end is rushed ... -Misery-it was rly good,end not that great if i remember correctly -dreamcatcher-good book,underrated -outsider-my fav from him,so far
Gerald's Game I agree with. I feel like it's one of his most terrifying books ever! It might be the book that scared me the most. I like it too. Thanks for putting this one up.
I remember reading pet sanitary for the first time the ending still gives me chills just thinking about it. Plus jud crandall is one of my favorite characters.
Pet Semetary was my first SK book, I was younger and then my mom read it after and I was forbidden from SK. A couple days ago, I finished IT on audiobook for the first time, I'm in my 40s, I'm going to need a reread but the audio version is pretty good, for how long it is, I needed that version to get me through it or it would've taken months or years to get through, I'm not the fastest reader anymore and I don't have a lot of sit down time for physical. I'm now listening to The Long Walk.
Cujo did not work for me as a scary book, it was more of a terrible tragedy. One book that always gets overlooked (probably because it was a screenplay and not an actual novel) is Storm of the Century. Andre Linoge with his wolf cane and yellow gloves scared the heck out of me. Also, there was that time when yellow was the colour of the season (or whatever the fashion industry calls it), so there were yellow gloves all around and I was like "yeah, no, thanks!😰😱"
I haven't read everything King by far, but I have a specific memory with one of his books scaring me a lot. It was Salem's Lot and I was still a teenager in school. I read several of his books before, but they didn't affect me quite like that. I read through the whole night and only finished like half an hour before I had to get up for school. It was just impossible to put down. Because there was no way I could have slept without bringing all this to any kind of solution that awaited me at the end. No way I could just sleep, sit in school all day and only return to it the next afternoon or so. I was so scared by it, that I had to see it through immediately to be able to put it behind me. I doubt it would be like that on a re-read, but I haven't dared to test this theory yet, even 30 years later.
have to recommend the short story gramma. it’s about a kid who gets left alone for hours with his very old grandma who he’s terrified of. scared the living daylight out of me
Loved this list, thanks for doing what you do. I have read most of the Stephen king novels and collections. I would agree that pet semetary is the scariest to date. Being a constant reader I am always asked what would be good suggestions for those that are not in ‘the scariest’ mode. Best non scariest I can think of would be wonderful. I have recommended Liseys Story before, a fav in my personal all time king top 10, but after that suggesting reads is a little more difficult. Maybe Duma key, and the bill Hodges series I don’t know. Love to see your takes.
Maybe I’m broken, but I don’t find any of his books scary. Maybe if I read them at 13, but as an adult? Not even close. They do have emotional horror, if that makes any sense. Like Pet Sematary and The Shining. Both gut wrenching with phenomenally written characters. You feel every emotion they’re going through, the despair, the grief, the sadness. And as for Salem’s Lot, I hear sooo many people saying it’s the scariest, and I will never understand why. Even the bedroom window scene is just meh. The scariest scenes for me are probably the ones involving Zelda. Now that’s a creepy character.
