Your most underrated SK book

[Officious Little Prick]

I don't think that all of them necessarily are. But I guess often times the story requires the child/ren to be functioning at a certain level... and as in real life, particular situations will many times extend a child further than they would have otherwise been, had a situation not arisen.

Some, yes. All? Not in my experience. Children are just like adults in that respect. Some blossom under challenge and duress, others cave. I just wish King was willing to acknowledge the latter once in a while. His clear respect for little kids causes him to write them through rose colored glasses. Certainly not a deal breaker; he's still the greatest popular author in history, as far as I'm concerned. I just find the way he sculpts his most junior characters to be one of his weaker qualities.

 

[samhain]

Gerald's Game. I just re-read it recently and forgot just how creepy and fast-paced this book actually is.

 

[FlakeNoir]

Some, yes. All? Not in my experience. Children are just like adults in that respect. Some blossom under challenge and duress, others cave. I just wish King was willing to acknowledge the latter once in a while. His clear respect for little kids causes him to write them through rose colored glasses. Certainly not a deal breaker; he's still the greatest popular author in history, as far as I'm concerned. I just find the way he sculpts his most junior characters to be one of his weaker qualities.

I still don't think that ALL of his young characters are painted quite in the way you are describing. Beg to differ, I guess.

 

[muskrat]

Danse Macabre. It's hardly on anyone's Top Ten list, but I've read this one more times than I can remember--I freakin love it. Uncle Stevie has a way of explaining the horror genre that's as humorous as it is informative. Reading this one always feels like I'm sitting by a campfire, or in a comfortable smoking parlor, listening to the King tell it like it is.

It's on my top ten list.

 

[Sarah25]

Underrated to the general reading public would be The Eyes of the Dragon. Underrated in his fan base, I'm gonna go with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I also don't believe that Hearts in Atlantis gets the recognition that it deserves.

 

[FlakeNoir]

Underrated to the general reading public would be The Eyes of the Dragon. Underrated in his fan base, I'm gonna go with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I also don't believe that Hearts in Atlantis gets the recognition that it deserves.

Agree.

 

[TanyaS]

Well, as it's my all-time favorite novel of his, but fans and critics alike always claim it to be mid- or low-tier King, I have to give this crown to CHRISTINE. That whole book fires on all cylinders (pun intended) and comprises everything I love about King. Superlative command of language, instantly unforgettable characters, deeply chilling scares, saturated in rich pathos and tragedy. Objectively, THE SHINING is his magnum opus (it's certainly his most profoundly terrifying and, as such, my second favorite) but, for me, CHRISTINE is the total package. Others have to be DESPERATION (probably my favorite work of his from the '90s, though, perplexing, its sister novel, THE REGULATORS, is one of my least favorites of his entire canon) and BLACK HOUSE, which I enjoyed several leagues over THE TALISMAN.

Christine is just fantastic, it is like being there. Also love the Shining and Cujo. Desperation was a slog for me, I just am stuck on the classic Kings, I guess!

 

[TanyaS]

Cujo. Rarely ever see it in a top five or ten list, but this book had my then-twelve year old heart twisted in knots. I stayed in on a few sunny summer weekends and unplugged my Intellivision just to see how the characters made out. It's part of my fibre now.

love the title. Wonder where King found that name. Brilliant. Carrie, Christine, Cujo.

 

[Officious Little Prick]

love the title. Wonder where King found that name.

From the Wikipedia article:

Cujo's name was based on the nom de guerre of Willie Wolfe, one of the men responsible for orchestrating Patty Hearst's kidnapping and indoctrination into the Symbionese Liberation Army.

I'm almost positive this is referenced in the actual book, too, but it's been years since I've read it.

 

[Ves-Ka Gan]

Bad taste? I wonder how many battered women escape into fantasy to block out the horror of real life. I guess we are all entitled to our view of a particular book but to me the supernatural did not take away the message that battered women suffer a great deal and need to escape their partners.

I agree wholeheartedly. I've been there and done that which is why I read SK. He has an uncanny knack of understanding this situation and his portrayal of his female characters are astoundingly accurate. I'm always amazed at how well he does it. How can a man have such insight into a woman's mind? (never mind an abused one) Although I did like the basic story but must say that I found the supernatural aspect weird, even for him, although I've read it three times so must have enjoyed it!

 

[Ves-Ka Gan]

I just found it to be, at best, flippant, and at worst, outright condescending and dismissive, toward a very real, tangible horror. I don't believe that was King's intention for a second (GERALD'S GAME and, most assuredly, DOLORES CLAIBORNE ring with too much truth for that to be the case); nevertheless, King's prowess with language and command of character notwithstanding, conceptually, I've never seen his arrow fly so far from the target. To me, this was like someone writing a book positing that Hitler's evil was caused by Nazi surgeons implanting microchips in his brain and controlling him with the world's first supercomputer, or one where we discover the American slave owners of the 18th and 19th Centuries were under the mind-control of extraterrestrial aliens. It's just a very indelicate novel, if you ask me.

I couldn't disagree more. It was extremely insightful, honest and very emotional. It's in no way indelicate. It feels to me that he's done his research and spoken to abused women himself, though I could be wrong. It's hard enough escaping a dominant controlling partner in the first place. Imagine if that man (or woman) was a well respected police officer with the tools at their disposal to hunt down their prey? As far as I'm concerned SK pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm sorry but I had to reply because this is very close to my heart and there is so much misunderstanding concerning abused women. Or anybody else for that matter.

 

[miss.exterminator]

Hearts in Atlantis straddles the two worlds....

two worlds? i just dont got it.? plase explain it

 

[EMARX]

two worlds? i just dont got it.? plase explain it

If you've had a chance to read a lot of King you'll notice that some of his novels will have connections to his Dark Tower books and the world they take place in.

 

[miss.exterminator]

If you've had a chance to read a lot of King you'll notice that some of his novels will have connections to his Dark Tower books and the world they take place in.

okeey , i supposed there are two world in Heart in Atlantis; (bobby's world and ted's world) it sounds silly.
but now i got it.it like "the girl is pregnant but she doesnt believe her boyfriend so she hides it" a SK classical

thaks a lot

 

[Officious Little Prick]

I couldn't disagree more. It was extremely insightful, honest and very emotional. It's in no way indelicate. It feels to me that he's done his research and spoken to abused women himself, though I could be wrong. It's hard enough escaping a dominant controlling partner in the first place. Imagine if that man (or woman) was a well respected police officer with the tools at their disposal to hunt down their prey?

If the book had stayed on that point, it could have been a masterpiece. What you just described is heavily weighted in the superior first half of the book (and is also key to what makes DESPERATION his most, IMO, chilling read of the '90s); it's when those very real horrors are traded out for full-bore Lovecraftian creatures and alternate dimensions that it goes utterly off the rails for me. GERALD'S GAME and especially DOLORES CLAIBORNE were smart enough to know that the horrors of domestic abuse are robust enough without lathering the fantastic all over it.

 

[EMARX]

okeey , i supposed there are two world in Heart in Atlantis; (bobby's world and ted's world) it sounds silly.
but now i got it.it like "the girl is pregnant but she doesnt believe her boyfriend so she hides it" a SK classical

thaks a lot

You're welcome.

 

[kingricefan]

okeey , i supposed there are two world in Heart in Atlantis; (bobby's world and ted's world) it sounds silly.
but now i got it.it like "the girl is pregnant but she doesnt believe her boyfriend so she hides it" a SK classical

thaks a lot

I think EMARX is referring to the Dark Tower cross-over that takes place in HIA with the Low Men coming after Ted. They are from a different level of the Tower and want to bring Ted back with them. Therefore, the two worlds are the one that Bobby's 'when' exists in and the one that the Low Men come from.

 

[Neesy]

I agree wholeheartedly. I've been there and done that which is why I read SK. He has an uncanny knack of understanding this situation and his portrayal of his female characters are astoundingly accurate. I'm always amazed at how well he does it. How can a man have such insight into a woman's mind? (never mind an abused one) Although I did like the basic story but must say that I found the supernatural aspect weird, even for him, although I've read it three times so must have enjoyed it!

It's uncanny alright! - what a great word - uncanny. You've got me beat - I have only read this book once.

I don't mind science fiction and/or fantasy so maybe that is why it did not put me off the story as a whole.

 

[OldDarth]

The Long Walk.

 

[miss.exterminator]

I think EMARX is referring to the Dark Tower cross-over that takes place in HIA with the Low Men coming after Ted. They are from a different level of the Tower and want to bring Ted back with them. Therefore, the two worlds are the one that Bobby's 'when' exists in and the one that the Low Men come from.

i didnt read Dark Tower Series yet, because, exactly i fed up with the series books.
and i thought that there are some empty in Heart in Atlantis, now i understand more.
thanks