Top Ten Books Recommended by Stephen King
Looking for something spooky to read? Want to get on King’s level? No fear….well…a little bit of fear…
Stephen King, the master of horror, and also an avid reader himself! He’s constantly recommending books on his twitter, in his newsletters, and even included them in his own books. It can be totally overwhelming. But I’ve put together a Top Ten list to give you a jumping off point.
NUMBER TEN – THE TROOP – NICK CUTTER
“The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. This is old-school horror at its best.” – Stephen King
Every year Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip. But this year and unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite and the troop are exposed to something incredibly frightening. A human carrier of a bio-engineered nightmare. A harrowing struggle for survival that will pit the troop against the elements, the infected, and one another.
NUMBER NINE – SHARP OBJECTS – GILLIAN FLYNN
“I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights.” – Stephen King
Reporter Camille Preaker is out from a brief stay at a psych hospital and is facing a troubling assignment. She has to return to her small hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. Camille’s mother is a neurotic hypochondriac who Camille has a very difficult relationship with and her half-sister is someone she barely knows. Now living in her childhood home with her strange family, Camille must unravel this psychological puzzle.
NUMBER EIGHT – GRAVITY – TESS GERRITSEN
“She is better than Palmer, better than Cook…yes, even better than Crichton.” – Stephen King
An experiment on micro-organisms conducted in space goes wrong. The cells begin to infect the crew with deadly results. Emma Watson struggles to contain the deadly microbe while her husband and NASA try to retrieve her from space, before it's too late.
NUMBER SEVEN – I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK – MICHELLE MCNAMARA
“It appears police have caught the Golden State Killer. Go get Michelle McNamara’s excellent book about the case, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” – Stephen King
A true crime account of the Golden State Killer – a rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade. Michelle McNamara died tragically while investigating the case, these are her findings.
NUMBER SIX – THE LITTLE STRANGER – SARAH WATERS
“This is a terrifying, engrossing ghost story set in the English countryside not long after World War II, but it’s so much more…Although told in straightforward prose, this is a deeply textured and thoughtful piece of work. Several sleepless nights are guaranteed.” – Stephen King
Dr. Faraday, a country physician, has been called to a patient at the lonely Hundreds Hall. This is the home to the Ayres family for over two centuries. The house is now in decline and the owners, mother, son and daughter, are struggling to keep pace. The family might be haunted by something sinister and Dr. Faraday must investigate as he becomes entwined in their lives.
NUMBER FIVE – HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY – AUDREY NIFFENEGGER
(included in Stephen King’s updated reading list for On Writing)
Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and has left her apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. While the girls have never met their aunt, they did know she was a twin to their own mother. When the girls move into the flat, which borders a cemetery, they become close to the other residents and quickly become wrapped up in their lives. But they soon realize that perhaps there’s more to the cemetery and that perhaps their Aunt is haunting the apartment.
NUMBER FOUR – THE HUNGER – ALMA KATSU
“Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark.” – Stephen King
The Donner Party is plagued by misfortunes – depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and a mysterious death of a little boy. Something or someone is stalking them and the 90 men, women and children of the Party are on the brink of the deadliest western adventure in American history.
The group struggles to survive and as people disappear they have to find out what exactly is going on…
NUMBER THREE – HEX – THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT
“A wicked witch holds an upstate New York town prisoner. This is totally, brilliantly original.” – Stephen King
Black Spring, a picturesque town, haunted by the Black Rock Witch. Her eyes and mouth are sewn shut as she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands by beds for nights on end. The town has been quarantined by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading.
Frustrated by being kept in lock-down, the town’s teenagers decide to break the very strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But by doing so, they send the town spiraling.
NUMBER TWO – THE SHINING GIRLS – Lauren Beukes
“No, not the twins from the Kubrick movie, but the targets of a serial killer who finds a time portal in Chicago during the Depression and jackrabbits his way through recent American History, killing women and taking trophies. Until, that is, he encounters a tuff girl who’s not so easy to do away with. It’s the black-hole version of The Time Traveler’s Wife.” – Stephen King
Harper Curtis is a killer who has stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women whose lives Harper is destined to end. Harper has travelled through time through in a house in Depression-era Chicago and now waits for the perfect moment to strike. After each murder, he vanishes back into another time, completely untraceable.
But Kirby is determined to bring her would-be killer to justice and so she works closely with an ex-homicide reporter who covered her original case. A masterful twist on the serial killer tale.
NUMBER ONE – FINAL GIRLS – Riley Sager
“The first great thriller of 2017 is almost here: Final Girls by Riley Sager. If you liked Gone Girl, you’ll like this.” – Stephen King
Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back as the only survivor of a real-life horror movie type massacre. She officially joined a club that no one wants to be a part of – the Final Girls. That was ten years ago. The Final Girls have never met and are trying to put their tragic pasts behind them.
But in present day, one of the Final Girls, Lisa is found dead in her bathtub of a possible suicide. Sam, another Final Girl, appears on Quincy’s doorstep and Quincy must sort out how Lisa really died, what Sam’s intentions really are and what really happened ten years ago.
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