I like how Thomas Ligotti, a very literary horror writer who is also a serious philosophical pessimist, says (not his exact words, just ideas I picked up in an interview with him) that most of what is considered horror is basically suspense. The main difference between what's marketed as horror vs suspense being that horror is allowed to use supernatural antagonists for what basically has the philosophy of suspense or thriller material.
I think what you're missing in that whole section where the baby is being dug up and Rachel is rushing home and the daughter knows something will happen: this isn't to make you horrified. It's drawn out to show all the myriad ways Louis COULD have been stopped, at any one of these junctures. It's the missed opportunity, again and again, to halt what we all know has to happen for the story. It's the same as his obsession over whether he could have snagged Gage's clothes, his fingers just brushing against his back before the road. A "what if" a single thing had changed to stop the horror from unfolding.
And it’s the “horror” of loss and extreme/obsessive grief. I always thought what could be worse than losing your child in such a violent way and being so consumed by grief that you would bring them back from the dead KNOWING the outcome will be the worst scenario.
Just putting it out there: it is important to fix/spay your pets. Not just to prevent them from having kittens. Cats are susceptible to problems from hormones later in life. Female cats get mammary tumors. In fact, studies show neutered cats live 62% longer. I know we love our pets, but they cannot control their natural instincts, so it is our responsibility to ensure more kittens are not brought irresponsible into the world! The first time you work with an entire litter of stray kittens who are sick and about to die, you will understand why neutering is so imperative. A brief hardship for your cat could prevent the slow, painful death of innocent kittens.
I read this book as a 16 year old and it was burnt into my brain. Never picked it up again. As a teenager, I had a rescue squirrel I brought up since she was a kit but who now was too friendly to humans and so couldn't be released into the wild again. The day I moved out of my parents' house, they convinced me to leave her behind while I shifted my stuff to the apartment I would be renting and come back next week to take her. Within that week, they left her cage outside and a cat got her. Took her head clean off. I didn't get to know about it until I returned home the next week. They'd already buried her somewhere by then. They cried while telling me about it and said how sorry they were. The incident severed something between my parents and I on that day.
57:18 I was not prepared to relive holding my childhood dog as she passed away during this video (she was 17 and it was peaceful but I still feel that last tremor when I think of that moment)
@@sarahndipity_7 I went through a Stephen King reading phase around the time my dog was suffering from a neurological condition and strangely Pet Semetary helped me process my emotions. He lived for years after that and was normally his regular self, but he had these spells of not being quite "right.". Not dangerous or anything but like he'd lost what made him a distinct dog. Then he'd snap out of it fortunately. Unfortunately the medicine he had to take cut his life in half.
I've never read Steven King, but I do think it's amazing the sheer amount of his works that have be adapted into movies. Some I never knew were him. You rarely do movie/book analysis, but I think it would be interesting to explore what makes Steven King so adaptable compared to other novelists.
Yeah. I've read quite a bit of King and I often find myself going, "this would work great as a movie!" as I'm reading it. Couldn't put my finger on exactly why, but the stories often feel like they could very seemlessly be translated into a movie script. So I'm not surprised so many directors and script writers feel inspired to adapt his work.
I’d be so excited for you guys to do more King. If I may recommend a handful: - Revival (King hasn’t written much horror in recent years, but there was this one. Perhaps his bleakest work, most Lovecraftian) - The Shining (needless to say!) - Gerald’s Game (an unusual one, but I’d say it’s among his scariest) - 11/22/63 (not horror, but one of his absolute best) - Duma Key (I’d describe as one of his most poetic and more underrated. A haunted book, unique type of horror)
As a Native American, thanks for the shout out conversation about horror tropes and the "white man science to black magic". One hundred percent agree with Katie in that this is the attitude most of the time, still weird and racist, but still rooted in themes that white people weirdly want to have, which I can understand to a certain degree. Stories where a human character explores Fantasylandia's different rules and magics are still going to be my bread and butter, after all. As just another rando online with their own personal opinions, I do just want to speak on why the "ancient Indian burial ground" is such a weird and gross trope further on a logical level. Like, they make it sound like it's such an odd concept all of a sudden for people to want to have funerals and bury their dead? Like suddenly that's a foreign concept to people? I think it has to do with it sounding like the way people talk about those elephant graveyards in that it's weirdly dehumanizing, in that the notion is "isn't weird that these inhuman creatures are mimicking our human practices?" Like, what do you mean? We also bury our dead, and we also have funeral rites and services. What do you mean? This is an overall impression of the general trope, and it is unfortunately backed up in King's writing by that detail of "it's weird that the pet cemetery is being tended after by children", and that another story of his is Children of the Corn. We as a whole already treat children as if they're not fully autonomous humans, but the difference also has to do with the fact of age, like it's creepy when kids act older than they are or don't act their age. I'm willing to admit hypocrisy, I would find that weird for kids to do, too. But it unfortunately backs up that mindset of "look at those weird creatures, mimicking an adult human's habit like they know what it is". Along with the simple fact of the book's namesake, Pet Cemetery, a human holy rite given to an inhuman creature. Looking at how western faith people do this is just all very amusing to me, as it's usually tied into this thought that honoring the dead has to do with thinking that the Christian notion of "why" is the only one that can ever exist, or that their culture is the only one that allows the concept of a soul to continue to exist in the great beyond, hence my elephant graveyard example. The notion, also, that the only "real" cemetery is a Christian one , is another avenue of discussion for this trope. But that's a topic of for another day... TLDR: White people *shocked* to discover that other people can *also* have funerals
@@mpd1732 Ha! Now you're making me imagine... let's say a successful Chinese diaspora family who start having weird problems with their new house only to find that it's built on (drumroll, pls) an old whitey burial ground!!!!! I guess they'd have to get an expert in 19th Century Irish Catholic funeral practices or something to get rid of it! Though I will defend him partially that there's something genuinely weird and interesting about local children being sensitive to the spiritual vibes of the place and coming up with their own rituals to deal with it like it's the most natural thing in the world. Sorry that the Pet Semetary example appropriates indigenous ideas but I don't think Children of the Corn does and in Europe it would all just be folk horror based on leftovers of their own ancestor's archaic practices. Maybe a more sensitive way to do stuff like this in the future would be just responding to ancestral spiritual influences which are still on them despite the fact that they're in America now instead of ancient spirits of American geographical locations which would have no connection to them. There is a grain of truth to the idea of religions and ideologies embraced by the young having surprising power. All the cults from New York's "Burt Over District" some of which are respectable churches today like Mormons and Adventists were run by shockingly young people in the early, formative days, though not literal children. Radical 20th Century political movements were largely run by the young, too in sharp contrast to the average age of the people in power in more establishment countries. And these had quasi religious qualities even if unacknowledged.
@EdwardHaas-e8x Oh by no means was I insinuating Children of the Corn had this trope. I was just using it as an example of that "creepy kids" horror, as I also would absolutely be creeped out if I encountered a group, kids or otherwise, doing a weird ritual in the middle of nowhere in a society where I know this isn't "normal" to see. Human people acting Inhumanly is a great horror staple, I'm just giving sass to when a horror work tries to insinuate a totally normal race or group of people are that genre of weird *just* for being that said race or culture, no added elements or cult sub groups within a larger culture conversation. Like, I'm thinking of a Asian movie I watched that did the whole "spooky Asian temple village cult" deal, but it was clearly a cult or fictional offshoot and not actually based off or on a specific Asian religion. Name I'll edit in... The movie was called Incantation, a Taiwan horror movie. I'd be really interested to look up if any Indigenous authors wrote any horror books themselves with their own culture markers, as I can think of a few spooky elements of my tribe's stories and superstitions that could make for a fun story.
@@mpd1732 Thanks! I'll have to check out Incantation. The general idea reminds me of a Japanese film I saw a very long time ago where there was a region of rural Japan with a lot of Shinto shrines that were presented as nice and relatable in context but also a creepy cult that in universe was a survival from times before true Japanese culture existed. Probably just made up or at least an extreme intentional distortion of a real idea of archaic survivals. Didn't get the idea they were demonizing or othering an actual group. I've seen this done in horror and weird fiction set in Europe too with a distinction between what one would expect from local traditions that might seem weird to an outsider but are ultimately sympathetic and something fictional that's truly an ancient evil or even a modern cult passing itself off as old.
Today of course the "ancient Indian burial ground" is a worn out trope, in part due to this book. But though part of the idea is that it's more dangerous because Indians are "more magic", isn't it also that it's been DESECRATED, or at least forgotten? I at least get the feeling that, presumably, when the burial ground was tended to by the medicine man and the tribe held their traditional rituals there, it wasn't evil, it becomes evil because a hotel or parking lot was built over it or something like that. It sometimes has the asociation that the modern US was built on top of the bones of the natives. In Pet Sematary it wasn't the white man directly that desecrated the place, rather the tribe themselves are hinted to have resorted to cannibalism I think, or at least to leaving their old out to die, but implicitly this was a consequence of the hardships they went through because of the colonization.
I always took the "ancient Indian burial ground" trope as more of a "we whites have usurped this sacred land for our suburbs/pet cemetery/whatever, and now we're going to pay for not showing respect", myself.
Also my first King book! I agree that it's very difficult to make a book scare someone in the same way a movie can. Tbh, I doubt anything can scare me worse than seeing the original Predator in theaters as a 4-year-old (don't ask me why my parents thought it was a good idea to take me along but I hid under the seat and the image of flayed bodies hanging from trees scarred me for life). Totally agree with Katie that, in this case, the preface is very pertinent to the content of the book. It sets up expectations and, had I not read it, I might have expected something different. As far as the sex scene is concerned, I think most of it was done to show how Louis perceives Rachel's way of apologizing only after she got what she wanted, so that later he can comment on how he gets that type of behavior from her dad. Still don't think it needed to be an on-the-page scene and fade to black could have happened earlier but I didn't hate it (though I hope that sponge mitten was soft, otherwise Yikes! 😂) Also, looking forward to the next Stephen King book when you decide on it!
Whenever I read a Stephen King book or manuscript, I like playing a game called “Guess When Stephen Was Skiing His Ass Off When He Wrote This” And I ain’t talking about frosty the snowman snow, and the story “It” is *riddled* with them
I wanted to mention it in the video with Linberg (I don’t member if I did) and I have recommended it a couple of times before, but Will, if you want a horror book, I recommend House of Leave by Mark Danilevesky, I think is his name. But you MUST and I repeat MUST have a physical copy of it and read it with eyes cause it’s as much of a tangible experience as it is it a literary one.
You might want to check out some of King's more fantasy-esque stories. (Not necessarily including the Dark Tower series). I quite enjoyed "Fairy Tale" which is one of his more recent books.
Literally all I read these days is litfic-y horror where it’s not outright something like IT, but rather shows the evils of humanity in a really unsettling way. Some that I’ve read lately that I’ve really enjoyed are A Touch of Jen (honestly one of my new favs) Natural Beauty, Our share of night (which I think Will would really really enjoy!) and thus thing between us. I love when it’s quite Litfic based but also has a weird magical realism / surreal / paranormal twist
This book is mentioned more than any other single work when people are answering what's the scariest book they read in their life. Possibly because King seems to himself consider it his scariest or at least darkest novel.
I read that book a few years ago after buying it in the gift shop from the Paris’ catacombs, which is clever of them to sell it there. My first King book was The Shining, and both books I read in summer during the day because I know myself 🙃 still it was very creepy but I do agree that I would’ve liked the negative force to stay a bit mysterious and not tied to an entity.
I've only read 2 of Stephen King's books, but he really is a good writer, my first was Carrie, which I personally really liked because of the mix of the narration cut with articles and eyewitness accounts of what happened. I'd recommend it to see if you guys would like it as it was one of his first works, I think 😊
The last time I was truly scared and disturbed in a movie was a very specific scene in the movie ‘The Endless’. I’d imagine that anyone who has seen that movie can probably guess which scene I’m thinking of. Hint: it involves a guy in a tent.
King has always been a mixed bag, sometimes really juicy, satisfying treats, and sometimes a shattering mouthful of broken razor blades. Pet Sematary was, like Thinner (as Richard Bachman), Misery (also intended to be by Richard Bachman), and The Dark Half, much more like the earlier novels 'Salem's Lot, The Shining and, to some degree, The Dead Zone which really propelled him into fame. His later, more bloated, unsatisfactory, and drug-fuelled period, was occasionally punctuated by, according to the genre, some really good work. I am particular fond of The Talisman, but stopped being one of his oft referred-to 'Constant Readers' around 2000. The Dark Tower series lost me at The Waste Lands and, finally, at Wizard & Glass when I could not read yet another simile or parenthetical statement in every single sentence or paragraph. I have, after many years, slowly begun to return to some of his work - the Bill Hodges/Holly Gibney series, currently - but still approach everything he does with a sense of trepidation from really awful past experience.
The only Stephen King book I liked was one of his short story collections. His novels never kept my interest. For instance, I read Salem's Lot. You would think I'd be bored by the loooong setup, but I wasn't. I was interested in learning about the town and getting to know everyone. But, once the horror began, I was like, "oh. Is that it?" And I felt let down. So, I put it down and never picked it back up
I've only heard the BBC audio/radio drama of Pet Sematary (the one dramatized by Gregory Evans), I'm curious to see how it compares to the audio book with Michael C Hall as the narrator. I really enjoyed the audio drama, even though some of the sound effects are kind of cheesy. The BBC radio adaptation of Salem's Lot is really good too, which Gregory Evans also did the dramatization for.
Regarding the accident, I personally much prefer the Dark Tower books written before the accident to those written afterwards. The series kind of crashes and burns towards the end.
Fixed for spayed is not as in repaired but as in made still in the LotR movies it is a marsh it has like lot of abovesurface wated. a bog looks dry and is more spongy, water comes out when.you squish. re racism it is worth pointing out that the use of that specific monster name is a pretty gross transgression of an Algonquin taboo on it.
The cat death is what has kept me away from this book. I was carrying my struggling cat across the house to my parents when her heart stopped and she went stiff. Still traumatized, and still struggle with cat deaths in media. 😬
Definitely nothing in any of his books scares me. And usually not enough suspense to keep me reading. His big thing seems to be the thoughts of characters, much of which I don't care about. and usually can have absolutely nothing to do with the story, which means long, long boring stretches where Nothing happens. But for maybe 4-5 great books, he much overrated.
Steven King says that he considers himself a suspense writer, not a horror writer. I completely agree. He is master of suspense.
I like how Thomas Ligotti, a very literary horror writer who is also a serious philosophical pessimist, says (not his exact words, just ideas I picked up in an interview with him) that most of what is considered horror is basically suspense.
The main difference between what's marketed as horror vs suspense being that horror is allowed to use supernatural antagonists for what basically has the philosophy of suspense or thriller material.
I think what you're missing in that whole section where the baby is being dug up and Rachel is rushing home and the daughter knows something will happen: this isn't to make you horrified. It's drawn out to show all the myriad ways Louis COULD have been stopped, at any one of these junctures. It's the missed opportunity, again and again, to halt what we all know has to happen for the story. It's the same as his obsession over whether he could have snagged Gage's clothes, his fingers just brushing against his back before the road. A "what if" a single thing had changed to stop the horror from unfolding.
And it’s the “horror” of loss and extreme/obsessive grief. I always thought what could be worse than losing your child in such a violent way and being so consumed by grief that you would bring them back from the dead KNOWING the outcome will be the worst scenario.
Just putting it out there: it is important to fix/spay your pets.
Not just to prevent them from having kittens.
Cats are susceptible to problems from hormones later in life. Female cats get mammary tumors. In fact, studies show neutered cats live 62% longer. I know we love our pets, but they cannot control their natural instincts, so it is our responsibility to ensure more kittens are not brought irresponsible into the world! The first time you work with an entire litter of stray kittens who are sick and about to die, you will understand why neutering is so imperative. A brief hardship for your cat could prevent the slow, painful death of innocent kittens.
I read this book as a 16 year old and it was burnt into my brain. Never picked it up again.
As a teenager, I had a rescue squirrel I brought up since she was a kit but who now was too friendly to humans and so couldn't be released into the wild again. The day I moved out of my parents' house, they convinced me to leave her behind while I shifted my stuff to the apartment I would be renting and come back next week to take her. Within that week, they left her cage outside and a cat got her. Took her head clean off. I didn't get to know about it until I returned home the next week. They'd already buried her somewhere by then. They cried while telling me about it and said how sorry they were. The incident severed something between my parents and I on that day.
57:18 I was not prepared to relive holding my childhood dog as she passed away during this video (she was 17 and it was peaceful but I still feel that last tremor when I think of that moment)
@@sarahndipity_7
I went through a Stephen King reading phase around the time my dog was suffering from a neurological condition and strangely Pet Semetary helped me process my emotions.
He lived for years after that and was normally his regular self, but he had these spells of not being quite "right.".
Not dangerous or anything but like he'd lost what made him a distinct dog. Then he'd snap out of it fortunately. Unfortunately the medicine he had to take cut his life in half.
So early my cat hasn't come back from the dead yet.
I've never read Steven King, but I do think it's amazing the sheer amount of his works that have be adapted into movies. Some I never knew were him. You rarely do movie/book analysis, but I think it would be interesting to explore what makes Steven King so adaptable compared to other novelists.
Yeah. I've read quite a bit of King and I often find myself going, "this would work great as a movie!" as I'm reading it. Couldn't put my finger on exactly why, but the stories often feel like they could very seemlessly be translated into a movie script. So I'm not surprised so many directors and script writers feel inspired to adapt his work.
15:40 "This Patreon has several tiers. I still can't remember them!" 🤣
I’d be so excited for you guys to do more King. If I may recommend a handful:
- Revival (King hasn’t written much horror in recent years, but there was this one. Perhaps his bleakest work, most Lovecraftian)
- The Shining (needless to say!)
- Gerald’s Game (an unusual one, but I’d say it’s among his scariest)
- 11/22/63 (not horror, but one of his absolute best)
- Duma Key (I’d describe as one of his most poetic and more underrated. A haunted book, unique type of horror)
As a Native American, thanks for the shout out conversation about horror tropes and the "white man science to black magic". One hundred percent agree with Katie in that this is the attitude most of the time, still weird and racist, but still rooted in themes that white people weirdly want to have, which I can understand to a certain degree. Stories where a human character explores Fantasylandia's different rules and magics are still going to be my bread and butter, after all.
As just another rando online with their own personal opinions, I do just want to speak on why the "ancient Indian burial ground" is such a weird and gross trope further on a logical level. Like, they make it sound like it's such an odd concept all of a sudden for people to want to have funerals and bury their dead? Like suddenly that's a foreign concept to people? I think it has to do with it sounding like the way people talk about those elephant graveyards in that it's weirdly dehumanizing, in that the notion is "isn't weird that these inhuman creatures are mimicking our human practices?" Like, what do you mean? We also bury our dead, and we also have funeral rites and services. What do you mean? This is an overall impression of the general trope, and it is unfortunately backed up in King's writing by that detail of "it's weird that the pet cemetery is being tended after by children", and that another story of his is Children of the Corn. We as a whole already treat children as if they're not fully autonomous humans, but the difference also has to do with the fact of age, like it's creepy when kids act older than they are or don't act their age. I'm willing to admit hypocrisy, I would find that weird for kids to do, too. But it unfortunately backs up that mindset of "look at those weird creatures, mimicking an adult human's habit like they know what it is". Along with the simple fact of the book's namesake, Pet Cemetery, a human holy rite given to an inhuman creature. Looking at how western faith people do this is just all very amusing to me, as it's usually tied into this thought that honoring the dead has to do with thinking that the Christian notion of "why" is the only one that can ever exist, or that their culture is the only one that allows the concept of a soul to continue to exist in the great beyond, hence my elephant graveyard example.
The notion, also, that the only "real" cemetery is a Christian one , is another avenue of discussion for this trope. But that's a topic of for another day...
TLDR: White people *shocked* to discover that other people can *also* have funerals
@@mpd1732
Ha! Now you're making me imagine... let's say a successful Chinese diaspora family who start having weird problems with their new house only to find that it's built on (drumroll, pls) an old whitey burial ground!!!!!
I guess they'd have to get an expert in 19th Century Irish Catholic funeral practices or something to get rid of it!
Though I will defend him partially that there's something genuinely weird and interesting about local children being sensitive to the spiritual vibes of the place and coming up with their own rituals to deal with it like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Sorry that the Pet Semetary example appropriates indigenous ideas but I don't think Children of the Corn does and in Europe it would all just be folk horror based on leftovers of their own ancestor's archaic practices.
Maybe a more sensitive way to do stuff like this in the future would be just responding to ancestral spiritual influences which are still on them despite the fact that they're in America now instead of ancient spirits of American geographical locations which would have no connection to them.
There is a grain of truth to the idea of religions and ideologies embraced by the young having surprising power.
All the cults from New York's "Burt Over District" some of which are respectable churches today like Mormons and Adventists were run by shockingly young people in the early, formative days, though not literal children.
Radical 20th Century political movements were largely run by the young, too in sharp contrast to the average age of the people in power in more establishment countries.
And these had quasi religious qualities even if unacknowledged.
@EdwardHaas-e8x Oh by no means was I insinuating Children of the Corn had this trope. I was just using it as an example of that "creepy kids" horror, as I also would absolutely be creeped out if I encountered a group, kids or otherwise, doing a weird ritual in the middle of nowhere in a society where I know this isn't "normal" to see. Human people acting Inhumanly is a great horror staple, I'm just giving sass to when a horror work tries to insinuate a totally normal race or group of people are that genre of weird *just* for being that said race or culture, no added elements or cult sub groups within a larger culture conversation.
Like, I'm thinking of a Asian movie I watched that did the whole "spooky Asian temple village cult" deal, but it was clearly a cult or fictional offshoot and not actually based off or on a specific Asian religion. Name I'll edit in... The movie was called Incantation, a Taiwan horror movie.
I'd be really interested to look up if any Indigenous authors wrote any horror books themselves with their own culture markers, as I can think of a few spooky elements of my tribe's stories and superstitions that could make for a fun story.
@@mpd1732
Thanks! I'll have to check out Incantation.
The general idea reminds me of a Japanese film I saw a very long time ago where there was a region of rural Japan with a lot of Shinto shrines that were presented as nice and relatable in context but also a creepy cult that in universe was a survival from times before true Japanese culture existed.
Probably just made up or at least an extreme intentional distortion of a real idea of archaic survivals. Didn't get the idea they were demonizing or othering an actual group.
I've seen this done in horror and weird fiction set in Europe too with a distinction between what one would expect from local traditions that might seem weird to an outsider but are ultimately sympathetic and something fictional that's truly an ancient evil or even a modern cult passing itself off as old.
Today of course the "ancient Indian burial ground" is a worn out trope, in part due to this book. But though part of the idea is that it's more dangerous because Indians are "more magic", isn't it also that it's been DESECRATED, or at least forgotten? I at least get the feeling that, presumably, when the burial ground was tended to by the medicine man and the tribe held their traditional rituals there, it wasn't evil, it becomes evil because a hotel or parking lot was built over it or something like that. It sometimes has the asociation that the modern US was built on top of the bones of the natives. In Pet Sematary it wasn't the white man directly that desecrated the place, rather the tribe themselves are hinted to have resorted to cannibalism I think, or at least to leaving their old out to die, but implicitly this was a consequence of the hardships they went through because of the colonization.
I always took the "ancient Indian burial ground" trope as more of a "we whites have usurped this sacred land for our suburbs/pet cemetery/whatever, and now we're going to pay for not showing respect", myself.
Also my first King book! I agree that it's very difficult to make a book scare someone in the same way a movie can. Tbh, I doubt anything can scare me worse than seeing the original Predator in theaters as a 4-year-old (don't ask me why my parents thought it was a good idea to take me along but I hid under the seat and the image of flayed bodies hanging from trees scarred me for life).
Totally agree with Katie that, in this case, the preface is very pertinent to the content of the book. It sets up expectations and, had I not read it, I might have expected something different.
As far as the sex scene is concerned, I think most of it was done to show how Louis perceives Rachel's way of apologizing only after she got what she wanted, so that later he can comment on how he gets that type of behavior from her dad. Still don't think it needed to be an on-the-page scene and fade to black could have happened earlier but I didn't hate it (though I hope that sponge mitten was soft, otherwise Yikes! 😂)
Also, looking forward to the next Stephen King book when you decide on it!
Man, what I wouldn't give to watch the first Predator film in a theatre as a 4 year old. I watched it on tv with my dad as a 7 year old.
@@saitan2712 So I'm not the only one with weird parents 😂
If you want to get into horror, and you’re a GRRM fan, you gotta read his horror. I specifically recommend The Pear-Shaped Man.
Whenever I read a Stephen King book or manuscript, I like playing a game called “Guess When Stephen Was Skiing His Ass Off When He Wrote This”
And I ain’t talking about frosty the snowman snow, and the story “It” is *riddled* with them
Welcome back, Katie, even if we’ve seen you not so long ago :)
I wanted to mention it in the video with Linberg (I don’t member if I did) and I have recommended it a couple of times before, but Will, if you want a horror book, I recommend House of Leave by Mark Danilevesky, I think is his name. But you MUST and I repeat MUST have a physical copy of it and read it with eyes cause it’s as much of a tangible experience as it is it a literary one.
Oh, I have clowned on myself...
@@eugenebezpalko1631
Do they even sell digital copies of that? Seems pointless if they do.
@@EdwardHaas-e8x I believe they do :(
At 26:26, I think the term you’re looking for is motif
I just finished this last week. Great timing
I've never read a better story of grief and the obsession that can follow. A classic tragedy requires one character to make the wrong choice.
You might want to check out some of King's more fantasy-esque stories. (Not necessarily including the Dark Tower series). I quite enjoyed "Fairy Tale" which is one of his more recent books.
Literally all I read these days is litfic-y horror where it’s not outright something like IT, but rather shows the evils of humanity in a really unsettling way. Some that I’ve read lately that I’ve really enjoyed are A Touch of Jen (honestly one of my new favs) Natural Beauty, Our share of night (which I think Will would really really enjoy!) and thus thing between us. I love when it’s quite Litfic based but also has a weird magical realism / surreal / paranormal twist
This book is mentioned more than any other single work when people are answering what's the scariest book they read in their life. Possibly because King seems to himself consider it his scariest or at least darkest novel.
I read that book a few years ago after buying it in the gift shop from the Paris’ catacombs, which is clever of them to sell it there. My first King book was The Shining, and both books I read in summer during the day because I know myself 🙃 still it was very creepy but I do agree that I would’ve liked the negative force to stay a bit mysterious and not tied to an entity.
I've only read 2 of Stephen King's books, but he really is a good writer, my first was Carrie, which I personally really liked because of the mix of the narration cut with articles and eyewitness accounts of what happened. I'd recommend it to see if you guys would like it as it was one of his first works, I think 😊
Pick up King's 'On Writing' if you want to read gruesome details of his accident and recovery.
Omg this movie was my childhood nightmare 😅 I didn’t read any of his books but I wanna try. And thanks, It’s really fun to listening you.
The last time I was truly scared and disturbed in a movie was a very specific scene in the movie ‘The Endless’. I’d imagine that anyone who has seen that movie can probably guess which scene I’m thinking of. Hint: it involves a guy in a tent.
King has always been a mixed bag, sometimes really juicy, satisfying treats, and sometimes a shattering mouthful of broken razor blades. Pet Sematary was, like Thinner (as Richard Bachman), Misery (also intended to be by Richard Bachman), and The Dark Half, much more like the earlier novels 'Salem's Lot, The Shining and, to some degree, The Dead Zone which really propelled him into fame. His later, more bloated, unsatisfactory, and drug-fuelled period, was occasionally punctuated by, according to the genre, some really good work. I am particular fond of The Talisman, but stopped being one of his oft referred-to 'Constant Readers' around 2000. The Dark Tower series lost me at The Waste Lands and, finally, at Wizard & Glass when I could not read yet another simile or parenthetical statement in every single sentence or paragraph. I have, after many years, slowly begun to return to some of his work - the Bill Hodges/Holly Gibney series, currently - but still approach everything he does with a sense of trepidation from really awful past experience.
Dead space mentioned instant sub
good morning, good afternoon and good night 😉
Has the Seventh Tower series always been on Williams's bookshelf??
At least from the end of year one, I think.
--Will
@ I'm sorry I didn't give your bookshelves the respect/attention they deserve. I will try to do better in the future
I recommend Delores Claiborn and the dark half.
The only Stephen King book I liked was one of his short story collections. His novels never kept my interest. For instance, I read Salem's Lot. You would think I'd be bored by the loooong setup, but I wasn't. I was interested in learning about the town and getting to know everyone. But, once the horror began, I was like, "oh. Is that it?" And I felt let down. So, I put it down and never picked it back up
I've only heard the BBC audio/radio drama of Pet Sematary (the one dramatized by Gregory Evans), I'm curious to see how it compares to the audio book with Michael C Hall as the narrator. I really enjoyed the audio drama, even though some of the sound effects are kind of cheesy. The BBC radio adaptation of Salem's Lot is really good too, which Gregory Evans also did the dramatization for.
Top Stephen King books
The Gingerbread Girl, Misery & Apt Pupil
I think you might like Richard Bachman 😉
Rage, The Long Walk & The running Man
Hearing your pitch about a returned kid and their personality makes me think yall should read The Spite House.
What's the name of Will and Lindberg's asoiaf channel?
I believe this is the one www.youtube.com/@HourofAsoiaf/featured
Carrie, Christine, and 'Salem's Lot are better.
Salems lot probaly caters to Katie as its his Dracula?
Regarding the accident, I personally much prefer the Dark Tower books written before the accident to those written afterwards. The series kind of crashes and burns towards the end.
Commenting
Fixed for spayed is not as in repaired but as in made still
in the LotR movies it is a marsh it has like lot of abovesurface wated. a bog looks dry and is more spongy, water comes out when.you squish.
re racism it is worth pointing out that the use of that specific monster name is a pretty gross transgression of an Algonquin taboo on it.
Darkwood is the game
The cat death is what has kept me away from this book. I was carrying my struggling cat across the house to my parents when her heart stopped and she went stiff. Still traumatized, and still struggle with cat deaths in media. 😬
Ohhh no. No. NO. NOOOOOT AGAINNNNNN... okay, i Will watch it just for You BUT if i have nightmares again...
Cujo. Misery.
what's going on ? am I late for work ... The horror !
I hope the part where Will compares neutering cats to genital mutilation is a joke
Definitely nothing in any of his books scares me. And usually not enough suspense to keep me reading. His big thing seems to be the thoughts of characters, much of which I don't care about. and usually can have absolutely nothing to do with the story, which means long, long boring stretches where Nothing happens. But for maybe 4-5 great books, he much overrated.