‘go then, there are other worlds than these’ is probably stephen king’s most iconic quote, it’s from the first dark tower book (the new book he’s working on is being named after it too – other worlds than these) and it’s also my favorite quote of all time for so many reasons, i want to get it tattooed!!
anyways, setting the scene – here is an official map of stephen king’s fictional version of maine from his book dolores claiborne
castle rock books in order
castle rock, also known as ‘the rock’, is a fictional town appearing in stephen king’s maine. it has been used for a variety of short stories, novels, and novellas. it first appeared in the dead zone (1979) and the shawshank redemption prison is also near the town, and often referenced in the books. other notable towns stephen reuses often are: derry, jerusalem’s lot
p.s. elevation is stephen king’s earnest attempt to write a lesbian literary fiction novella
welcome to derry
derry is another fictional town set in the u.s. state of maine that is featured as a backdrop for many of stephen’s stories. these books are primarily all set in derry, although some other novels (such as the dark tower books) do reference the location.
must-reads before climbing through the dark tower
after book three of the dark tower, the series goes multi-versal and brings in other characters from stephen’s novels. the most important must-reads are these three books!! eyes of the dragon and the stand introduce randall flagg whilst salem’s lot is important for one of the main characters that show up later in the dark tower.
i also do recommend reading stephen king’s on writing (his memoir) before or during the dark tower too? just because he decides to self-insert himself, and it adds a lot to his character.
stephen writes an autistic woman well? meet holly!!
holly gibney is a middle-aged woman that is introduced in the mr mercedes trilogy as a side character. she then is reused in ‘the outsider’ and then is the main protagonist of ‘holly’ and ‘never flinch’. you can definitely start at ‘holly’, but she is a fan-favorite for being allegedly good representation of a middle-aged woman with autism. while stephen king has never said the character is autistic, when she has been adapted to tv shows, showrunners, etc, have said that she is.
the king classics
can’t beat the classics!!! also the cat on the cover of pet sematary (which is also the cover on the copy i own) looks like bee so much eee, also i do genuinely think carrie is an example of where like, man accidentally writes woman well, definitely read eyes of the dragon before misery!!
back… to the tower
so, back in 1984, stephen king teamed up with horror legend peter straub to write a fantasy novel series. it features ‘jack’ (originally a teenager but ages as the series progresses) as he makes his way through parallel worlds… very similar to the dark tower right? well, straub has passed away and king is finishing the final novel of the trilogy, and he’s like SO! all those parallel worlds in talisman and the black house? THEY”RE ALL PART OF MID-WORLD (what the stephen king universe is called) NOW AND THIS IS ALL PART OF THE DARK TOWER and is like jack is back for an adventure, and this series will now conclude the dark tower story (although i’m not sure how as jack is not mentioned or featured in the dark tower).
notable novellas!!
absolutely LOVE. LOVE LOVE. The Mist and Cycle of the Werewolf, the mist is genuinely incredible, character-driven survival. if you like the politics of under the dome, the mist is similar on a smaller scale (a bunch of very different people trying to survive in a grocery store) they’re all short enough to be easily finished in like an hour or so sitting.
books featuring characters called charlie
there are three books featuring main characters called charlie in stephen king’s universe, firestarter – charlie is a girl, fairy tale – charlie is a boy, and charlie the choo choo train where charlie is a genderless murderous robot, so you have the full gender spectrum covered i love representation (fun fact!! firestarter was published in french with the translated title ‘charlie’)
oh joe (hill)
son of a king, prince of nothing – joe hill’s writing style is VERY similar to stephen king’s, but i find that his writing of women (at least in NOS4A2) is awful. his latest book though, king sorrow, is very IT-like and i recommend checking it out, it’s like IT and Death Note had a baby, i’ve been meaning to buy a physical copy so if i do you can borrow it!! NOS4A2 also references IT/easter eggs to stephen’s multiverse
if you want…
some less popular SK book reccs
- stephen’s first attempt at sci-fi, Tommyknockers
- a group of friends facing off against an alien invasion? Dreamcatchers
- stephen king’s attempt at a classic slasher, The Dark Half
- lesbian literary fiction ft. marathons – Elevation
- slice of life (more or less) college student starts working at the local amusement park – Joyland
- cthulu fantasy – Fairy Tale
- his ‘worst’ book – Cell – cell phones start the apocalypse and turn people into rabid 28 days later ‘zombies’
personal favorites
- the dead zone (one of the first stephen king books i’ve read, and is my favorite out of the standalone novels)
- under the dome (my favorite out of stephen king’s epic-sized novels)
- salem’s lot – one of the characters in there (who is then featured in the dark tower) i absolutely love
- the shining/doctor sleep – absoluTELY MY FAVORITE ‘series’ by far from stephen, i read both books to the soundtrack of the evil within, because you recommended the jacob geller video years ago about music/safety in horror games (and evil within was one of them) which also led to clair de lune being in my top 100 most listened to songs on spotify