Stephen King changed my life.

Though not necessarily in a good way. Depends what you mean by ‘good’ I suppose. If you mean scared of the dark, frightened of shadows, alarmed by noises at the windows, wetting the bed and freaking out when you hear the words ‘Here’s Johnny!!’, then its good. Otherwise, ‘paranoid neurotic’ may be a better expression to choose.

And yet… and yet… I am his biggest fan. Not like the woman in Misery was that character’s biggest fan. No. Not in a psychotic, murderous way, just in more of a, kind of, ‘I like his books’ sort of way. In a more Shawshank kind of a way, less of a Carrie.

Me mate Dom threw a book at me a  hundred years ago when I had nought to read. It was Firestarter by The King. And it rocked. And rolled. It made a shit film (in common with many big screen adaptations of his work) but was in fact quite brilliant. So I read more. And on, and on. And now, 30-some years later, he’s still writing ’em and I’m still readin’ ’em.

There’s very few authors that I’ll download onto my Kindle ‘in hardback’. The Kindle’s back is always hard. Until you drop it in the bath. That softened it for Mel. Or onto the platform at Farringdon station; wasn’t so hard then either. But downloading ‘hardbacks’ is folly. Its stupid. Its the same words, the same everything as when you download it once the paperback version arrives, but twice the price. Though much earlier, and for Stephen King, I don’t wait. Damn the expense. The extra £4.27p is worth it. I’ll eat less for a month.

After his early horror books, they changed. They kept their slightly psychic edge, their sometime supernaturally, paranormally unusualness but they lost the horror. When I read ‘Salem’s’ Lot’ I was a fucking wreck. But ‘vampires scratching their fingernails across a balconyless window 60 feet above’ ground will do that to a man. When Mel read Pet Semetery she spent three weeks in morbid fear of resurrected bunny rabbits. And although The Shining is widely accepted as a great movie, it was a way better book. The great man himself hated that movie because the characters lost all their warmth going from the page to the screen via Stanley Kubrick’s mind. Though most of the characters were ghosts, ghouls and undead anyway so ‘warm’ may be a slightly inappropriate adjective.

So when people hear ‘Stephen King’ they think horror and death, zombies and rabid dogs. Even though the aforementioned Shawshank and the wonderful Stand by Me (written as ‘The Body’) were not in that genre at all and are universally loved and highly rated, but mainly due to their movies.

Now the man has written a sequel to The Shining. Called Doctor Sleep. And its not only fantastic but its a return to the real chilly stuff. The stuff of nightmare stuff. And I’m reading it and its a little whoooooo and a touch wheeeey and is filled with such evil that a trip to Stamford Bridge would currently feel like a pleasant afternoon at a football match. But only in comparison to being eaten alive by monsters.

So have a good friday,

and DON’T TURN THE LIGHTS OUT!!!!

 

A xxxx