It was the first King book I read when I was 17, actually, and even though the story was about people (as kids and again as adults) facing terrifying things, I didn't actually find it horrifying. To me, for something to be horrifying the scary parts have to stick in your mind even after you've read them, it has to make you nervous. A good enough description of someone being eaten alive is something I would term horrifying, but nothing I've read in King has done that to me. I think that if I were to watch a good enough film version of some of his books they would scare me, but in written form they don't.

Though I'll grant that in terms of what people consider the horror genre, a fair few of King's books fit the definition. I just don't think the definition really does them justice, I guess.



The Body (the one that became Stand By Me) was a great novella. I liked it even more than the Shawshank Redemption novella. Maybe this time around I'll find some that give me an actual scare, but so far I always seem to gravitate to various non-scary parts of his stories and not really be frightened by any of the scary parts. In It for example, I loved it because of the story of the kids growing up and the life they had and how they banded together to face the creature and its influence.

The King books I've read so far, besides the Dark Tower, are It, The Stand, The Shining, Firestarter, Cujo, 'Salem's Lot, Carrie, The Dead Zone, and Different Seasons.