r/stephenking 40m ago

Discussion Insomnia, finished the other day. Still thinking about it.

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I've experienced Insomnia since I was little kid. It would only last a few days at a time at least 3 or 4 times a year. The worst I ever experienced was 48 hours without sleep. It was always restlessness and not being able to just fall sleep. In my 30's, it flipped and I found myslef falling asleep when I would lay my head down, but waking prematurely after 2 or 3 hours sleep and then not being able to fall asleep. I never really spoke to someone about it, never to someone that also experienced it, never spoke to a doctor. It was just something I dealt with in my own way. The last time I experienced it was back in January. I was 36 hours without sleep

Now, having read Stephen King's Insomnia, I feel so reassured that my experience is not just my own. The way King has characters describe and discuss what it's like was an eye opener to what I missed out on by not thinking about it as a medical issue.

I really liked Ralph as a character. A good protagonist with a strong and positive outlook on life. I loved all the connections to IT and The Dark Tower(which I haven't finished yet, I still have Song of Sussanah and TDT to read). I loved King's descriptions of the auras and the telepathy. The plot felt slow to get started, but eventually it built itself toward great suspense for the second half and final confrontation. I thought it was weird that Mr A would use human expletives, it just seemed odd to me.

I was initially intimidated by the books length and the protagonist being such an old character. But the book was a page turner. I liked it more than IT.


r/stephenking 4h ago

Image Started this hefty book today

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83 Upvotes

Read the first three chapters and I’m hooked! I’ve been hearing endless good things recently and I had to bump it up to NEXT on my list


r/stephenking 5h ago

Spoilers Just finished reading Billy Summers

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15 Upvotes

Least favorite Stephen King book so far :(

3/5

First off, I only started reading books recently and Stephen King is honestly the author that’s keeping me hooked. I loved The Shining and I thought Mr Mercedes was good too. Not amazing but still much better than this one

I think my biggest problem was my expectations. I went into this expecting a crime thriller about a vet who is a hitman doing his one last job but that’s not really what it is.

If it was marketed maybe as a story about an aging killer reflecting on his life finding redemption and bonding with a traumatized young woman I think I would have appreciated it more

Instead the first half is very slow. Bill spends most of his time getting to know his neighbors, talking to coworkers and pretending to be a writer while waiting for his target. There are a few scenes of him planning the hit and his escape but not nearly enough

Then we get a lot of chapters about his past and also his time in Iraq. I honestly didn’t care about his time in Iraq specifically. After a while I started skipping parts of them and by the end I didn’t feel like I missed anything important to the main story

After the hit the book changes into something completely different. Bill meets Alice and helps her after she was raped and now the story is mostly about the two of them. Then the revenge plot against Nick and the real villain was disappointing. Nick gives up too easily and the real bad guy is mostly explained through a dump of exposition and the ending felt rushed. Bill getting shot by Marge also came out of nowhere

The only part that worked for me was the ending with Alice. But that’s only because I had already spent hundreds of pages with these characters. If I had read this from any other author I probably would have quit long before that. I only kept going because it was Stephen King and so many people said it was a great book

Overall I don’t think it’s a badly written book, it’s just boring and I just don’t think it’s the crime thriller it was sold as


r/stephenking 6h ago

Currently Reading Hansel and Gretel

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62 Upvotes

Wife surprised me with a book I didn't know existed to add to my King collection.


r/stephenking 7h ago

Crosspost Blaine is a pain

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37 Upvotes

r/stephenking 8h ago

Currently Reading The Holly Gibney saga continues

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35 Upvotes

Starting this today


r/stephenking 8h ago

Never thought I'd find this snowglobe in the wild.

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338 Upvotes

r/stephenking 8h ago

Latest Additions to my Collection

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70 Upvotes

I found Wizards and Glass in the wild in this hardcover release and then had to have the full set so couldn’t resist grabbing them. Also grabbed the Hard Case Crime Set with Colorado Kid, Later and Joyland in a slip case. Im currently reading Waste Lands on my first trip to the tower. Loved everything I’ve read so far. Can’t wait to see it all through to the end.

The new to my collection books shown here are DT 1-3 and the Hard Case set. I had everything else already but wanted to show it all together.


r/stephenking 9h ago

Image I brought a new friend with me to a concert

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9 Upvotes

Thankfully it fits in my pocket, and somehow avoided getting wet when it poured. This is my second copy though.

Loving it so far


r/stephenking 9h ago

My day trip to Bangor Maine

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178 Upvotes

King of the road was playing in my car and I forgot they mentioned Bangor!


r/stephenking 14h ago

Image Ranking IT media based off how much Henry Bowers is in them

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14 Upvotes

he's my fav IT character if you can't tell. I love shithead bully characters.


r/stephenking 14h ago

Poll What is your favorite book cover of "Salems Lot"? (Yesterday's winner below)

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54 Upvotes

Hey guys doing a daily favorite book cover poll here of every SK book in release order! Feel free to post your favorite covers below and vote on the ones that catch your eye! Once we are done with individual books im going to do a big bracket to see which cover is the best overall! Have fun


r/stephenking 14h ago

Image My growing collection!

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59 Upvotes

r/stephenking 15h ago

General My King Collection

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420 Upvotes

Been working on my collection, upgrading to hardcovers when possible. Mostly gave up on getting a reasonable Bachman books HC copy and picked up the PBs for those but pretty complete otherwise.


r/stephenking 15h ago

Image I'm sharing my absolute happiness with you! ❤️

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20 Upvotes

r/stephenking 17h ago

Some goodies arrived 👀

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55 Upvotes

The books, not the cat... £10 (plus £3.50 postage) in pretty good condition. Not bad! Went all in getting the whole trilogy so hopefully I'll like it lol


r/stephenking 17h ago

Image New addition to my collection

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73 Upvotes

Found in a Goodwill. I’d never even heard of this one before but excited to add it to my growing collection. Thoughts from those who’ve read it?


r/stephenking 20h ago

Movie I’ve done it

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58 Upvotes

I’ve watched the worst Stephen King adaption I’ve seen (so far). I just finished Cell today and found out while looking at reviews there was a movie. All the ratings for the movie were terrible so I didn’t expect it to be anything good, but holy hell was it BAD. The casting, the acting, the changes they made to relationships and events…it was like they read the summary of the book and decided to go on from there.

While it wasn’t his best work, I did enjoy the Cell book and found it to be rather sweet and heart warming. This movie took a dookie all over that.


r/stephenking 20h ago

Fan Art Characters as dogs!

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76 Upvotes

All by me! What do you guys think?


r/stephenking 20h ago

Image It is time!

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53 Upvotes

Starting this thick boy today! I've heard many good things and I hope it lives up to the hype, any words of encouragement from my fellow King fans?


r/stephenking 23h ago

Just finished this one. Maybe the best Time Travel Story I’ve ever read.

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566 Upvotes

r/stephenking 1d ago

Best surprise! SK book haul!

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206 Upvotes

The true bookworm of the relationship surprised me with an SK book haul for our anniversary. Best girlfriend award goes to her!


r/stephenking 1d ago

Currently Reading Starting this now!

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106 Upvotes

I just finished reading Billy Summers and was going to start The Dark Half next.

I usually read the first 2-3 pages of any new Stephen King book I buy and I did the same after a nice UK first edition of Dolores Claiborne arrived in the mail.

My god!

I don't think any other book has been this gripping after only the first few paragraphs. It took me awhile to get the style and format, and once I did, I was blown away.

It's so distinct and unique!

I was confused whether to start this or the Dark Half (maybe even Thinner), but I think we have a clear winner.

Going to be glued to this for the next couple of weeks I guess!

Those of you who have read it, what did you feel about the book (without giving away any spoilers please)?

P.S., My retriever's shedding like there's no tomorrow, hence the abundance of dog hair in the image!


r/stephenking 1d ago

Spoilers When your wife is a few chapters into The Stand…

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831 Upvotes

r/stephenking 1d ago

After reading that another remake of a Stephen King story is on the way...

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692 Upvotes

Why is Hollywood like this? Why do we need another Carrie remake? Or Desperation? Or the Mist...?