By Nick Massaro | Staff Writer
As the nation is speeding its way through October, everyone is starting to slowly take part in the Halloween festivities. Whether it’s putting a scarecrow and pumpkin outside your house, gorging on candy, or dressing up as a clown and terrorizing your local community, there are countless ways to take part in the Halloween-time fun. Everyone loves a scary story, and there’s no better way to get into the mood of this spooky holiday than to read a book by the king of horror himself: Stephen King.
- The Dead Zone
This Novel is about a man who has psychic abilities. As a kid, Johnny Smith suffers a hockey accident and passes out. When he comes back he has supernatural abilities; he can see things right before they happen. Later in life Smith is in a car accident, and ends up in a coma for five years. When he comes out of the coma, Smith has strong capabilities of clairvoyance and precognition; he can see future events happening again. He fights to save the world from a corrupt presidential nominee.
- The Dark Half
Thaddeus Beaumont is a writer. In his mother’s womb, he absorbs his twin. As a kid, his parents thought he had a brain tumor, only to have the doctor find an eyeball growing in in his brain; it’s his long lost twin. When his novels aren’t doing so well, Beaumont starts to write a series with a grim, horror theme. The series is a success. But when he writes these novels, Beaumont goes into an almost hallucinogenic trance. As writing these books starts to devour him mentally and physically, he decides to stop. Mysterious murders begin to happen to people close to him, and he finds out that he has had help writing the books from something he thought died long ago. Now he is back to get revenge, disguised as the main character in Thad’s books.
- Dreamcatcher
Four lifelong friends are meeting up in Derry, Maine for their annual fishing trip. When a disoriented man shows up at their cabin in the woods, they get the indication that something is not right. They are soon plunged into a battle for humanity with the government and extraterrestrial beings, and have to rely on their past to ensure their future.
- Salem’s Lot
If you’re a fan of vampires, this book is for you. Ben Mears comes back to Jerusalem’s Lot to write a book, hoping to gain inspiration from the haunted “Marsten House.” When two mysterious fellows come and buy the house after it had been vacant for ten years, people begin to disappear each night. As the whole town is slowly taken over, a few inhabitants of the town take it upon themselves to find and kill the blood chilling predators.
- The Regulators
Written under his pen name, Richard Bachman, this is one of King’s most gruesome novels. When an ancient demon, Tak, possesses a young boy, it freezes the street and the people that live on it in time. The boy, Seth, loves the Wild West and a TV show called Motokops. Tak uses this to surround the town in the Wild West which causes the characters from the show to come to life; they try to kill everyone on the street. The neighbors work together to kill the evil being and survive.
- Desperation
This book shares the same characters as The Regulators, but the stories do not coincide at all. When the town of Desperation re-opens an old mine, they awaken the ancient being Tak. Tak possesses the town cop, and he begins to slaughter the whole town. Some are held captive, and when Tak leaves to find another human host, they run. The survivors try to leave town, and escape the grips of ancient evil and the wildlife it controls.
- Firestarter
Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson are broke college students, and agree to have a government drug tested on them for a hundred dollars. Little do they know, it is a very strong psychedelic, one whose capabilities the government is not completely aware of. Some test subjects died, some came out paralyzed, but Andy and Vicky came out with supernatural abilities. Andy has the power of mental domination and Vicky has telekinesis. The two end up getting married and having a child. The child is born with pyrokinesis, a word King creates for having the ability to make fires with your mind. Having kept a close eye on the family for a long time, the government is now out to get them.
- Needful Things
A new store opens in Castle Rock, Maine, and it has something for everyone that walks in; not just any old thing someone wants, something someone truly desires. The Owner, Leland Gaunt, offers people items in return for not money, but personal favors. As the items start to take over everyone’s lives, people start to kill each other, and the whole town is in danger of destruction, and Leland Gaunt is behind it.
- The Tommyknockers
Bobby Anderson trips over a mysterious piece of metal in the woods behind her house and begins to dig it up. She uncovers an ancient space craft, and it emits an energy over the whole town. Soon everyone living there is consumed, and they begin to form abilities of telepathy and begin to change physically into other beings.
- It
When Bill Denbrough’s little brother is murdered, he and his six friends set out to find the killer. They discover an ancient being that lives in their town who can take on many forms. The boys fight the being and believe they had won. Twenty-seven years later, It is back, and is feeding on the town’s children again. The seven boys return as adults to fight the evil once again and put an end to It forever.
