Stephen King has published more than 60 novels and roughly 200 short stories, the vast majority of which involve monsters, supernatural forces, or the sort of slow-building dread that makes you keep the light on when you finally go to sleep. He is, without question, the defining figure in American horror fiction. But there is a sort of parallel career hiding inside that terrifying bibliography. It’s one that has produced some of the most beloved films and TV of the past 40 years, none of which involve a single clown or haunted hotel.
If you have always assumed King is not for you because you don’t like horror, you may be surprised by these five books:
1. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (novella, 1982)
The source material for The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont‘s 1994 film that has spent years at or near the top of IMDb’s all-time rankings. Published in the collection Different Seasons, the novella follows wrongly imprisoned banker Andy Dufresne through years of incarceration and a friendship that becomes the story’s entire emotional engine. No supernatural elements, no monsters, but one of the finest things King has ever written.
2. The Body (novella, 1982)
Also from Different Seasons, the basis for Rob Reiner‘s Stand by Me (1986), and despite the title, decidedly not horror. Instead, it’s four boys in King’s beloved Maine, a dead body in the woods, and a story about friendship and the end of childhood. King has said in interviews that Stand by Me was among his favorite adaptations of his work, precisely because it captured something emotionally true about the way those years feel in memory.
Related: Stephen King Ruled Horror Every Year of the ’90s — Except One
3. The Green Mile (novel, 1996)
Originally published in six monthly installments, The Green Mile is set on Depression-era Death Row and follows a corrections officer whose life is upended by a prisoner with unexplainable gifts. The Frank Darabont film adaptation earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Its supernatural elements are present but ancillary, the story is fundamentally about mercy, justice, and the decisions that define a life.
4. 11/22/63 (novel, 2011)
A high school teacher discovers a portal to 1958 and decides to use the years until the Kennedy assassination to stop it. The New York Times named it one of the five best fiction books of 2011, and Errol Morris called it one of the best time travel stories since H.G. Wells. The eight-part Hulu miniseries adaptation, starring James Franco, did justice to the book’s emotional core. This one is science fiction and suspense, not horror.
On Writing (memoir/craft guide, 2000)
King’s combination memoir and manual on the craft of fiction is considered essential reading by writers across genres. It is candid, funny, and completely stripped of the ornate darkness that defines his fiction. Entertainment Weeklyranked it among the 100 best reads of the previous 25 years.
So there you go! Five powerhouse books that won’t scare you, but will let you enjoy one of the titans of modern writing. Enjoy! And you can turn the lights off.
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