The Shining
More commonly known as a film title, King is the mastermind behind this dark adventure into the supernatural and its effects on mind and perception. Jack Torrance is desperate for a job and manages to gain a post working as a caretaker at a hotel during the winter months. He takes his wife and five-year-old son with him, and they settle into their new home – knowing that once the snow arrives, they won’t be able to leave and engage in society. Gradually, strange things begin to happen in the hotel and ghosts from the past release their negative energy on the family, possessing the mind of Jack in ways that ultimately lead to his psychopathic breakdown and becoming a harrowing threat to his wife and son. Unlike the film, which portrays Jack as a bit of a raving lunatic, the novel allows us an insight into his troubled past, his constant battle with alcoholism and focuses much more on the supernatural forces inherent in the hotel.
Misery
One of my personal favourites for the powerfully penetrating energy it gives to the reader, Misery tells the story of a delusional Annie Wilkes who finds and keeps captive her number one favourite author – Paul Sheldon, an author who writes a string of novels surrounding the character Misery Chastain. Discovering that Paul kills off Misery in his final book, Annie forces Paul to write another story bringing the character back to life, whilst tormenting and torturing him. Paul finds out that Annie is a murderer and tries fruitlessly to escape the house, but to no avail – Annie punishes him by cutting off his foot with an axe. The book ends in a violent struggle between the pair; one dies, one survives.
The Stand
A meaty read at about 1400 pages, The Stand is one of King’s most well-known novels that explores the opposite sides of human nature. When a man-made superflu virus escapes a US army base, a pandemic breaks out that kills off approximately 99.4% of the world’s population. Gradually, the remaining survivors split into two groups according to hallucinogenic dreams they receive; either about Mother Abigail, a kind woman representing the good, or Randall Flagg, a brutally twisted individual representing the bad. These groups form at different areas of the USA, and as they become aware of one another and the threat they pose to their survival, the struggle between good and evil commences, ending in a massive explosion of death and destruction that uncovers the importance of embracing the opposing forces of humankind.
The Green Mile
Another of King’s books more well-known for its film representation, The Green Mile delves into the power of humans and how some of us can have magical qualities. Paul Edgecombe narrates the story, reflecting on his experiences working at Cold Mountain Penitentiary on Death Row and the prisoner he met there, John Coffey. Coffey has inexplicable ‘healing’ qualities, and Edgecombe and the other guards manage to sneak him out of the prison one night to go and cure the Warden’s wife, who has a brain tumour. Edgecombe discovers that Coffey’s alleged crime of raping and murdering two girls is actually false; Coffey is innocent, but allows himself to die on the electric chair anyway as he is ready to die and escape the cruelty of the world. The Green Mile is one of King’s more touching novels.