Top 5 Stephen King Horror Novels

The King of Horror and Mistery has written a lot of books - not all of them horror stories, though. For the last couple of years (starting with Under the Dome in 2009, in my opinion) Stephen King's works became suspenseful misteries instead of spooky, scary, psychological horror stories.

This is why this list is going to be about the best horror stories he's written, because - even if those works I mentioned will not be featured in this list - it doesn't mean those works aren't great.
Because in my opinion they are.

#5
Blaze (as Richard Bachmann)

Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze's partner in crime is dead. Or is he?
I have read this book quite a while ago, I might have been 13 or 14 years old when I finally read it and it gave me the chills. If you're expecting blood and cold-hearted murder or something like that, you will be disappointed in this book, but it's not always gore that makes a horror novel truly scary. It's the mind of the main character that is so very twisted it still makes me cringe.

#4
The Shining

Danny was only five years old but in the words of old Mr Halloran he was a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father became caretaker of the Overlook Hotel his visions grew frighteningly out of control.
As winter closed in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seemed to develop a life of its own. It was meant to be empty, but who was the lady in Room 217, and who were the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why did the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow there was an evil force in the hotel - and that too had begun to shine...
 
Although many people would think that this is one of the scariest novel Stephen King ever wrote (because of the movie that was super hyped and disappointing, in my opinion), from my point of view it isn't.

The creepy setting and the state of mind that Jack Torrance is in make the story scary, yes, but all in all, there are just too many descriptions and the book is - like most Stephen King novels, I'm afraid - rather slow-paced, but even slower than most of his other works I've read.There are a few scenes that get the readers to the bones - and there are some major differences to the film! 

#3
Carrie

Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed... But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction...

This is the first novel ever to be published by Stephen King. What makes this story a horror story is not only the telekinetic powers that Carries posesses (and what she does with them), but the day-to-day attitude that goes with the story. It tells us that every kid that gets bullied is likely to take psychic damage of it - whether they retreat into themselves, become self-conscious or, well, escalate the way Carrie does.
It's the story of an unloved child - first bullied and abused by her own fanatic mother and then bullied by her classmates because she is different from them. And I guess everyone that has been bullied or is being bullied (as I have been at the time I read this book) might find they sympathize with Carrie in a way that scares them.

#2
Pet Sematary

Sometimes dead is better....When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son -- and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly cat.But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth -- more terrifying than death itself...and hideously more powerful.

I made the mistake to watch the film first with a friend of mine in the basement with all the lights out and no windows. And I deeply regret that.
Because once I had watched the film I wanted to peruse the book in a matter of hours (which I did), unfortunately I stopped reading when it was already 3 o'clock in the morning - and there was a full moon greeting me through my opened window.

Consequently, I didn't sleep that night. The book had taken more on me than the film ever could have, and I would have stopped reading, naturally, if I hadn't watched the film. I told myself I knew what was going on, I knew what was going to happen, but I had no idea.

#1
IT

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .

The adults, knowing better, knew nothing.

Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.
 
Same with Pet Sematary - I watched the film first. And the film did scare me more than Pet Sematary did, but when I finally read the book I didn't make the mistake again to read it in the course of hours (mainly because this book is so thick, but that's another story) but I put it down every so often. I couldn't sleep, anyway.


There was so much in the book that the film didn't have that creeped me out. I have to mention that I was, maybe, 14 or 15 years old when I read IT for the first time, but still the story lingers with me and I kept having nightmares after finishing this book for several weeks thereafter. 

It takes a lot of work to get through this book, but it is definitely worth it - although, well, the ending is very questionable. And makes the whole thing rather ridiculous, but still - this book scared the hell out of me.