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Originally Posted by GrouchyAdmin
It's always the same basic plot. Needful Things, The Tommyknockers, The Stand, It. "Some evil magical force that may or may not be from outer space influences people and may or may not inspire them to do things that causes harm to someone else, but the outcome is that someone always dies and in the end the hero is either dead, or levels up." It gets kind of boring. The only thing I really found from NT that provided actual insight into psyche was when he mentioned that the child put the stones into his bookbag and carried them, rather than using those on the scene. That stuck with me, for some reason.
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You just described every horror or sci fi novel ever written, not just SK's books. That's the whole premise of supernatural thrillers. Something unexplainable happens, somebody dies. The hero saves the day, or doesn't. Hardly a unique SK plot device.
However, he also wrote straight fiction with enormous success - Shawshank Redemption, The Body (Stand by Me), and Apt Pupil, all contained in one collection, Different Seasons. That's pretty fucking good, and it seems he can do that whenever he wants. Lucky for those of us that like horror, he'd rather write scary shit.
Needful Things isn't his best book by a long shot, but I think it's really good. Made for a pretty good scary movie too.
The Odd Thomas series by DK is pretty good, he actually seems to take the time to edit those before sending them to the publisher.