I read a ton of Stephen King as a kid and I think my kid will be into it, but I'm not sure which book would be a good entry point. He has so many different types of story from weird to horror to mind bending. What would you use as a good entry for his horror? For an 11 year old.

Update... Thank you so much everyone! This thread is making me want to reread the books myself too 😄

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[–] xkbx@startrek.website 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

First Stephen King book I ever read was around that age. Through The Eyes of the Dragon. King wanted to write a medieval fantasy novel for his daughter. Personally, I loved it.

That said, if your kid isn’t afraid of a meaty book, It is also a great choice because it really captures how kids can be isolated for traumatic experiences, but can overcome it together. So in my opinion, that made it really relatable when I read it around the same age. It does have that weird child sex orgy in the middle, but reading King is never a good way to avoid reading fucked up shit.

My personal favourite of King though is the Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger is the smallest entry in the main series, so it’s easily readable.

The first and third option aren’t pure horror like It, but IMO that’s what makes them great, because you get little sprinklings of horror, which can make it creepier because it contrasts (without feeling unnatural) with the rest.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As much as I love Dark Tower, I would never suggest DT books as an entry point in the "Kingverse". If you've read a dozen other books of him (mostly random), you'll actually have a lot better time starting DT because you'll be able to pick up certain threads that would otherwise remain invisible.

[–] clif@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

100% this ^ It's "good" without the background knowledge but it's way more interesting if you get a lot of the references.

I didn't know what The Dark Tower was, I just happened to find the first few in a used book store. It wasn't until maybe book three that I started recognizing some stuff because I'd read a fair amount of King but over a long stretch of time.

These days I'm reading random ones and understanding more about The Dark Tower. I should probably re-read it sometime soon.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 4 points 2 days ago

The Eyes of the Dragon is a good option, but it's not representative of rest of King's work.