After The Shining: Recommendations for Fans of Stephen King
Stephen King doesn’t need an introduction. The international bestselling author and tycoon of terror is the man possibly responsible for all of your nightmares about clowns, high school prom, and rabid dogs. His immense body of work includes fifty novels, five nonfiction books, and nearly two hundred short stories, many of which have made it into the horror genre’s canon. But if you’re looking for even more tales of terror, here are some recommendations to hit all the thrill points.
If You Enjoyed Joyland: The Dreaming Jewelsby Theodore Sturgeon
A carnival is the best of both worlds: wholesome fun for all ages and dark secrets underneath! To escape his abusive adoptive family, eight-year-old Horton “Horty” Bluett runs away to join a carnival. But disgraced doctor Pierre “Maneater” Monetre’s traveling show is no ordinary entertainment, and its performers are not what they appear to be. The Maneater is dreaming up a dark and terrible scheme that requires the extraterrestrial power of the dreaming jewels, and unwittingly, Horty, who is more remarkable than he may know, is just the help the Maneater needs.
If You Enjoyed Insomnia: Symbiography by William Hjortsberg
Like Ralph Roberts, Par Sondak can perceive other planes of reality, but unlike Ralph, Par does it voluntarily as a bestselling dreamer in postapocalyptic America. Each night, Par retires to build magnificent worlds and escapist epics for the people of the City to enjoy. When he isn’t asleep, he surveys the wasteland beyond his laser-guarded walls where herds of Nomads scavenge for food. Lately, these Nomads have piqued Par’s curiosity, but attempting to understand them might just destroy the kingdom his dreams have built.
If You Enjoyed Salem’s Lot: They Thirstby Robert R. McCammon
Ben Mears returned to Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, to discover that the residents were all becoming vampires—and maybe Prince Vulkan of Robert R. McCammon’s They Thirst was to blame. In this pageturner, it’s not Maine but Los Angeles that the vampire-prince wants, setting up shop in an abandoned castle with a Hollywood view. But the spike in disappearances and grave-robbing arouses the suspicion of a local detective who must unravel the mystery before time runs out to save the city—and the planet—from bloodsucker domination.
If You Enjoyed Under the Dome: Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
A city cut off from the rest of the world: In King’s novel it’s by an invisible dome; in Delany’s, it’s by a bridge. Bellona is a shattered city, unreachable by any means of communication. Its landmarks shift and change, buildings intermittently burn and renew, and time runs irregularly, all under what could be a double moon or a massive sun. Into this unhinged reality enters the Kid, protagonist and narrator. Dhalgren is a complex and radical challenge to those who enjoyed Under the Dome’s intricate, multicharacter and multi-POV storytelling
If You Enjoyed Children of the Corn: A Coming of Age by Timothy Zahn
Creepy children are a genre unto themselves, but for readers looking for more cultish kids, you have the children of Tigris, who develop telekinesis beginning at the age of five. Their abilities peak in their preteens and slip away as they reach maturity, but until that point, the ability to “teek” gives them power even over most adults. Lisa Duncan is fourteen and close to losing her abilities, but Dr. Matthew Jarvis’s experimental plan could change her—and Tigris’s—future, for better or for worse.