10 Scariest Stephen King Novels

2. It

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1986's It is, in many respects, the quintessential Stephen King novel. It encompasses just about everything we might associate with the author: a fictional small town in King's beloved Maine, described in great detail; vivid portraits of childhood, and all the joys and miseries it encompasses; heights of unspeakable horror, mythic weirdness, and more than a hint of perversity.

Yet for many, It will always be synonymous with the fear of clowns. Indeed, the popular image of the once-amiable circus performers has never been the same since the novel arrived, and certainly not since the 1990 TV mini-series, and the more recent film adaptation.

Above all, It is one of King's most vital works as it delves in far greater detail into the key thing that unites more or less his entire bibliography: fear itself.

Though best known as the sewer-dwelling Pennywise the Clown, the otherworldy antagonist is in truth a nameless, ageless entity from beyond our dimension which feeds on fear and embodies whatever its victims most dread.

While not everything in the gargantuan 1,138 page novel holds up too well (the underage group sex sequence, the cosmic giant turtle thing), at its best It gives us King at his most chilling and memorable.

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Ben Bussey hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.