7. It (1986)
What can be done when youre eleven can often never be done again. A lot of people have the complaint that this book is too long; its an issue people tend to have with Kings works. I disagree, everything in there is necessary to the plot and to take it out would take something from the story. One of the most important themes from It is childhood and growing up; a topic which appears in a lot of Kings work (Pet Sematery for example) which states that as children in our naiveté and innocence we have more strength and more power to take on the monsters than we do as adults. One of the books characters, Stan, cannot face as an adult what he faced as a child, the fear becomes too much. Terror is the other subject of the book, not fear or disgust, true terror which can only be produced by what scares us most. The books monster can change itself into whatever you fear the most and because of this the story has something scary for everyone, if youre not afraid of werewolves maybe youre frightened of giant spiders or sharks or vampires.