Book · 2006
Lisey's Story
A grieving widow finds her late husband left her a trail leading somewhere she never expected.
- Year
- 2006
- Kind of horror
- Psychological, Gothic
This one sits somewhere between horror and romance, and it doesn't rush to explain which is winning. Stephen King has called it his favourite of the novels he's written, which is still a striking thing to say about a shelf that long.
It's psychological rather than jump scare, the kind of dread that builds quietly rather than announces itself. Nothing here relies on gore or a sudden bang in the dark. If you want something that unsettles slowly rather than makes you spill your tea, this earns its place on the shelf.
It won a Bram Stoker Award, the one for best novel, the year it came out, and an early piece of it existed as its own short story two years before the full book did, which tells you King was circling this one for a while before he committed.
Save it for a night when you want company that thinks rather than screams. Curl up, low light, and let it work slowly.
If you like this, try
'Salem's Lot
A writer goes home to Jerusalem's Lot and finds the neighbours have started keeping very strange hours.
Another
A new pupil meets a mysterious classmate, then finds his class caught up in a string of terrible deaths.
Bag of Bones
A grieving writer retreats to an isolated lake house, where writer’s block and delusions make solitude frightening.
Carrie
A telekinetic teenager's revenge after a cruel prom night prank turns Chamberlain, Maine into a nightmare.