For me, King is a bit of a mix bag as an author. You will either receive something truly wonderful or you will hate the entire experience – somehow, he even manages those between stages.

With this collection, however, we’re given some of his best work. Salem’s Lot. Carrie. The Shining. Three books King is well known for. Three books I thoroughly enjoyed. If you’re going to buy a King collection you cannot go wrong with this one.

Stephen King: Three Complete Novels: Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining
Stephen King
2002 Edition

I read Carrie a few years ago and read the other two recently. 'Salem's Lot was the scariest of the three, to me, and The Shining was pretty different from what I knew of the movies. Very good reads. As always, King is a master at creating sympathetic characters.

4 stars.

Salem's Lot was the first of many King books I read and still the best of them all. I just wish they would actually do the book as a movie rather than what they've already done (which by the way were good).

Ok. I do not own this book and am not really reading this book too.

The thing is goodreads still does not allow us to have 2 different copies of the same book on our GR shelves. Or for that matter when you re read a book and participating in the reading challenge and you re read a book the book will not count as read. You have to delete the first time info that you'd read it and then it counts.This is very annoying.

I have a few books where I have more than 1 copy. For instance Stephen King. I have nearly all his books in Dutch but also many now in English. Can't add them all.



Well I am re-reading The Shining now. I do know SK did not like the adaption of his book to the Stanley Kubrick movie and said this was the only adaptation of his novels that he could "remember hating". Notably, before this King often said he did not care about the film adaptations of his novels.

He also did not like that Jack was played by Jack Nicholson. The latter had become famous with his great role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. King wanted a more every day actor. Nicholson he thought was already connected as being crazy due to that movie.

SK later made a mini series.

Anyway. This has apparently been one of my least favourite King books. I guess that has to do with me watching the movie before reading. I always try to read a book before watching the movie cause I love to make up my own characters and bow they look like.

Now I am re reading because I have Doctor Sleep on my kindle and can't wait to read.

Finished last night. (Well this morning cause it was 05.00 am Could not get back to sleep and no not thanks to the book ;) )

I did enjoy it. It was interesting to see how King managed to make Jack slowly becoming crazy and I also enjoyed how Danny saw the world.

Needed to read again. Still great.

This was conviente because it has three of his better stories in one package!

Salem's lot is a bit too cliche for Stephen King's work.
He usually have a twist of his own in the monsters he depicted so I was rather disappointed, but it's still a good reading material.

Carrie was actually a book club choice by another club member. This 3-book collection was the same price as buying any one of them alone, so I burned through them all in just a few days. I was introduced to King when I found 'Salem's Lot in a desk in high school. I shamelessly kept the book and never looked back. Re-reading the collection was like visiting my teenaged self with adult insights. I remembered most of what I read, but some of the details had been either forgotten or completely glazed over in my youth.

‘the shining’ was definitely special in comparison to the other king books i have read, considering i’ve been a fan of the film for a while before attempting to read this. i will say i was pleasantly surprised, especially with the amount of detail that went into describing the family dynamics. i am sort of shocked that the twins aren’t in the book!

This is really just a review of ‘Carrie’ as I’ve read the other novels previously.

The novel was quick read written in a unique and effective style that jumped back and forth from the future to present day. My primary critique is how dark the story is with little, if any, redeeming value. I suspect the moral would be something like, ‘Don’t be cruel to others or they will do worse to you.’

I re-read this book recently and it is amazing how scary it really is. King could write very good horror and this is him at his peak. Sadly this meant he only had downhill to go.

Carrie--> Fantastic! I really enjoyed it the second time.

Salem's Lot--> Weird

The Shining--> It was a good story. Different than movie in some aspects.