What do you think?
Rate this book
A Brief Guide to Stephen King
Stephen King's name has become synonymous with horror thanks to classics like The Shining, Salem's Lot , and Carrie . In this Brief Guide, Simpson traces the writer's life from his difficult childhood through his initial books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, to the success of his early works in the 1970s and beyond into mainstream acclaim.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 20, 2014
12 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 6, 2016
A good guide to Steven King's work. Good language, and pretty much decent amount of info behind every work of his. :)
Being a 'Constant Reader' myself and having read thirty-eight titles by the King of Contemporary Horror, I had to pick and read this book!
The book is divided into six sections: On SK's life; Novels; The Dark Tower; Short Stories & Novella Collections; Original Stories in Other Media; and Non-fiction - of which 120 pages include the Novels section.
Every published title has an entry with three sub-sections: A basic plot of the story (includes spoilers!); inspiration behind the idea of the story, how King went about writing and publishing it, important reviews and criticisms if any, and links connecting the story to his other works; adaptations into other media.
Found a lot of interesting information on how King came to write his stories, how does he pick his ideas from daily life and events. Good for aspiring writers to use.
The author does not seem to have interviewed King himself, but claims to having told that he reads too much of Stephen King, and that the book is a result of hard work in research spread over thirty years.
An Appendix is provided with SK's work in order of public release (very useful) (until Revival); Acknowledgements and Bibliography, with Index. Thus, information does look authentic.
A Spoiler Alert! is given at the beginning of the book, which helped me in skipping the plots at times, of titles that I had not read. However, reading a few plots partially of these (unread) stories have now actually encouraged me to read them early on, after my earlier lack of much interest in them.
Good book for SK fans, and aspiring writers to learn from. :)
Being a 'Constant Reader' myself and having read thirty-eight titles by the King of Contemporary Horror, I had to pick and read this book!
The book is divided into six sections: On SK's life; Novels; The Dark Tower; Short Stories & Novella Collections; Original Stories in Other Media; and Non-fiction - of which 120 pages include the Novels section.
Every published title has an entry with three sub-sections: A basic plot of the story (includes spoilers!); inspiration behind the idea of the story, how King went about writing and publishing it, important reviews and criticisms if any, and links connecting the story to his other works; adaptations into other media.
Found a lot of interesting information on how King came to write his stories, how does he pick his ideas from daily life and events. Good for aspiring writers to use.
The author does not seem to have interviewed King himself, but claims to having told that he reads too much of Stephen King, and that the book is a result of hard work in research spread over thirty years.
An Appendix is provided with SK's work in order of public release (very useful) (until Revival); Acknowledgements and Bibliography, with Index. Thus, information does look authentic.
A Spoiler Alert! is given at the beginning of the book, which helped me in skipping the plots at times, of titles that I had not read. However, reading a few plots partially of these (unread) stories have now actually encouraged me to read them early on, after my earlier lack of much interest in them.
Good book for SK fans, and aspiring writers to learn from. :)
March 25, 2014
The main thing this book has going for it is the title, brief. It has several chapters of biography and then delves into the works, not much time is spent on each work, nor does it delve too deeply into any of the works. What I did like is that it is rather comprehensive in all of the available works, and it is rather up to date including two books to come this year. For someone who knows little about "the King" I would recommend this, for die hard fans, its rather passe.
March 21, 2014
A decent general guide to the works of Stephen King with a few factoids I hadn't heard before and a good guide to further works to seek out for a more detailed look at King and his books.
Read
February 9, 2016General guide to his work, not in depth literary criticism.
July 15, 2023
I’m not really a big non-fiction reader, it’s rare that something non-fiction captures my attention, though as you’ve probably figured out via the plethora of Stephen King content I consume, anything involving that man will grasp me. As someone who’s been a fan of Stevie K since some of my earliest memories (i.e. a three year old me loving the opening scene of the 1990 IT miniseries adaptation, or my mum showing me The Shining far too young, and an eleven year old me reading all of 11/22/63 after it becoming my favourite miniseries) a guide to his work containing a “brief” analysis of all his work with details about his life and writing process seemed right up my alley.
Objectively it’s definitely not a five star book, but my bias towards King and my love of his work meant something like this was perfect to me. I already knew the majority of these stories and the information provided about the author, but it’s written with genuinely effective language and a digestible structure, meaning I ingested this in any and all free time I’ve had over the last week and thoroughly enjoyed all of it. If you’re a fan of King: read it!
9/10
Objectively it’s definitely not a five star book, but my bias towards King and my love of his work meant something like this was perfect to me. I already knew the majority of these stories and the information provided about the author, but it’s written with genuinely effective language and a digestible structure, meaning I ingested this in any and all free time I’ve had over the last week and thoroughly enjoyed all of it. If you’re a fan of King: read it!
9/10
October 24, 2023
This was a very interesting work on the life of Stephen King from the working poor to the high life of an ultimate bestseller author. We come across all the novels from the very beginning, see the climax in It, read about the follow-up to Shining (Doctor Sleep), the Dark Tower series, short stories and novella collections, his writings for the screen (e.g. Creepshow), a graphic approach to his works, non-fiction writings. The appendix closes with the order of release of each work. Extremely fluent to read, precise and informative. It's from 2014 but highly recommended for every King fan or new reader!
August 1, 2017
I liked this book a lot but I am not very knowledgeable about Stephen King. I think if you have read most of his books, you will be bored by this. It's all summaries and the where his books have gone, so far as movies, plays, etc. I liked it because it is helping me decide what of his I want to read next of his. There are tidbits about Stephen King's life that intrigued me, so now I just bought Danse Macabre and will be reading and reviewing that.
September 2, 2025
pretty informative, the author does a good job making it interesting without being boring. a pretty comprehensive overview of Kings's work up until 2013; it could use an update.
March 19, 2025
Some of this is repetitive, even more so if you are a long-term fan of King’s work, but makes a great resource for keeping track of the books and how they interact with each other, which has always been a strong point of King’s stories. It also clues you in on all the movies, television shows, comics and more that were brought to life by these novels.
May 21, 2014
I have to confess that I don’t read many biographies these days. Sure, I had to read a few mandatory ones for college classes…but that was 20 years ago. These days, I fill my head with horror, science-fiction, and fantasy. But when I saw this comprehensive ‘guide’ to one of my favorite horror authors of all time, Stephen King, I knew I had to give it a look. After all, what better way to gain personal inspiration than reading about someone whose work inspires me? I’m glad I did, too; although I’m a huge fan of King’s work, I really didn’t know much about him. This book gives an in-depth glimpse into the man behind the masterpieces, and you’ll probably never look at him the same way again.
I think I’m pretty safe in stating that Stephen King is probably a household name by now. I doubt there are very many people in this country who don’t know who he is or some of the titles he is responsible for. But even so, the vast majority of those who know his name are probably just like me and know little about the man himself. Thankfully, this book will tell you all you need to know.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO STEPHEN KING is written well and flows smoothly as it lays out the life of this celebrated author. But it doesn’t just talk about King’s life growing up…it outlines the events in his life that eventually set the foundations for some of his most pivotal work. As a result, the reader gets to see the true (and sometimes surprising) inspirations for such classic titles as CARRIE, CUJO, THE STAND, and many more.
Unlike other biographies, this one takes each book written by King and gives a detail of the story, as well as key events that were happening in King’s life at the time of its writing. This is interesting because it gives an inner-doorway into the author’s mind and let’s the reader see where his mentality was during the creation of the work. I find this type of insight fascinating, and it brings to light many unknown facts about who King really is on the inside.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO STEPHEN KING is a huge win for me, and I recommend it to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of this amazingly talented author. Even if you’re not a fan of his work, you can’t help but be inspired by the obstacles he has overcome to gain the success he has today. Give this book a look for sure.
I think I’m pretty safe in stating that Stephen King is probably a household name by now. I doubt there are very many people in this country who don’t know who he is or some of the titles he is responsible for. But even so, the vast majority of those who know his name are probably just like me and know little about the man himself. Thankfully, this book will tell you all you need to know.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO STEPHEN KING is written well and flows smoothly as it lays out the life of this celebrated author. But it doesn’t just talk about King’s life growing up…it outlines the events in his life that eventually set the foundations for some of his most pivotal work. As a result, the reader gets to see the true (and sometimes surprising) inspirations for such classic titles as CARRIE, CUJO, THE STAND, and many more.
Unlike other biographies, this one takes each book written by King and gives a detail of the story, as well as key events that were happening in King’s life at the time of its writing. This is interesting because it gives an inner-doorway into the author’s mind and let’s the reader see where his mentality was during the creation of the work. I find this type of insight fascinating, and it brings to light many unknown facts about who King really is on the inside.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO STEPHEN KING is a huge win for me, and I recommend it to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of this amazingly talented author. Even if you’re not a fan of his work, you can’t help but be inspired by the obstacles he has overcome to gain the success he has today. Give this book a look for sure.
July 3, 2014
I loved reading this book. It was great to read all about Stephen King and his works and I learned things I never knew about him. Some of the book descriptions contain some minor spoilers, but I don't think that matters. It doesn't detract from Stephen Kings books in any major way. I would recommend this book to other Stephen King fans. I can appreciate the amount of research it took to right this book. If your a fan of Sai King, you should read this.
January 8, 2015
This book is awesome for giving you an overview of every book that Stephen King wrote.
Unfortunately, it is full of spoilers. So, when I came across a book that sounded like one I would be interested in reading, I stopped reading the review. It does give away too much of the story.
Unfortunately, it is full of spoilers. So, when I came across a book that sounded like one I would be interested in reading, I stopped reading the review. It does give away too much of the story.
November 12, 2014
3 stars - Non-fiction
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews