Books We Love (and Why)

While the master of horror has countless offerings, this insight into a mysterious and troubled character’s history is the best of the bunch. It has little to do with the overall Dark Tower series, but the characters, most never mentioned again while others are recurrent faces, will steal your heart. The sub-story is draped in a perfectly looming sense of dread, while making you believe there’s still hope, all the while with knowing the outcome. The multi-faced horror is layered ingeniously, subtle and creeping, lurking around every corner, glowering down like a beast with you squirming in its clutches, and the underappreciated emotional horror of a broken heart. When it’s done, you’re left craving more and perhaps that’s the most terrifying of all. When King eventually, but inevitably passes into the clearing at the end of the path, Roland’s world goes with him. An already exquisite tale, spanning 8 novels, referencing at least 23 other books, and spanning multiple worlds, The Dark Tower is well loved, but to include a story which basically amounts to a side quest, while still generating such a desperate emotional connection, is just incredible. His subtle grasp of and subsequent manipulation of human emotion is just part of why Stephen remains the King.