'Salem LOT' and 'The Shining'

King is called the Master of Horror. I will present several positions from this genre.

One of the first novels by Stephen King, published in 1975, is 'Salem's Lot'. It's a shortened name of Jerusalem, a fictional town located in Maine.  After 25 years, Ben Mears comes back to his family town. He's looking for an inspiration to write a new novel. There are weird things starting to happen in the town. People and animals start disappearing in unexplained circumstances.  Soon it turns out that the town was overrun by vampires.  Salem’s Lot isn't just a story about vampires. It's also a portrait of small town's society, written with a great accuracy. This attention to detail and accuracy became King's trademarks.

One of the best of horrors, 'The Shining', published in 1997.  Action of the novel takes place in The Overlook hotel, located high in the mountains, where Jack Torrance with his wife and five years-old son Danny has to stay for a winter to supervise it. Sensitive, gifted with paranormal abilities child sees many gruesome scenes, which took place years ago in the abandoned hotel.  The atmosphere of terror and suspense raises with every minute. 

King never forgave Stanley Kubrick for the screen adaptation of The Shining. Because in cinema it turned out to be a story about a haunted hotel, and King wrote a book about an alcoholic. The haunted hotel was in the background in the novel.