This is just my opinion, but I think Stephen King is overrated. I have read many of his contributions to horror anthologies and wasn’t exactually blown away or impressed. I have started many of his novels( the shining, the stand, salem’s lot) and barely got through half of them before I put them down. He’s too long-winded and boring. I also think that the reason he sells so many books( he writes a lot, impressive output) is because he writes horror stories for the “mainstream” reader. It’s always either a cliche’ ending or something out of left field that isn’t exactually horrifying.
It bothers me that when I go to barnes and noble and have a look at their “horror” section, it’s always 2/3 full of King or Dean Koontz, very little variety like say 30+ plus years ago. I grew up in L.A. and lived there for 35 years. There were several bookstores down there that had a huge variety of horror fiction to choose from. Now, as far as I can tell, there’s only one left. It’s a store called DARK DELICASIES in my old hometown of Burbank,CA. Now, every time we go back to visit friends and family, I pay them a visit and do what I can to support their small business.