Tony Magistrale is professor of English at the University of Vermont. Michael J. Blouin is associate professor of English and the humanities at Milligan University.

• IntroductionMichael J. Blouin and Tony Magistrale1. Stephen King’s Carrie: Victim No More?Sarah E. Turner 2. An American Hyde: Stephen King’s A Good MarriageTony Magistrale3. The Mad Lady: Racial and Sexual Violence in Mick Garris’s Bag of BonesPhoenix Crockett and Stephen Indrisano4. Cujo, the Black Man, and the Story of Patty HearstSarah Nilsen5. King of Pain: Exposing the Raw, “Unpleasant Truth” of Stephen King’s Use of Extreme Violence in Doctor Sleep Mary Findley6. Violence Persists: Muschietti’s IT Films and a Sadistic Status QuoMichael J. Blouin7. “Cut You Up into Little Pieces”: Ghosts & Violence in Kubrick’s The ShiningDanel Olson8. Tempered Violence in Frank Darabont’s Adaptations of Stephen King: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green MileMaura Grady9. Hiding in Plain Sight: Watching and the Unconscious in Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes Trilogy on Page and ScreenBrian Kent10. Political Allegory and the Plague of Violence in the Television Ada

Whatever one thinks about Stephen King as a writer, he undeniably has his finger on the pulse of the times. His works have increasingly reflected the burgeoning violence of the past half century in the US; so, consequently, have the 50-some films made from those works. As the essays in this book point out, the violence in King's books and films made from them has grown more graphic and is more often perpetrated against women and children. In some films, the violence is so graphic that even written descriptions made this reader queasy. Still, these essays, part sociology, part film analysis, are a valuable and necessary investigation into the Stephen King phenomenon. This reviewer particularly liked Mary Findley’s "King of Pain," in which she looks at Doctor Sleep (both book and film) and Matthew Muller’s "The Invasive Gaze," which offers meticulous observation of King's use of surveillance cameras in The Outsider. In "Lost in the Supermarket," Alexandra Reuber studies The Mist, making clear the uncanny way in which King anticipated the divisive effects of the pandemic—a microcosm of the US in a supermarket. This reviewer considers these three essays the standouts, but all the essays in the collection are well done. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Tony Magistrale is professor of English at the University of Vermont. Michael J. Blouin is associate professor of English and the humanities at Milligan University.

• IntroductionMichael J. Blouin and Tony Magistrale1. Stephen King’s Carrie: Victim No More?Sarah E. Turner 2. An American Hyde: Stephen King’s A Good MarriageTony Magistrale3. The Mad Lady: Racial and Sexual Violence in Mick Garris’s Bag of BonesPhoenix Crockett and Stephen Indrisano4. Cujo, the Black Man, and the Story of Patty HearstSarah Nilsen5. King of Pain: Exposing the Raw, “Unpleasant Truth” of Stephen King’s Use of Extreme Violence in Doctor Sleep Mary Findley6. Violence Persists: Muschietti’s IT Films and a Sadistic Status QuoMichael J. Blouin7. “Cut You Up into Little Pieces”: Ghosts & Violence in Kubrick’s The ShiningDanel Olson8. Tempered Violence in Frank Darabont’s Adaptations of Stephen King: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green MileMaura Grady9. Hiding in Plain Sight: Watching and the Unconscious in Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes Trilogy on Page and ScreenBrian Kent10. Political Allegory and the Plague of Violence in the Television Ada

Whatever one thinks about Stephen King as a writer, he undeniably has his finger on the pulse of the times. His works have increasingly reflected the burgeoning violence of the past half century in the US; so, consequently, have the 50-some films made from those works. As the essays in this book point out, the violence in King's books and films made from them has grown more graphic and is more often perpetrated against women and children. In some films, the violence is so graphic that even written descriptions made this reader queasy. Still, these essays, part sociology, part film analysis, are a valuable and necessary investigation into the Stephen King phenomenon. This reviewer particularly liked Mary Findley’s "King of Pain," in which she looks at Doctor Sleep (both book and film) and Matthew Muller’s "The Invasive Gaze," which offers meticulous observation of King's use of surveillance cameras in The Outsider. In "Lost in the Supermarket," Alexandra Reuber studies The Mist, making clear the uncanny way in which King anticipated the divisive effects of the pandemic—a microcosm of the US in a supermarket. This reviewer considers these three essays the standouts, but all the essays in the collection are well done. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Tony Magistrale is professor of English at the University of Vermont. Michael J. Blouin is associate professor of English and the humanities at Milligan University.

• IntroductionMichael J. Blouin and Tony Magistrale1. Stephen King’s Carrie: Victim No More?Sarah E. Turner 2. An American Hyde: Stephen King’s A Good MarriageTony Magistrale3. The Mad Lady: Racial and Sexual Violence in Mick Garris’s Bag of BonesPhoenix Crockett and Stephen Indrisano4. Cujo, the Black Man, and the Story of Patty HearstSarah Nilsen5. King of Pain: Exposing the Raw, “Unpleasant Truth” of Stephen King’s Use of Extreme Violence in Doctor Sleep Mary Findley6. Violence Persists: Muschietti’s IT Films and a Sadistic Status QuoMichael J. Blouin7. “Cut You Up into Little Pieces”: Ghosts & Violence in Kubrick’s The ShiningDanel Olson8. Tempered Violence in Frank Darabont’s Adaptations of Stephen King: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green MileMaura Grady9. Hiding in Plain Sight: Watching and the Unconscious in Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes Trilogy on Page and ScreenBrian Kent10. Political Allegory and the Plague of Violence in the Television Ada

Whatever one thinks about Stephen King as a writer, he undeniably has his finger on the pulse of the times. His works have increasingly reflected the burgeoning violence of the past half century in the US; so, consequently, have the 50-some films made from those works. As the essays in this book point out, the violence in King's books and films made from them has grown more graphic and is more often perpetrated against women and children. In some films, the violence is so graphic that even written descriptions made this reader queasy. Still, these essays, part sociology, part film analysis, are a valuable and necessary investigation into the Stephen King phenomenon. This reviewer particularly liked Mary Findley’s "King of Pain," in which she looks at Doctor Sleep (both book and film) and Matthew Muller’s "The Invasive Gaze," which offers meticulous observation of King's use of surveillance cameras in The Outsider. In "Lost in the Supermarket," Alexandra Reuber studies The Mist, making clear the uncanny way in which King anticipated the divisive effects of the pandemic—a microcosm of the US in a supermarket. This reviewer considers these three essays the standouts, but all the essays in the collection are well done. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.