Oh man, that video thumbnail in yesterday’s post is seriously giving me the heebie jeebies. What a terrifying face! Faces! Clown faces!! What was I thinking?!

Each time I’ve come to my own blog in the last 24 hours I’ve freaked myself out. Well, almost. I self. There’s no way I’m digging up an image for *this* post.

If you’ve seen the movie IT, you know why I find clowns scary. If you haven’t seen that movie yet, NEVER SEE THAT MOVIE! Honestly, the scariness of IT has stayed with for more than 30 years. I’m not even going to find a trailer for it because, honestly, you never want to see it.

The movie IT was adapted from a Stephen King book of the same name published in the 80s. He references the town it was set in and a couple of original characters in one of his latests novels, Doctor Sleep - maybe closing the loop, or just reminding us of how the imprint of fear is still branded in our memories.

That Stephen King - man can he write a good read. 

I read Doctor Sleep a few months ago, and it’s the first Stephen King I’ve read since I was a teenager. King’s never going to win a Man Booker Prize, but few are as skilled as he when it comes to crafting a novel that you can’t put down.

Carrie, Cujo, Salam’s Lot, The Stand, The Shining, Firestarter, Christine - I thought I was obssessed with the horror genre but really, looking back after reading Doctor Sleep, I think I was just in love with a damn good read. King writes so I always wanted more - he got me through each chapter making sure I was hungry for the next one. His pacing is just right and the scary ramps up and up - okay so maybe I was a winsy bit obssessed with the scare-factor as well.

The best one for me was Salam’s Lot not least because I didn’t read the book-blurb, so I had no idea what the story was about. It unfolded as I read without any of my expectations getting in the way - and scared the beejezus out of me. I consumed every horror he wrote in the late 70s, early 80s that I could get my hands on. They were all good; they were all scary. 

Now I’m old, and crossing the road is scary enough, I don’t need to read horror any more. I did enjoy reading Doctor Sleep but made sure the sun was high in the sky whenever I was made time to pick it up, because at night there’s still a clown waiting for me to go into the bathroom.

Damn, I did it again. Looks like I’ll be sleeping with the light on tonight.