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Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks review
A deep dive into the horror novelist’s archives reveals pedantry, penny-pinching, and a total redraft of Carrie
TL;DR
- Caroline Bicks, a Stephen King professor, was granted access to Stephen King's archives to study his writing process.
- Bicks aimed to identify King's "biblio-magic," the techniques he uses to create physical reactions in readers through word choice.
- Analysis of drafts for "Pet Sematary" showed King's deliberate selection of words like "clitter" for subtle horror and resistance to replacing "rattly."
- King's penny-pinching, a habit formed during his early financial struggles, is revealed through anecdotes about saving paper and almost losing the manuscript for "The Dead Zone."
- A significant redraft of "Carrie" transformed the story from a monstrous physical transformation to a focus on the character's internal consciousness.
- The book interweaves textual analysis with biographical details gleaned from conversations with King.