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Stephen King’s Next Horror Novel About An Election Nightmare: Educated Speculation

By Dustin Kemp
Published on: 20:34 PST, Nov 10, 2016

Stephen King hasn’t written any new horror in a while now, so what is up next for him? We can take a very educated guess. Hint: It has to do with the election!

King, the master of modern literary scares, has abandoned his craft as of late. To be fair, he did recently contribute a lengthy segment to Hearts in Suspension, a collection of essays by Stephen King and others about being a student at the University of Maine. And before that, he published Finders Keepers and End of Watch, two installments in his Bill Hodges trilogy of whodunnit mysteries. However, King has not published on of his signature, straightforward, self-contained horror tales.

So what will Stephen’s return to classic form be? Well, it has not been officially announced yet, but some of King’s recent actions (not to mention the things he has said) can give Stephen King fans a pretty good idea of what it might be.

The first clue comes from something King said on Twitter. Stephen King was very active on the social media site during the election, almost constantly bashing the new president-elect Donald Trump. Those who followed Stephen’s updates might remember when, several weeks ago, he posted that his newest horror story is about a horrible figure running for president and being elected. The incident was discussed in greater depth by The Hill.

It seemed at the time like King was just being facetious, but Stephen’s recent actions call that into doubt.

After Donald Trump was claimed victorious the other day, reports The Independent, Stephen King declared he was “shutting down” his active social media persona for a while.

“No more book recommendations, politics, or amusing dog pictures for the immediate future. I’m shutting down,” King wrote in his Tweet.

The big question is, what is King going to do with his newfound free time? Stephen King is an extremely popular public figure, has been for the past 40 years or so, and it seems beyond unlikely he will begin avoiding the public eye completely.

The election, which Stephen himself called “the ugliest election in living memory” in yet another one of his recent tweets, obviously had a profound effect on the man. The fact that the usually very prolific King did not even mention the release of a new horror novel for the entirety of the campaign goes to show he could not keep his mind off it. Is it possible that such a deeply personal and emotional subject might serve as the basis for the next Stephen King masterpiece? It does not seem unlikely, especially since King has actually toyed with the idea himself (even if he was partially joking at the time).

Such a story would be right up Stephen King’s alley, too: a presidential election that goes horribly wrong and results in a regime that is really not best for the people. The election in the book could easily incorporate supernatural elements such as mind control, and the actual regime could serve as a great backdrop for some classic Stephen King dystopian horror writing.

Again, nothing is expressly confirmed other than the fact that Stephen is writing a collaboration horror novel with his son, Owen King. The combined effort will be called “Sleeping Beauties” and is due for release in 2017, according to The Firewire.

Hopefully, the fact that Stephen King has not published a solo horror novel in so long means he has been saving up ideas. Until an actual announcement is made, though, King fans must wait with bated breath.

And as always, long days and pleasant nights, Stephen King fans.

[Featured Image by Elise Amendola/AP Images]

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