Stephen King vs Dean Koontz

Horror and suspense are genres of fiction that is intended to scare or haunt the audience. It can deal with the both the mundane and the supernatural as long as it elicits an aspect of fear or dread. Today, horror and suspense films and novels have become very popular among young adults. Two popular and contemporary horror/suspense novelists, Dean Koontz and Stephen King are very different writers, both in style and plot, but are able to run chills along the spines of their readers. Other than differences in style and plot, King tends to write with a slower pace, to slowly build and unfold the plot while Koontz dives straight into the action and has a faster pacing. Many devoted horror and suspense readers tend to group King and Koontz together as authors but if the two have contrasting styles, but what is the similarity that connects them?
The subject matter of a King novel is often associated with the supernatural world and because of this, his plots are usually unrealistic. His first published novel, Carrie, deals with an teenage outcast who develops telekinetic abilities and uses them for her ultimate revenge on the society that has cast her aside. Although the plot of Carrie was very bizarre, the book was still suspenseful and haunting. Stephen King’s It was another example, one of many, of his novels that dealt with sci-fi and fantasy. This story revolves around a group of adults who all shared a gruesome experience with a monster named It, a being from outer space who takes on the appearance of its victim’s darkest fears. Clearly, this novel is not very practical but it embodied the themes of childhood trauma, the power of memory, and the darkness that sometimes lie beneath the unsuspecting.
Dean Koontz often writes in a realistic setting, a setting that his audience can often relate to. This is part of the reason why his stories are so chilling and compelling; the plot is so plausible that you can believe that something similar can happen to you....