Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King by Caroline Bicks pulls back the curtain on Stephen King‘s writing in ways we have not yet been able to see. This is thanks to her rare access to King’s private archives including drafts and notes. As someone who grew up only a short walk from King’s Bangor home, I couldn’t wait to dive into this book and was captivated from cover to cover.
After Bicks was named the University of Maine’s inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of Kingʼs enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes King’s writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we’ve closed the book?
Not only do I love a great King book, but I also have a personal, well geographical connection to his work that made it easier to want to sink myself into Monsters in the Archives. When I first moved to Bangor at age ten, I lived just five minutes from the front gate of King’s iconic West Broadway home. By age 14, I moved to Orrington, finding myself only a couple miles from the house where Pet Sematary was written. Now, working at Orono Brewing just a stone’s throw from the University of Maine, I still feel surrounded by the places that shaped King’s stories. In a way, his bibliography has always been right there in my backyard.
While other books may have explored King’s overall career, his later works, or even their film adaptations, Bicks narrows the focus to five of his earlier and more iconic stories: Pet Sematary, The Shinning, Night Shift, ‘Salem’s Lot, and Carrie. Bicks examines their multiple drafts, comparing versions to show us what changed and how each of them took their shape on the way to publication. Seeing this evolution of storylines, characters, settings, and themes from first draft to publication is truly fascinating.
Monsters in the Archives includes some photo copies of King’s original manuscripts with notes in the margins, editorial changes and more to give us a complete picture. These pages included alternate endings, change in locations, and other details that never made it to the final publication versions. Bick’s conversations with King about why he made the choices he did added even more of a behind-the-scenes and authentic feel to the book.
Reading Monsters in the Archives felt like an incredible journey back to King’s early days at the University of Maine, when he was putting together his “King’s Garbage Truck” column and starting to find his iconic voice. But this book isn’t just about how his stories were created, it also shows a glimpse into what inspired Bicks to seek King’s permission and help in the first place. This fully King authorized book allowed me to learn a bit more about the creation of some of my favorite stores as well as getting to know Bicks a bit along the way.
This book not only showed the level of dedication King took in crafting a story, but also the sheer challenge of writing a novel in the first place. The number of changes each book went through from first idea to publication is staggering. After reading the alternate versions and seeing the revisions, I am grateful for the choices King ultimately made, because the finished and polished stories are the best possible versions.
Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks is an outstanding deep dive into five of Stephen King’s most iconic early works. Bicks reveals the level of dedication and hard work that goes into each of King’s books and includes notes, edits and changes that King made along the way by including copies of the original material. This book is a must-read for fans of King, especially those of Pet Sematary, The Shinning, Night Shift, ‘Salem’s Lot, and Carrie.
Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King hits bookstores everywhere on April 21, 2026 from Hogarth. The audiobook is available for preorder via Libro.fm!
