Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Stephen King's You Like It Darker.

Stephen King's new book features no shortage of compelling scary stories — but one addition to You Like It Darker stands out as the most frightening. You Like It Darker is one of King's best short story collections to date, and it explores a wide range of fears. From existential terrors to disturbing supernatural threats, King's latest features something for every type of reader. It's little wonder it's one of 2024's most-anticipated horror books, and it's undoubtedly one of the biggest releases to hit shelves in May.

Although You Like It Darker is well worth the hype — and it features several tales that will leave readers with chills — not all of its narratives are scary in the traditional sense. Some stories, like Two Talented Bastids, play with everyday terrors, like never achieving one's dreams. Others, like Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream, feature disturbing imagery and supernatural elements but are about human wickedness at their core. These resonate because they're believable. However, the scariest story in King's 2024 collection leans into more traditional horror elements, like hauntings and ghosts.

Rattlesnakes Is Stephen King's Scariest Story In You Like It Darker

The Cujo Sequel Is Disturbing On Multiple Levels

While some of the best stories in You Like It Darker aren't ones that will keep readers up at night, Rattlesnakes combines a strong narrative with genuinely scary moments and concepts. The novella is a sequel to King's 1981 novel, Cujo, and Rattlesnakes offers a poignant exploration of grief. In that sense, it's just as relatable as stories like Two Talented Bastids and Laurie. Like Laurie and The Fifth Step, it highlights how tragedy can befall anyone at any time. But it goes beyond that, delivering all the hallmarks of a harrowing horror story.

Rattlesnakes follows Vic Trenton decades after he loses his son, picking up as he's grieving the loss of his wife. He's staying at a friend's house in the Florida Keys, and he meets a woman known for wheeling around an empty baby carriage. Although Allie Bell's sons were killed by rattlesnakes many years earlier, she acts as though they're in the pram. After she dies and leaves everything to Vic, he realizes they might be — and that he's inherited their ghosts. This leads to a haunting that stands out as You Like It Darker's most unsettling narrative.

Why Rattlesnakes Is The Scariest Story In Stephen King's New Book

A Terrifying Concept & Haunting Imagery

Rattlesnakes is the scariest story in You Like It Darker because it combines a horrifying concept with disturbing imagery that will haunt readers long after they close the book. The notion that hauntings can be passed on from person to person, trapping the current victim right down to their thoughts, is eerie enough to make Rattlesnakes stand out. Vic's situation is horrifying on its own, and it's made worse by the visions the twins show him. From vividly depicting how they were overtaken by rattlesnakes to describing their bloated, half-adult corpses, King doesn't hold back.

Rattlesnakes is the scariest story in You Like It Darker because it combines a horrifying concept with disturbing imagery that will haunt readers long after they close the book.

The concepts and imagery associated with Rattlesnakes make it more terrifying than King's other narratives in You Like It Darker. While Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream, Willie the Weirdo, and a few other stories feature disturbing sequences, none of them achieve this level of horror. And Rattlesnakes uses its themes of grief and loss to dig into more human fears at the same time. It delivers scares on multiple levels, making it one of the most memorable Stephen King stories from his 2024 collection.