I haven't read Stephen King in probably two decades so this might no longer apply. Family members are BIG fans and I started every one I read expecting to love them. But it turned out how much I liked them was inversely related to the death count. The higher the percentage of characters who died, the less I cared. There's a novella where they're trying to get to Hartford CT (I think it was Hartford, anywhere somewhere around there which is the last place you'd think of as being salvation), I liked that one.
Yes, I realise I am not the norm in this but you did say everyone ;)