Stephen King Books Ranked: 40 Books in a Tier List

The Stand (1978)

A weaponised flu wipes out most of humanity, and the survivors drift towards either Mother Abagail or Randall Flagg. King's biggest book is a post-apocalyptic epic, a road novel and a battle between good and evil all at once. Read the 1990 complete and uncut edition if you're committed; the original is tighter.

It (1986)

Seven kids in Derry, Maine, face a shape-shifting monster in 1958 and return as adults to finish the job. It's huge and sometimes indulgent, but nobody writes childhood friendship like this. Pennywise is the hook; the Losers' Club is why it lasts.

The Shining (1977)

Jack Torrance takes his family to the snowbound Overlook Hotel for the winter, and the hotel takes Jack. King's portrait of addiction and a father coming apart is scarier than anything with a ghost in it, and very different from Kubrick's film.

11/22/63 (2011)

A teacher finds a portal in a diner's storeroom that leads to 1958 and sets out to stop the Kennedy assassination. Part thriller, part love story, part history lesson, it's the best book to give someone who thinks they don't like Stephen King.

Misery (1987)

Novelist Paul Sheldon wakes up injured in the remote farmhouse of Annie Wilkes, his number one fan. A two-hander with almost no supernatural element, it's King at his tightest and most controlled, and a sharp book about writing and fandom.

Pet Sematary (1983)

A young family moves to rural Maine, next to a burial ground that doesn't keep its dead. King has said it's the book that scared him most, and he set it aside for years because it felt too dark. Its grief is real, which is why it's so hard to read.

'Salem's Lot (1975)

Vampires arrive in a small Maine town, and the town barely notices. King's second novel is Dracula transplanted to New England, and the slow way the town falls is still chilling.

The Green Mile (1996)

Death-row guard Paul Edgecombe remembers 1932 and an inmate, John Coffey, with a gift he can't explain. First published in six monthly instalments, it's a moving, old-fashioned story told with real restraint.

Different Seasons (1982)

Four novellas, including Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and The Body (filmed as Stand by Me). Proof that King's best work often isn't horror at all, and a great place to start.

The Dead Zone (1979)

Johnny Smith wakes from a coma of almost five years with the ability to see people's futures, and shakes hands with a politician who will end the world. A tight, sad thriller with a dilemma that still gets debated.

Carrie (1974)

The debut that made his name: a bullied teenager with telekinetic powers and a prom night nobody forgets. Told partly through reports and interviews, it's short, raw and still unsettling.

Lisey's Story (2006)

The widow of a famous novelist sorts through his papers and finds a door into his private world. Dense and strange, and a book King has often named as a personal favourite.

Duma Key (2008)

After losing an arm in an accident, Edgar Freemantle moves to the Florida Keys and starts painting pictures that come true. One of the best of his later novels, with a slow build and a great sense of place.

Doctor Sleep (2013)

Danny Torrance from The Shining, now a recovering alcoholic working in a hospice, protects a girl from a group that feeds on children like him. A worthy sequel that stands on its own.

Mr. Mercedes (2014)

Retired detective Bill Hodges hunts a killer who drove a car into a crowd. King's first straight detective novel won the Edgar Award and launched the Bill Hodges trilogy and Holly Gibney.

The Institute (2019)

Twelve-year-old Luke Ellis is kidnapped and taken to a facility that experiments on children with psychic abilities. A gripping return to Firestarter territory, and one of his best books of the last decade.

Billy Summers (2021)

A hitman taking one last job passes the time writing his life story. More crime novel than horror, and a surprisingly tender one.

The Long Walk (1979)

Published under the pen name Richard Bachman: one hundred teenage boys walk south through Maine, and anyone who falls below four miles an hour too often is shot. Bleak, simple and impossible to put down.

Fairy Tale (2022)

Teenager Charlie Reade befriends a reclusive old man and his dog, and finds a passage into another world. A big, warm-hearted fantasy adventure that shows King still trying new things.

Cujo (1981)

A rabid St Bernard traps a mother and her son in a broken-down car in the summer heat. Simple, claustrophobic and brutal.

Christine (1983)

A teenager falls for a 1958 Plymouth Fury that is jealous of anyone else in his life. A fun high-concept book about adolescence and obsession, even if it runs long.

Firestarter (1980)

Charlie McGee can start fires with her mind, and a secret government agency called the Shop wants her. A fast chase novel that set the template for much of King's later work.

Gerald's Game (1992)

Jessie is left handcuffed to a bed in a remote cabin after her husband dies. Mostly one woman in one room, and much more than a stunt.

Dolores Claiborne (1992)

Told as one long confession to the police on an island off Maine. A fine character study with barely a supernatural note.

Bag of Bones (1998)

A widowed novelist with writer's block returns to his lake house and its ghosts. A haunted-house story with real sorrow, and a winner of the Bram Stoker Award.

Needful Things (1991)

A new shop opens in Castle Rock, selling everyone what they most desire for a small favour. A dark comedy about a town turning on itself.

Joyland (2013)

A college student spends the summer of 1973 working at a North Carolina amusement park with a murder in its past. A short, nostalgic coming-of-age mystery.

Under the Dome (2009)

An invisible barrier seals off a small town, and its worst people take charge. Gripping for most of its length, let down by the ending.

The Outsider (2018)

A popular coach is arrested for a child's murder despite proof he was elsewhere. A police procedural that turns supernatural, and brings Holly Gibney to the front.

Holly (2023)

Holly Gibney investigates disappearances linked to a respectable elderly couple. One of King's most unsettling villains, in a book set during the pandemic.

Later (2021)

A boy who can see the dead is used by his mother's detective girlfriend. A short, punchy Hard Case Crime novel.

Insomnia (1994)

An elderly widower in Derry starts seeing auras and the beings behind them. Interesting for its links to the Dark Tower, but slow.

Rose Madder (1995)

A woman escapes her violent husband and steps into a painting. The realistic half is strong; the fantasy half isn't.

Cell (2006)

A signal through mobile phones turns users into a violent mob. A great opening that runs out of ideas.

Revival (2014)

A small-town preacher becomes a showman obsessed with electricity. Uneven, but its last chapters are among the bleakest things King has written.

Elevation (2018)

A man in Castle Rock keeps losing weight without changing shape. A gentle novella that's more fable than horror.

Sleeping Beauties (2017)

Stephen King and Owen King

Co-written with his son Owen: women around the world fall asleep inside cocoons. A big idea spread thin across 700 pages.

The Tommyknockers (1987)

A buried spaceship changes the people of a Maine town. King has said he wrote it at the height of his addiction and has been hard on it since.

Dreamcatcher (2001)

Four friends on a hunting trip face an alien invasion. Written by hand while King recovered from being hit by a van, and one he has since said he doesn't like.

From a Buick 8 (2002)

State troopers keep a mysterious car in a shed for decades. A fine premise without a story to match.