# The best Stephen King books

The Stephen King novels and novellas that rank highest across critics' and readers' rankings (Reader's Digest, CBR, Ranker's crowd vote), from Carrie to Fairy Tale.

- 43 votes · 21 items
- Feb 2, 2025 · T. Martin
- https://even.best/en/l/289/the-best-stephen-king-books

## Top 20

1. **It** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — 1986. The Losers' Club against Pennywise in Derry, in childhood and adulthood; often called his magnum opus.
2. **The Stand** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — 1978. A superflu wipes out humanity and the survivors split between good and Randall Flagg.
3. **Carrie** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — 1974. His first published novel, rescued from the bin by his wife Tabitha.
4. **The Shining** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — 1977. Jack Torrance, winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, and his son Danny's 'shine'.
5. **Cujo** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1981. A rabid St. Bernard traps a mother and her son in a car.
6. **11/22/63** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 2011. A teacher travels back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination; a love story in disguise.
7. **Misery** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 1987. The writer Paul Sheldon held captive by his 'number one fan', Annie Wilkes.
8. **Salem's Lot** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 1975. Vampires take over a small town in Maine.
9. **Under the Dome** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 2009. An invisible dome cuts off the town of Chester's Mill.
10. **Different Seasons** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — 1982. Four novellas including 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' and 'The Body' (Stand by Me).
11. **Doctor Sleep** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — 2013. Danny Torrance grown up, sober and working in a hospice; the sequel to The Shining.
12. **Pet Sematary** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 1983. A burial ground in Maine that brings back the dead, changed; King considered it his scariest book.
13. **The Long Walk** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 1979. One hundred teenage boys walk until only one is left; published as Richard Bachman.
14. **Night Shift** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 1978. His first story collection, with 'Children of the Corn' and 'The Mangler'.
15. **The Institute** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 2019. Children with psychic powers kidnapped to a secret facility in Maine.
16. **Fairy Tale** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 2022. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade and a portal to another world under an old man's shed.
17. **The Green Mile** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 1996. Death row in 1932 and the gentle giant John Coffey; first published in six monthly parts.
18. **Lisey's Story** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 2006. A widow and her late writer husband's secret world; King's personal favourite of his books.
19. **The Dead Zone** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 1979. After a coma, Johnny Smith can see the future of anyone he touches.
20. **Christine** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Stephen King's 1983 novel about a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury, adapted by John Carpenter the same year.
21. **The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — 1982. 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed': the start of his seven-book saga.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.