The 10 Best Stephen King Books

King's apocalyptic epic: a superflu wipes out most of humanity, and the survivors choose sides between Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg. Sprawling, bleak, hopeful, and every engine's pick for #1.

Jack Torrance, an isolated Colorado hotel, and a boy with a terrifying gift. Tight, claustrophobic, and endlessly imitated, it's the purest haunted-house nightmare in King's catalog, even with Kubrick casting a long shadow.

Seven kids and a monstrous clown called Pennywise face down evil in Derry, Maine, then return as adults. It's part horror, part coming-of-age saga, and it's the doorstop that made a generation scared of storm drains.

A high school teacher finds a portal to 1958 and sets out to stop the Kennedy assassination. King trades monsters for history and heartbreak, and it's the most acclaimed non-horror showing on the list.

A novelist crashes his car and wakes up in the care of his self-described number one fan, Annie Wilkes. Two characters, one bedroom, and some of the scariest pages King has ever written.

A doctor moves his family to Maine, finds a pet cemetery with a dark secret, and learns that sometimes dead is better. King has said it frightened even him, and it's pure grief-fueled dread.

Four novellas, and barely any horror: "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," "Apt Pupil," "The Body," and "The Breathing Method." It's the collection that proved King could write just about anything, and it gave Hollywood two classics.

King's second novel sends vampires into a sleepy Maine town, with a writer returning home to face them. A classic Dracula update with small-town menace, and the book that proved his debut was no fluke.

A death row guard in the Depression-era South meets a gentle giant with miraculous powers. Originally published in six installments, it's King at his most tear-jerking. Gemini ranked it far higher than Claude did.

The fourth Dark Tower book pauses the quest for a long flashback to Roland's youth, tragic first love included. It's a fan favorite and the entry point for King's fantasy western epic, narrowly edging out The Dead Zone.