B&N Reads, Horror

A Definitive Ranking of Every Stephen King Novel Ever

By Marie Cummings / July 8, 2022 at 12:00 am

It’s rare to find a writer who can haunt your dreams with terrifying visions of say, for example, a shapeshifting clown, while ruminating on the battle of good and evil… while commenting on societal injustices… while exploring the very base of human nature…. while illuminating the power of friendship and love. And did we mention this writer also makes you weep? Not just the regular I’m-reading-a-sad-book tears but I’m-full-on-sobbing-in-a-public-park-on-a-sunny-summer-day tears. Enter Stephen King.  

King has had plenty of opportunities to rip out his Dear Readers’ hearts in the fifty years that he’s been publishing. So, we thought we’d follow the breadcrumbs through the decades, savoring the morsels of our favorite books* on the way to September’s Fairy Tale.  

*NOTE! Absent from this list: novellas, collections, Bachman books, nonfiction, and books he cowrote. 

The 1970s

The Shining

The Shining

The Shining

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  • Here’s Johnny! Stephen King exploded onto the scene with Carrie, and while the vampires of ‘Salem’s Lot are the stuff of nightmares, nothing beats The Shining. Semi-autobiographical and downright terrifying, King traps readers in the deserted Overlook Hotel in the dead of winter with ghosts, a little boy with a shine, and an alcoholic father slowly descending into madness. Rife with mazes, mallets, and malice, the Torrance family’s torment is sure to haunt your dreams for years to come.  
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  • Here’s Johnny! Stephen King exploded onto the scene with Carrie, and while the vampires of ‘Salem’s Lot are the stuff of nightmares, nothing beats The Shining. Semi-autobiographical and downright terrifying, King traps readers in the deserted Overlook Hotel in the dead of winter with ghosts, a little boy with a shine, and an alcoholic father slowly descending into madness. Rife with mazes, mallets, and malice, the Torrance family’s torment is sure to haunt your dreams for years to come.  

The 1980s

Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary

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  • What if you could bring back the dead? That’s the central question in this gutting novel. Louis Creed’s toddler son gets hit by a truck, killing him instantly. It’s a story of the enormity of grief and the lengths we go to for some semblance of normalcy. Louis is able to bring Gage back with the help of a small pet cemetery in the woods behind his house, but something just isn’t right. Afterall, sometimes dead is better.  
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  • What if you could bring back the dead? That’s the central question in this gutting novel. Louis Creed’s toddler son gets hit by a truck, killing him instantly. It’s a story of the enormity of grief and the lengths we go to for some semblance of normalcy. Louis is able to bring Gage back with the help of a small pet cemetery in the woods behind his house, but something just isn’t right. Afterall, sometimes dead is better.  

The 1990s

The Stand

The Stand

The Stand

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  • Okay so there is probably going to be some debate here. Technically The Stand came out in 1978, but Stephen King famously prefers the complete and uncut edition, and to be honest, so do we. This is truly an unputdownable novel made even more frightening by the very real pandemic we are currently in the midst of. Is there an alternate reality where society as we know it totally devolved into an epic battle between good and evil in the wake of a certain debilitating flulike virus? Hopefully only between these pages.  
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  • Okay so there is probably going to be some debate here. Technically The Stand came out in 1978, but Stephen King famously prefers the complete and uncut edition, and to be honest, so do we. This is truly an unputdownable novel made even more frightening by the very real pandemic we are currently in the midst of. Is there an alternate reality where society as we know it totally devolved into an epic battle between good and evil in the wake of a certain debilitating flulike virus? Hopefully only between these pages.  

The 2000s

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

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  • Remember when we mentioned sobbing in a public park? We have two words for you: John Coffey. One of King’s most endearing characters, John Coffey is a death row inmate in Cold Mountain Penitentiary. An enormous and simple man, he’s been sentenced to death for a horrific double murder that he didn’t commit. The only thing is that he can’t really prove he’s innocent unless his accusers—and the police and the court and just society in general—are willing to suspend their disbelief in a major way. He is the living embodiment of goodness, but ultimately that isn’t enough. Originally published as a serial novel, The Green Mile will make you weep and scream for justice.  
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  • Remember when we mentioned sobbing in a public park? We have two words for you: John Coffey. One of King’s most endearing characters, John Coffey is a death row inmate in Cold Mountain Penitentiary. An enormous and simple man, he’s been sentenced to death for a horrific double murder that he didn’t commit. The only thing is that he can’t really prove he’s innocent unless his accusers—and the police and the court and just society in general—are willing to suspend their disbelief in a major way. He is the living embodiment of goodness, but ultimately that isn’t enough. Originally published as a serial novel, The Green Mile will make you weep and scream for justice.  

The 2010s

11/22/63: A Novel

11/22/63: A Novel

11/22/63: A Novel

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  • What if JFK was never assassinated? What would our world look like? What if you could stop it? An English teacher from Maine finds himself answering these very questions in this magnificent novel. This book has everything: time travel, the butterfly effect, political implications, and even some lighthearted dancing with the losers from IT. Yeah, you read that right.  
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  • What if JFK was never assassinated? What would our world look like? What if you could stop it? An English teacher from Maine finds himself answering these very questions in this magnificent novel. This book has everything: time travel, the butterfly effect, political implications, and even some lighthearted dancing with the losers from IT. Yeah, you read that right.  

The 2020s

Billy Summers

Billy Summers

Billy Summers

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  • If you want a job done right, then you’d better hire Billy Summers. That is, before he retires. This decorated Iraq war veteran turned gun-for-hire just agreed to take on his last job posing as a writer while waiting to take out his target. This novel is full of action and suspense, but what really gets us is the writer’s journey Billy goes on. The heart of this book is the story within the story, with little callbacks to other people and places in Stephen King’s multiverse along the way.   
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  • If you want a job done right, then you’d better hire Billy Summers. That is, before he retires. This decorated Iraq war veteran turned gun-for-hire just agreed to take on his last job posing as a writer while waiting to take out his target. This novel is full of action and suspense, but what really gets us is the writer’s journey Billy goes on. The heart of this book is the story within the story, with little callbacks to other people and places in Stephen King’s multiverse along the way.   
Holly

Hardcover $21.00 $30.00

Holly

Holly

By Stephen King

In Stock Online

Hardcover $21.00 $30.00

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  • About ten years ago, Stephen King introduced us to a secondary character named Holly Gibney, a brilliant private investigator with OCD, overwhelming anxiety and a lot of heart, in his Bill Hodges trilogy. She popped up again to help solve the terrifying mystery of The Outsider and then again as the main protagonist in the title novella in 2021’s If it Bleeds. She’s been portrayed on screen by Cynthia Erivo in HBO’s The Outsider and Justine Lupine in Peacock’s Mr. Mercedes. She’s finally the star of the show in Holly and man does it pack a punch! Readers can dive right into the story without having read the others she’s appeared in (though they are great books and fun mysteries so you might want to). She is running the Finders Keepers agency in Bill’s absence, and though Covid has shut down most of the world, it hasn’t stopped people disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Are they runaways or is it something more sinister? Come on, it’s Stephen King, it’s always something more sinister. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns, and Holly is there through it all, heroically facing down her own demons while working the case. It’ll leave you shocked, shuddering and searching for more stories with our girl.  
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  • About ten years ago, Stephen King introduced us to a secondary character named Holly Gibney, a brilliant private investigator with OCD, overwhelming anxiety and a lot of heart, in his Bill Hodges trilogy. She popped up again to help solve the terrifying mystery of The Outsider and then again as the main protagonist in the title novella in 2021’s If it Bleeds. She’s been portrayed on screen by Cynthia Erivo in HBO’s The Outsider and Justine Lupine in Peacock’s Mr. Mercedes. She’s finally the star of the show in Holly and man does it pack a punch! Readers can dive right into the story without having read the others she’s appeared in (though they are great books and fun mysteries so you might want to). She is running the Finders Keepers agency in Bill’s absence, and though Covid has shut down most of the world, it hasn’t stopped people disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Are they runaways or is it something more sinister? Come on, it’s Stephen King, it’s always something more sinister. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns, and Holly is there through it all, heroically facing down her own demons while working the case. It’ll leave you shocked, shuddering and searching for more stories with our girl.