My Top 10 Stephen King Books

Hello friends and Constant Readers!

I guess I'm what you'd call an avid Stephen King fan, on account of the fact I've read every book he's ever released - a passion project that took me years, but well worth the time! I thought I'd list my Top 10 favourites (includes novels, short story collections, and novella collections).

So, without further ado!

10

Some people say this is a long, rambling, drug-fuelled mess. It has no chapters, so I guess I can see where people are coming from. Also, King admits to not really remembering writing Cujo because he was indeed on a bit of a drug binge. However, I love it. I think the writing style lends itself very well to the context of the story. We're dealing with a crazed, rabid dog and a frantic, panicked, trapped mother trying to figure out how to survive as she and her young son dehydrate and boil in a car.

The constant, chaotic stream of consciousness serves as a stylistic reflection of the story itself (at least, it does to me, anyway). I was hooked from start to finish, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

9

The third book in The Dark Tower series and let me tell you, a fan favourite for good reason. Our ka-tet is together, the adventure is fully underway, and those closing chapters are just perfection.

8

I know a lot of people prefer Skeleton Crew, but this one just about beats it for me because there's not a single story in it that I don't love. This is the book I recommend to first time King readers, as I think it showcases his style and subgenre versatility better than anything else - it's a good all-rounder. My favourite story in it is One for the Road. It's a Salem's Lot story and I think it's absolutely chilling and perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of the main novel.

7

This has a simple but solid premise and a dystopian setting - my favourite! Funnily enough, when I first read this, I didn't much like it. I didn't care for the ending and went into a bit of a mood about it. But then I couldn't stop thinking about it for days, weeks, months, and I went back and changed my mind.

There can be only one!

6

The kind of premise that shouldn't work as a full novel, but does. A couple go for a sexy getaway, and one of them ends up handcuffed to the bed, alone and with no hope of outside help. It's definitely a character study more than plot-based story, so if you're more interested in the former, I'd definitely recommend this.

5

To this day, I haven't read grief quite the way it's written here. It's a difficult emotion to capture on the page like this, but King does it unbelievably well. The story is horrific, real (somehow, despite the supernatural aspects), and scary. I can't see it ever leaving my Top 10.

4

The second of The Dark Tower series, and my favourite! Out of the 8 books, this is the one I remember most clearly, enjoyed the experience of reading the most, and had the most fun conversations about. I really didn't care for The Gunslinger (the first in the series), and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, and then I read this one. I went from only bothering to read it because I'm a completionist and wanted to read every Stephen King book, to absolutely adoring Roland and the gang, and being really excited to get to the next book. If, like me, The Gunslinger didn't do it for you, I do whole-heartedly recommend moving onto The Drawing of the Three anyway - it's just awesome.

3

I know what you're thinking.... WHAT?! Listen, I don't care. This absolute gem of cosmic horror makes it into hardly anyone's favourites, and I don't understand why. It's so underrated. It's one of the King novels that tends to just slip off the radar, perhaps because there's no film adaptation of it so it doesn't have as much public buzz. It has shades of The Mist (by far, one of my very favourite King stories of all time), and Lovecraftian type mystery that kept me hooked. I could see everything so clearly while reading, and got through this in one sitting. I absolutely love this book and wish more people talked about it.

2

Since I first read it at the age of 12, this was - until recently - my favourite King book of all time. It was the first of his I read, so for a while I wondered if it was really that good or if nostalgia was making me remember it through a rose-tinted lens. After re-reading it years later I decided that no, it IS as good as I remembered. There's a huge host of characters that are all so well depicted that I had no trouble keeping up with them all, and who doesn't love a classic case of good and evil? Additionally, my favourite horror subgenre is apocalyptic/post apocalypse. I think this might be the book responsible for that.

It easily has one of the best openings I've ever read, too. 

It's an epic tale and while I actually dislike the ending, the rest of the story is so good that despite that, it still ranks this highly.

1

I wish I had a more unique Number One for you than this, because it's so often 1st, but there's a good reason for that. It's the perfect combination of story, characters, and antagonist. Don't get me wrong, everyone knows this book has problematic elements (one in particular that everyone is aware of whether they've read it or not), and I am critical. I do struggle with my own love of this book sometimes because of certain plot points. However, this book just has so much damn heart.

The seven main characters, our dear and beloved Losers Club, are amazing. I've never cared about characters the way I care about these guys. I could have carried on reading about them forever.

The villain is exceptional - what a great idea!

This isn't just a scary story, it's about the bonds of friendship, the intense, pure, platonical love between childhood friends. It captures childhood in a way that nothing else can rival (well, perhaps The Body can, also by Stephen King). The innocence of our group jaxtaposed with the immense evil threatening them is just plot perfection.

Even though it's a tome, I was sad to get to the end of it.

Unless Stephen King pulls a new complete, flawless masterpiece out of the bag, IT will hold this place in my rankings, probably forever.

So there you have it - I hope you enjoyed my list! Please tell me what your own favourites are - I love talking about Stephen King books. The best thing about being part of the fandom is that everyone has different rankings for these books.

Until next time!