Stephen King Books in Order

Bullied teenager Carrie White discovers that she can move objects with her mind. With a domineering religious mother restricting her life at home, her attempt to belong at school leads toward a dangerous confrontation at the senior prom.

Writer Ben Mears returns to his hometown to confront childhood memories and work on a book about an unsettling house. As residents fall prey to vampires, he gathers a small group willing to challenge the growing threat.

Jack Torrance takes a winter caretaker job at the isolated Overlook Hotel, hoping to rebuild his life with Wendy and Danny. The hotel's violent supernatural forces exploit his weaknesses while seeking the extraordinary psychic gifts of his young son.

These short stories bring horror into familiar workplaces, homes, and small towns. A smoker seeks an extreme cure, an alcoholic undergoes a grotesque transformation, and ordinary encounters with rats, children, and machines become threats few victims understand.

An escaped laboratory virus devastates the population, leaving scattered survivors to rebuild. Drawn toward either Mother Abagail in Boulder or Randall Flagg in Las Vegas, they form rival communities preparing for a conflict with consequences beyond mere survival.

Johnny Smith wakes from a long coma able to glimpse people's pasts and futures through touch. When contact with an ambitious politician reveals a terrifying possibility, he must decide what responsibility comes with knowing what others cannot foresee.

Charlie McGee can start fires with her mind, an unexpected legacy of government experiments involving her parents. A secret agency hunts Charlie and her father, hoping to capture the child and turn her extraordinary abilities into a weapon.

After a violent storm, David Drayton and his son become trapped in a supermarket as mist conceals monstrous creatures outside. Fear divides the shoppers, and a religious zealot's demands make remaining indoors increasingly dangerous as well.

A once-friendly Saint Bernard becomes rabid after a bat bites him. When Donna Trenton brings her failing car to a rural garage, she and her young son find themselves trapped inside it by the dog in oppressive summer heat.

King examines the horror genre through novels, films, and television, asking how stories create fear and reflect the anxieties of their audiences. His discussions range from classic monsters to modern popular entertainment, drawing on his own encounters with horror.

Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger, pursues the Man in Black through a desolate world. His journey toward the Dark Tower brings encounters with strangers and a boy from Earth, testing what he will sacrifice for his quest.

The last gunslinger crosses a desert in pursuit of the mysterious Man in Black, seeking a tower at the center of existence. Along the way, Roland encounters Alice and young Jake, whose friendship complicates his relentless purpose.

Bullied teenager Arnie Cunningham buys a battered Plymouth Fury and becomes obsessed with restoring it. As his personality changes, his best friend and girlfriend suspect the car possesses a jealous, deadly will that threatens anyone who comes between them.

Monthly attacks terrorize the Maine town of Tarker's Mills as a werewolf hunts beneath the full moon. Young Marty Coslaw, who uses a wheelchair, suspects the truth and turns to his uncle for help identifying the creature.

Louis Creed moves his family to rural Maine, where a busy road threatens their pets. Beyond a children's animal cemetery lies another burial ground with disturbing powers, offering temptations that draw him toward dangerous questions about loss and death.

After King Roland's murder, Prince Peter is framed and imprisoned while his younger brother takes the throne. The sorcerer Flagg directs events behind the scenes, forcing Peter and his allies to find a way to resist his schemes.

Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer travels across America to find a talisman that could save his dying mother. His journey also passes through the Territories, a parallel world where familiar people have counterparts and a dying queen shares his mother's fate.

Lawyer Billy Halleck avoids serious punishment after killing a woman with his car, then receives a curse from her father. As his weight drops uncontrollably, he searches for the people responsible and a way to halt his decline.

Childhood friends return to Derry after new murders awaken memories of the creature they once confronted. Moving between their youth and adulthood, the story follows their effort to honor a promise and face the town's recurring evil.

Novelist Paul Sheldon survives a car accident thanks to former nurse Annie Wilkes, an obsessive fan of his romances. When she learns he has killed her favorite character, she holds him captive and demands a novel restoring Misery's life.

Injured on a strange shore, Roland encounters three doors that connect his world to people in New York. Crossing these thresholds draws potential companions into his search for the Dark Tower, but each brings dangers and struggles of their own.

Bobbi Anderson discovers a buried spacecraft near her Maine home and becomes obsessed with uncovering it. As the townspeople develop remarkable technological abilities, their health and behavior deteriorate, leaving her friend Jim Gardener to confront the discovery's malignant influence.

Photographer f-stop Fitzgerald's images of gargoyles and Gothic architecture accompany King's reflections on their disturbing presence. The book examines the fascination these grotesque figures inspire, drawing connections between buildings, imagined monsters, and the fears that follow viewers into dreams.

Writer Thad Beaumont publicly retires the pseudonym George Stark, expecting to leave his violent thrillers behind. Instead, his invented alter ego takes physical form and pursues those involved, while evidence from the murders points directly to Thad.

Leland Gaunt's new shop offers Castle Rock residents the objects they most desire in exchange for money and small favors. Those favors ignite old resentments, drawing Sheriff Alan Pangborn into an investigation as pranks escalate toward violence.

Roland, Eddie, and Susannah follow the Path of the Beam toward the Dark Tower, gathering new companions along the way. Their route crosses a decaying city and brings them into conflict with a dangerously unstable, sentient monorail.

Questioned over her wealthy employer's death, Dolores Claiborne recounts decades of domestic abuse, difficult work, and fierce loyalty. Her account links the present investigation to her husband's suspicious death and the private history that island neighbors have long speculated about.

After her husband dies during a sexual game, Jessie Burlingame remains handcuffed to a bed in an isolated house. With no immediate help, she confronts childhood memories, inner voices, and a frightening presence she cannot confidently explain.

Widower Ralph Roberts sleeps less each night and begins seeing colored auras and strange figures in Derry. What first seems like exhaustion draws him and fellow widow Lois Chasse into a conflict whose stakes extend beyond their ordinary lives.

A collaborative tour chronicle by the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band of prominent writers who temporarily exchanged desks for stages. Anecdotes from the members and photographs by Tabitha King recount their first American rock-and-roll tour, its mishaps, friendships, and performances.

Rosie Daniels leaves an abusive marriage and begins rebuilding her life in another city, where a strange painting attracts her attention. Her husband, a violent police officer, uses his connections to pursue her, threatening the independence she has finally claimed.

Travelers crossing Nevada are detained by a brutal police officer and drawn into the isolated mining town of Desperation. An ancient force released beneath the mine possesses residents, while a young boy's faith offers the captives a possible defense.

Death-row superintendent Paul Edgecomb recalls a condemned prisoner unlike any he has guarded before. John Coffey's gentleness and extraordinary healing ability challenge the assumptions surrounding his conviction and place the prison staff between duty, compassion, and the threat of execution.

Armed attackers descend on an ordinary Ohio street while houses and surroundings change into a grotesque western landscape. As neighbors struggle to survive, a malevolent force possessing a young boy reshapes their world through his imagination and fears.

Roland and his companions face a deadly contest with Blaine the Mono while continuing toward the Dark Tower. Their journey prompts Roland to recount his youth, his first love Susan Delgado, and the forces that shaped his losses.

Still grieving his wife, blocked novelist Mike Noonan returns to their lakeside retreat and becomes involved in a young widow's custody battle. Ghostly disturbances in the house connect his new relationships to secrets his late wife may have understood.

Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland becomes lost during a family hike and struggles to survive in the woods. Baseball broadcasts and thoughts of pitcher Tom Gordon sustain her, while hunger, isolation, and the sense of a pursuing presence deepen her fear.

King combines memories of childhood, early publication, and personal setbacks with practical advice about storytelling and revision. He considers the tools and habits of a writer's work, including the role writing played in recovering from his near-fatal accident.

This companion to On Writing collects essays, interviews, early fiction, and other pieces about storytelling. Topics include selling stories, advising younger writers, and understanding horror, with selections that reveal King's developing thoughts about the practice and responsibilities of writing.

Four childhood friends reunite for a hunting trip in Maine, where a delirious stranger brings an otherworldly threat into their camp. Their survival depends on abilities and bonds rooted in a brave act involving a fifth friend years earlier.

After his father's death, Ned Wilcox discovers the strange Buick hidden behind a Pennsylvania police barracks. Veteran troopers recount decades of unexplained events surrounding the car, which appears to connect their familiar world to an incomprehensible other reality.

Sixteen tales by Edgar Allan Poe are paired with twenty original essays by mystery writers on Poe’s influence on their reading and work. Edited by Michael Connelly, the volume includes an essay by Nelson DeMille and commemorates Poe’s bicentennial.

Roland and his companions reach Calla Bryn Sturgis, where masked raiders periodically abduct children. Asked to defend the town, the gunslingers must balance that battle with protecting a New York rose whose survival is tied to the Dark Tower.

A demon sharing Susannah's body carries her to New York to give birth, splitting Roland's companions across different times. Their rescue effort unfolds alongside a struggle to preserve the vacant lot protecting a vital connection to the Dark Tower.

This annual volume gathers twenty American mystery stories selected by guest editor Nelson DeMille from periodical publications. The choices represent varied approaches to crime fiction, ranging from psychological suspense and noir-inflected wrongdoing to unsettling moral dilemmas.

Roland and his remaining companions approach the Dark Tower as forces intent on its destruction gather strength. Their journey through End-World brings confrontations with the Crimson King's servants and tests the bonds sustaining the gunslinger's relentless quest.

Two veteran Maine newspapermen tell their young intern about an unidentified man found dead on a nearby island. Even after his identity emerges, conflicting clues leave them confronting the limits of explanation and the persistence of an unsolved mystery.

A mysterious signal turns cell phone users into violent attackers, shattering artist Clay Riddell's visit to Boston. Joined by other survivors, he heads toward Maine to find his family while the transformed crowds develop increasingly disturbing collective behavior.

Widow Lisey Landon sorts her novelist husband's papers while a stalker demands access to his unpublished work. Memories of their marriage reveal a strange world he once entered, offering clues that could help her survive the threat.

Small-time criminal Blaze kidnaps a millionaire's infant while still hearing advice from his dead partner. As he develops affection for the child, memories of his own abusive upbringing complicate a crime whose consequences are closing in on him.

Guest editor Stephen King and series editor Heidi Pitlor select twenty short stories first published in U.S. and Canadian magazines. The annual anthology includes Richard Russo’s “Horseman” alongside work by Alice Munro, Lauren Groff, Karen Russell, and others.

After a devastating accident and divorce, Edgar Freemantle moves to a Florida island and begins painting. His unexpected talent carries disturbing powers, drawing him and his new friends into an evil connected with a neighbor's buried past.

An invisible dome abruptly seals Chester's Mill off from the world, creating a struggle for survival. Veteran Dale Barbara and other residents confront escalating shortages while local politician Big Jim Rennie exploits the crisis to consolidate his power.

Three novels written as Richard Bachman explore people trapped by ruthless systems and personal desperation. The Long Walk follows a lethal endurance contest, Roadwork centers on resistance to demolition, and The Running Man turns televised pursuit into a death game.

Sheltering from a violent storm, Roland tells his companions about investigating a shape-shifter as a young gunslinger. Within that memory, another tale unfolds, linking a frightened boy's ordeal with the stories Roland learned during his own troubled childhood.

Adult Dan Torrance seeks sobriety and peace after the horrors of the Overlook Hotel. His connection with gifted child Abra Stone draws him into a battle against the True Knot, travelers who prey on children with psychic abilities.

Heartbroken college student Devin Jones takes a summer job at a North Carolina amusement park. Stories of a murdered woman's ghost lead him toward an unsolved killing, while friendship with a sick child deepens his understanding of loss.

Retired detective Bill Hodges receives a taunting letter from the driver who massacred job seekers with a stolen Mercedes. Returning to the unsolved case gives him purpose, but the killer is preparing another attack that demands an urgent response.

Musician Jamie Morton repeatedly crosses paths with Charles Jacobs, a former minister whose grief has fueled an obsession with electricity. Their bond offers Jamie escape from addiction but draws him into experiments with increasingly troubling consequences.

A boy discovers stolen money and unpublished manuscripts hidden by a murderer obsessed with novelist John Rothstein. When the thief leaves prison, Bill Hodges and his partners must protect the boy's family from a reader determined to reclaim his treasure.

Edited by Michael Bailey, this psychologically focused horror anthology uses a symmetrical design to interweave fiction and poetry. It also features forty-five illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne and an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk.

Hospitalized killer Brady Hartsfield appears helpless but has developed powers allowing him to manipulate people beyond his room. A suspicious murder-suicide draws Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney into a renewed struggle against their old adversary's spreading influence.

Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson meets a mysterious stranger during her daily climb above Castle Rock. His gift of a button box brings rewards and frightening possibilities, forcing her to consider the responsibilities and temptations attached to its extraordinary power.

Sleeping women become enclosed in strange cocoons and react violently when disturbed, leaving men to face a rapidly changing world. In an Appalachian town with a women's prison, an apparently immune stranger becomes the focus of fear and conflict.

Castle Rock resident Scott Carey keeps losing weight without becoming visibly thinner, even when holding heavy objects. As he confronts the mystery, his efforts to support a neighboring married lesbian couple challenge the town's prejudices and his own assumptions.

Detective Ralph Anderson arrests a popular teacher for a child's murder after witnesses and forensic evidence identify him. An equally convincing alibi undermines the apparent certainty of the case, leading the investigation toward an explanation beyond ordinary criminal behavior.

Kidnapped boy Luke Ellis awakens in a secret facility where children with psychic abilities endure brutal experiments. As friends disappear into its more ominous sections, Luke searches for a way to escape and expose the adults exploiting their gifts.

Passengers sleeping through a red-eye flight awaken to find nearly everyone else missing, including the crew. Their attempt to land and understand what happened brings them into a deserted, unsettling world where an approaching sound signals further danger.

Four novellas explore a phone connecting with the dead, a man's life viewed backward, a writer's desperate bargain, and Holly Gibney's investigation of a suspicious reporter. Everyday relationships and ambitions become entry points for unsettling forces.

Hitman and former soldier Billy Summers accepts one last assignment before retiring, insisting he only kills bad people. Living undercover in a small town gives him an unexpected community, while the planned job threatens to unravel his carefully managed escape.

Jamie Conklin can see the dead, a gift his mother urges him to hide. When a New York detective recruits him to pursue a killer who threatens violence beyond death, the power's frightening costs become impossible to avoid.

Teenager Charlie Reade befriends an elderly recluse and his dog, then discovers a portal hidden in the man's shed. Entering a troubled parallel world draws Charlie into a struggle whose outcome could threaten both that realm and his own.

Gwendy Peterson's long relationship with the dangerous button box culminates in a secret mission aboard a space station. Charged with protecting the world from its power, she faces a final responsibility extending far beyond the Maine town where it began.

Teacher Jake Epping enters a portal to 1958 and undertakes a plan to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. Building a life in the past and falling in love complicate his mission as history resists his attempts to change it.