To keep this intro brief, since the ranking is going to get long, Stephen King has been writing books for more than half a century at this point, and it’s hard to fully communicate just how prolific he is. His first published novel came out in 1974, and he’s written more than one novel a year since, at least on average, with huge numbers of short stories and novellas (usually found in compilations) also being published. And he’s written some non-fiction, too, including the memoir On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. But he’s best known for his horror works, though he’s also mastered some other genres, too. Also worth noting is the immense number of TV shows and movies that have adapted his works over the decades.
What follows is just focused on his novels, so if you’re looking for stories like The Body (which was adapted into Stand by Me) or The Mist (adapted into the movie of the same name), you’re not going to find them here. Also, some of his novellas might technically be novel-length, and a few of the “novels” mentioned below are more like novella-length, but if something was published as its own thing, at least initially, then it’s going to be included here. Also, King’s co-written a few novels, and they’re also going to be included. And, finally, hopefully nothing else gets published while this is being written, because then it won’t truly be “Every Stephen King Novel, Ranked.” The legendary author is still writing, as of 2025, so maybe such a ranking has to technically be a work-in-progress.
5. 11/22/63′ (2011)
Time travel is, as a concept, sufficiently over-the-top to work as something that shows up in sci-fi comedies just as often as dramas/thrillers, but it’s explored, in 11/22/63, in a manner that works surprisingly well as something generally serious. The protagonist is an English teacher, and he’s friends with someone who has a pantry that allows one to go back in time to 1958, and change the past to alter the future.
Since 1958 wasn’t too long before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the pair devise a plan to prevent said assassination with the hope that doing so will prevent various unfortunate events that happened after the titular date. 11/22/63 is also quite epic in length, though the feeling of things always building in intensity never really goes away, making for a novel that’s almost 1000 pages while somehow almost always being exciting. It pairs well with The Dead Zone, too, which is the inverse in a couple of ways (about someone who can see the future and endeavors to assassinate a political target, rather than prevent an assassination).
. 4. The Shining’ (1977)
The Shining has such an immense reputation, both as a novel in its own right and because of the legendary (albeit controversially different) film adaptation, but it really earns the right to be considered a classic. You can read it knowing about just about everything that happens from osmosis, and yet it still hits incredibly hard, working on two fronts as both a brutally effective psychological horror story and an intense supernatural horror one as well.
It’s only got a small number of central characters, with the three main ones being members of a family staying in a seemingly haunted hotel during the off-season, during which the father – Jack Torrance – slowly becomes more unstable. Regardless of what sort of horror usually scares you, you’re almost guaranteed to find at least some parts of The Shining unsettling. Before, Pet Sematary was mentioned as perhaps King’s scariest book, but The Shining isn’t far behind… and, in any event, it’s probably the better book in terms of being exceptionally well-balanced and paced.
3. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower’ (2004)
Sincerely, the person typing these words believes that the seventh Dark Tower book isn’t just the best in the series, but also one of the greatest novels King ever wrote. It makes the previous books stronger in hindsight, since there are countless payoffs to so many things set up in books #1 to #6, plus further developments to characters introduced in non-Dark Tower books (most noticeably, ‘Salem’s Lot, at least early on, and Insomnia, closer to the book’s conclusion).
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower is also controversial, and as an ending, it goes to some places that certain readers didn’t really want it to go to. There’s some challenge that comes with approaching a novel of this size and this ambition, particularly because it serves as a conclusion to so many other novels, yet there is so much offered here. It’s about as emotionally intense and surprising as any Stephen King novel’s ever gotten, and it’s a difficult one to shake, or stop thinking about, even long after you’ve traversed those final few divisive chapters.
2. The Stand’ (1978)
It’s worth noting that there are two versions of The Stand, and while both are long, the second version is considerably lengthier (King’s longest single novel, in fact). There are some divisive additions to that extended version, but also some great sections that do a lot for character development and world-building. Really, the world-building here is one of the most interesting parts of The Stand, and there are also so many characters, so having an already long novel be made even longer is a mostly good thing.
Put as succinctly as possible, The Stand is about the end of the world, with most of the population being taken out by a superflu, and then two groups forming before waging a war of sorts against each other for the fate of what remains of the world. It’s monumental, and would’ve been such a daunting task to write, but King was at his absolute best here, and it’s a must-read, even if you find the number of pages intimidating. Few authors are able to make books this thick fly by so fast, and though there are technically some imperfections to be found in The Stand, they just don’t really matter when you consider the enormity, ambition, and intensity of the story as a whole.
. 1. IT’ (1986)
It is the best. What is the best? It is the best. The best Stephen King novel. Maybe even one of the best books ever. Like The Shining and Carrie, you can’t really enter into this one in the 2020s without knowing – perhaps against your will – so much about It, but there are surprises here if you’re only familiar with the miniseries or movie adaptations. It works ideally as a novel, and even the most thorough of adaptations can’t fully capture just how great the original text is.
Like, yes, it’s about some kids fighting a demonic entity that often – though not exclusively – takes the form of a terrifying clown, but there is so much else built around that premise. The structuring is also adventurous and unique, since the kids do indeed grow up and have a rematch with the tItular foe, but both threads happen simultaneously in the novel… and that’s before getting to all the interludes, about the history of Derry and It itself, and how much those sections add. The whole novel is overwhelming in the best of ways, and endlessly rewarding. Like with The Stand, It’s not perfect (if you know, you unfortunately know), but there’s too much greatness here to worry about the comparatively brief hiccups. This one’s something special, very easy to revisit, and effortlessly able to evoke pretty much every emotion under the sun. As most of the aforementioned titles show, King’s written his fair share of great stuff, yet it’s It that’s the greatest of them all.
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