My Top Stephen King Novels 

I honestly think at this point his work should be considered modern classics.

Stephen King is a master writer and he has written wonderful books and a number of masterpieces. The one book which moved me immensely was The Body which was included in Different Seasons. The movie was of course superb but the book brings the four young boys to life. The final page moved me to tears. Such is the power of Stephen King. Pet Semetary was my first read and I still regard it as one of my favourites. IT was epic and Pennywise is perhaps King's most grotesque creations. The ending however after a long thrilling journey is....bewildering. I visited Maine a few years ago (I'm from England) and because King has been in my life for what seems forever I half expected to see a creepy looking clown.....Great review. Well done.

I first read The Stand when I was around 15 years old back in the early 2000s, and I've read it at least 3 more times since then. It's always been my favourite ever book of all time! Funny how we're now actually living through a virus pandemic....

I agree on your thoughts about Revival. Super underrated, it caught me by surprise. It's also one of my favorites.

Needful things is sooo underrated. My favorite king book besides IT

So with you on Revival. The finale is so striking and its imagery has stuck with me. Love how these lists are so different and our judgement can be so influenced by what we're going through when we come to them.

Loved this video! I come from "Rachel and the Shades of Orange", who made a shout-out to your channel and I can say you're totally my jam! I'll be checking all your more recent videos (and then some!) soon. Keep it up!

I just found you today. I love how you describe everything!!!! Thank you so much for doing these videos!!!

It's so difficult to choose a list of favourites from an author as prolific (and brilliant) as Stephen King. I think your list is really interesting and I definitely want to read Revival now. Surprised by the omission of Salem's Lot but these things are so subjective. I agree that Needful Things is so underappreciated. I always liked the Dead Zone but rarely see it on anybody's favourites list. Anyway I really enjoyed your video and now I am going to dig out my copy of Revival.

I agree with your list. Also: I remember really liking Needfull Things, Christine, Full Dark No Stars, Skeleton Crew, Cujo. I recently collected about 40 of his hardbacks and plan to read/reread them all! Thanks for your video I’m sure it will inspire new readers to Stephen King!

This is such a great list. I love all of these books including your honorable mentions. I would add 11/22/63, Lisey's Story, Joyland, Misery, The Drawing of The Three, The Wastelands, Doctor Sleep, The Talisman, andNightmares and Dreamscapes.

Now I'm gonna have to read Under the Dome. Needful Things is a long-time favorite, and I agree with you about his "small town descending into chaos" trope: he does it brilliantly. It's even there in Carrie. Hell, it's the entire concept of Derry in IT; the chaotic backbiting and general selfish meanness is baked into the town itself. My personal favorite is Skeleton Crew. That collection has one of my favorite short stories of all time, The Reach. Never fails to get me all emotional. Skeleton Crew also has The Mist, Nona (shudder), Uncle Otto's Truck, and a lot of other major creepers. Plus poetry!

Thank you so much for the Needful Things love. Its one of my favorites too and it feels like most people dont like it. Great list.

Great list! I'm reading The Stand right now and am only on the character development/deaths but am still interested and really look forward to how it plays out. Also I couldn't agree more about both Revival and Full dark, No stars.

wonderful enthusiastic reviews and connection to your evolution as a reader and person.

Magnificent video. I really enjoyed how you explained your personal background story about each book. "my top King's books" has million versions on YT but very few really personal and engaging. Found your channel today, will surely revisit as often as possible.

Thanks for your video. I really enjoyed it. My favorite book at the moment is also Needful Things. It took me just the first five pages to know that this book would be a good story. My favorite character is of course Mr. Gaunt maybe because of his enigmatic and misterious allure. Hopefully you can also review Under the dome? Your short comments on it, made me very curious. I will definitely read it.

I just came across this video and I loved it. I think Stephen King's the best and I even got some ideas of what to read next. There's a lot of books from him I haven't read yet. I agree with you wholeheartedly on IT. If those people aren't willing to overlook that scene, they're really missing out on a fantastic story. Love the shining and Pet Sematary of course. I think so far, IT, Pet Sematary, the shining, Carrie and misery are my favorites. Oh and Salem's lot. I don't know if you've read that one but if you haven't, you should. it's great. I might give needful things a try now; I don't hear a lot of people talking about that one. I've been looking at revival too. Great video!

I'm a pretty big King fan but I haven't gotten into a lot of his modern stuff. Recently read the outsider because the mini series was coming out, and it was surprisingly great. Either way good recommendations I think I'll check out under the dome next

I am reading King's books in chronological order and I'm currently reading The Dead Zone (I've read all the other books that are published before that). The Dead Zone is really good but my favourite books right now are The Shining and the short story collection named Night Shift. I'm really enjoying watching Stephen King videos and I really hope that I'll find a lot of new favourite King's books in the future! I finished reading The Stand in January and it took me about 7 months to read... :D And it was a good book but for me, it was too long and not my favourite. But I appreciate it for what it was and I totally understand why people love it.

The institute is great. The long walk is one of my all time fav books!

Thanks for your opinions Taylor. Really interesting.

I haven't read any Stephen King yet. I just bought "Different Seasons", "The Long Walk", and "Misery". I am very excited to read them! If I enjoy them I feel like I need to pick up "Pet Sematary" and "The Shining". I was not a huge fan of the movie The Shining, but your description of the book makes me want to read it! :)

I’m reading Needful Things right now!! It’s my spooky October read. *SIDENOTE* Joyland is one of my favorite and most underrated recent King novels. I find it to be one of his most

Nice list and thoughtful analysis.,Salem's Lot freaked me out one night in 1985 whilst in a basement apartment. Around 2 am there was a power outage and I read the book by candlelight with doors double bolted.

Hi Taylor, really enjoyed your reviews! I’m a lifelong SK fan. Started reading him in high school, I’m 52 now lol! Anyway, my favorite has to be the dark tower series. I began that journey in high school and had to wait years between books . My favorite book outside of the DT canon has to be the Stand, with Salem’s lot an honorable mention. I think a lot of his more recent works are hit or miss. Loved, Under the Dome, full dark no stars , and 11/22/63. Didn’t really care for the Hodges trilogy, revival( sorry, thought it started out great but lost steam) and doctor sleep. Anyway just some thoughts. I am desperately holding on to hope that he writes one more DT novel.

King has so many great books! Pet Semetary was the first book I ever read of his so it holds a special place for me. I agree with most of these, although I've never read Under the Dome. I LOVED Revival while I was reading it, but boy do I absolutely despise the ending. I liked Needful Things, it's nice to hear it mentioned. Another couple of books that I really liked that seem to get little love are From A Buick 8 and Hearts In Atlantis.

What a good video ☺️🙏 thank you! Enjoyed it 📚📚

My favourite one is 11.22.63. I thought reading it was just a joy. I just love the sensibility of the main character. It's so immersive. Anyway, great video :)

Great little breakdown, sub

My top 5: The Talisman, the stand, pet cemetery, the long walk and Duma Key. Honorable mention Liseys story. Not conventional picks but they satisfied and surprised me the most. Keep in mind I've only read 40+ of his books I got more to go

Very well described. Great job.

I'm just now buying Stephen King books. You did and awesome job reviewing each of your top ten. 😊

You are so right about Needful Things , it’s so underrated. 🔥👍

Totally agree with your assessment of The Shining. I sometimes wonder if the people who say they prefer the movie have actually read the book. Jack Torrance’s character is fascinating and so deep, and is flattened so much in the film...

Great video. Of his more recent work I think the Bill Hodges trilogy is my favorite.

New subscriber from the mountains of Colorado! Great stuff! Keep it up the good work! Are your reviews on Goodreads?

I love so many of the books mentioned here, and I agree that there's something special about Full Dark, No Stars. That book feels like King, after spending much of his career infusing fantastic elements into the things that go *bump* in the night, decided to look at monstrous aspects of humanity through a more realist lens. 1922 and The Good Husband are both unnerving stories that put the reader so very close to unimaginable evil. These novellas are a perfect exercise in POV and voice. The one book on this list I've never read is Needful Things, and I just bought that one for a spooky autumn read.

Pet Sematary is so good! I'm reading IT right now. I'm loving it. I'm only about 450 pages in.

Agreed. The Stand is my #1 book, Pet Seminary, a close second. Thanks!

Taylor where are you?!… I just found your channel and love it! Please come back!

You can never go wrong with a list talking about your favorite Stephen King books. I for one really enjoy what he writes and am looking to get into more of what he has written. The Green Mile and Bag of Bones are among my favorites of what he has written as well. I think that both are a lower dosage of horror and possess more literary elements to them. I also liked Hearts in Atlantis a lot and how immersed I became with the period of time in which he writes. I agree with your thesis in how there have been film adaptations that are completely unfaithful to the book, but are still great films. The Running Man is perhaps the greatest example, in how it complete ignores the book, but yet the film was such a happy cheese delight and says a lot about the television climate. I thought Richard Dawson as game show host Damon Killian did a fantastic job. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards was okay. The Shining has become a phenomenon onto itself, though I personally feel the book has much more substance where as the film is meant to cater to horror film-goers. If there was a film I thought was actually better than the written work, it was The Shawshank Redemption. While I enjoyed reading the novella, the film rearranges it so that each of the characters exists with one another instead of pacing it out. As for works of horror, I thought Pet Sematary was his scariest, followed by The Shining, Cujo, Misery, and 'Salem's Lot. I thought that the concept of Thinner was also one that can leave someone uneasy. It is great to see that you have some selections that are often overlooked. I also really need to read The Stand. I have heard mixed thoughts, but a lot of people cite this as his monument work. Out of curiosity, which King work do you believe is his scariest and which ones are your least favorites? Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Stephen King! -Josh

Nice video! I really enjoyed it. I wish you'd mentioned Duma Key, which was visible in the background all the time.... 😅

My favs: the shining, pet semetary and bag of bones. I LOVED bag of bones. I’m currently reading the stand

The Green Mile is such a great book!!

So far, my favorite SK book is IT. The setting of the 1960's, the bonds of friendship between the "Losers Club," the town of Derry being incredibly fleshed-out and feeing real and alive, etc. There was one particular scene I was not a fan of, but since it was only 1-2 pages of a 1,000+ page novel I can easily skip over it and enjoy the other 99% of it. I have yet to read a lot of his best books, however. Like, The Stand, Pet Sematary (I'm actually about to start this one), Salem's Lot and The Dark Tower series. I have read The Shining and thought it was great. I think Kubrick's interpretation of it was absolute genius even though he changed-up the story a bit. I think that might actually be the one film I like more than the source material (barely though). The book I do find amazing. They're so close to each other that I honestly go back and forth over which I prefer. I think Kubrick's film is an example of a genuine cinematic horror masterpiece, the likes of which are extremely rare. And I think the Native American genocide aspect added a lot of weight to the story.

I've so far read Pet Sematary, Misery, The Shining, Revival, Thinner and Night Shift. From those, I loved Pet Sematary the most, followed by Revival, so I am glad the latter got some attention here. :)

I found an old cut version of The Stand at a garage sale for 50 cents in pristine condition. It's cool just to.have it. The unabridged is better, though

It and The Stand are my top two King books.....nice list.

One of my favourite King books which never seems to be anyone else's is Insomnia. I love Ralph, the ties to the Dark Tower series, the idea of things going on around you that you are unaware of. I'm also only on book 4 of the dark tower series. I'm finding it a hard read.

Felt the same about Revival. Being a musician and loving the coming of age/kids friendship story, it was great. The ending was also fantastic. I thought of it as how many religious people think the afterlife would be good and you’d be reunited with loved ones etc. But in this story he describes something different and it’s like a twilight zone ending. Mind bending. After reading this you may think - maybe it’s better that there is no afterlife compared to this option.

I’ve only read about 25 of his books so far but here are my top 10 10. Misery 9. Cujo 8. Carrie 7. Pet Semetary 6. Joyland 5. The Institute 4. Needful Things 3. Mr. Mercedes 2. Salem’s Lot 1. The Stand

Just finished The Outsider. Great book

I really love your channel and all your Stephen king talk. You do a really great job. Makes me sad you had to deal with bullying.

Just finished Under the Dome. It’s similar in some ways to The Stand regarding the two opposing camps. And though I didn’t mind the ending of the Stand (though it wasn’t my favourite) I think I liked the ending of The Dome more. King is a similar story teller to Rod Serling in the sense that stories are grounded in reality, but they can get metaphorical (and therefore ‘magical) in order to elucidate a point. In this case treating people humanely, as opposed to torturing citizens in Iraq, or burning ants etc. Great ending which for me competes with Revival. I read Dome, Revival and Needful Things because of your reviews. Thanks

Full dark no stars is highly underrated, also loved all 4 stories!

Last weekend (12.09.2020) I did read just in one afternoon ELEVATION, amazing ending!! I almost cry with it! Greeting from Argentina 😁

I like Long Walk. 350 pages of people walking and it is one of the best books I've ever read.

I've read 26 of them so far! Working on the 27th one which is The Stand now.

I havent read a lot of Stephen king but I'm working on that lol, heres my ranking of the books I've read and finished by him 1. Pet Sematary 2. IT 3. Carrie I'm currently working on christine and I am loving it! Also I completely agree with you about the pet sematary movies

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Firestarter, Misery, and ‘Salem’s Lot, they’re some of my favourites!

Love seeing Revival on the list. Very underrated.

I started Pet Semetary about 10 years ago and had terrible nightmares! Since then I have seen both movies and I agree, the new one is awful, the first one I thought rushed through a lot of emotion and character building. Im going to start reading this book again tonight, wish me luck. Hope I dont see Zelda when I close my eyes! PS just subbed

I've only read a few of his books so far but heres my list of the ones I've read: 1 Dolores Claiborne 2 Pet Sematary 3 IT 4 Carrie

If you haven’t already I highly recommend the institute!

completely agree with you about needful things

Subscribed!☺

Also I always say that the shining movie is a masterpiece but the book is something that haunts you and it will go down in history as one of the great literary works of the 20th century. It’s unfair for both movie and book to be compared to each other. Oh! A funny story: my fav music band is called Shining and they are from Sweden ;)

My top King books are IT, The Stand, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Mr Mercedes, The Outsider & Night Shift Keep up the great videos 😎👍🏻

Pet Sematary was my first Stephen King read as a teen...I have been a Constant Reader ever since!

Im new here, thank you subbed 😍 love from Australia.

Subscribed as soon as I saw you were a Constant Reader and I saw you a box set of Riyria Revelations. I still need to get back to finish Needful Things, but the more you talk about the King I haven't read I want to go straight to those books. I agree about IT and that one scene. I know it's a pretty disturbing scene, but it's one scene that only lasts a handful of pages.

I've read 0 so far, but I know my first will be Pet Sematary!

Great list, and totally agree about IT. So far I have only read 7 King books. Here is my ranking so far: 1. Pet Sematary 2. IT 3. Salems Lot 4. The Shining 5. Misery 6. The Institute 7. The Colorado Kid What would you recommend next!? I was thinking Needful Things :)

I love watching collection videos from everyone who loves Stephen King as much as I do. How much do you guys paid for old editions of his books that are no longer sold? I live in Slovakia and so many books that he published some years ago are no longer available-no reprint to be exact :( except for books such as IT as it was made into a movie in 2017. I was recently pretty lucky and I found some of the books I am missing in my collection online. The overall price for approximately 13 books is around 230€

Needful Things is like a Rod Serling Twilight Zone story, which means it's GREAT

I am a huge Stephen King fan and if you haven't read his book Dreamcatcher please please PLEASE do. It is one of his lesser talked about pieces of work. It is one of my all time favorite books. I have so much of his work. I have more books by him than ANY other writer.

Bag of Bones is one of my favourite books. It is very underrated

I completely agree with your thoughts on the Pet Sematary film, the new one is much worse than the old one, and the book is the best of the bunch.

I loved Revival!!

To be honest as a Filipino, Reading books written by Stephen King kills me 😭 Maybe you can have some walk through reading in the future with his works. Lol. Just hoping 😂. By the way, nice videoooo

Well as much as I love horror I just decided to start getting into Stephen King books because I came up on such a deal I was able to pick up 30 of them from a store going out of business at a dollar a piece first one I tried to read it's called dreamcatcher I think it is very very horrible but after watching your video most of the books that I was able to buy or on your list so I'll give it another shot and try to read bag of bones next since you highly recommend it but dream catcher is just not my cup of tea

I see the slasher girls monster boys on the shelf. In the Forst Dark and Deep is a fantastic story in it if you haven't read it.

I’m trying to start my own Stephen King collection. I have 7 books and 1 audiobook book so far. The physical books I have are; IT, Pet Sematary, Carrie, The Shinning, Cujo, misery and 11/22/63. The audiobook I have on my moms Audible account is The Stand. Someone on Facebook is supposed to be mailing me a hardcover book of Fire Starter but it doesn’t have a dust jacket. She hasn’t put the book in the mail yet. I’m also 1/2 way through Pet Sematary.

Everything's Eventual Cujo Dreamcatcher

You forgot the best one Salem Lot!

In my opinion one of the best newer titles is sleeping beauties if you haven’t read that one yet you should

Firestarter is brilliant

No Salem’s Lot?? That’s probably my favorite by him!

I noticed Duma Key plainly showing in the background. I have that one but haven't read it yet. Is it any good? It looks odd, like, "Huh, what kind of book is this?" And do you really reread his huge, fat books like The Stand? I read the first, shorter version of it in the early '80s, the 800+ page version not the 1,400 page version, and I cannot fathom how I could ever read that book again to get the FULL story, revisiting what I already read, and where on earth I could even find the time for it with all the other books of his that I still haven't gotten to. Do you even sleep? Where do you find the time for all this reading and rereading? Are you a speed reader?

Stephen king books #1 It #2 the talisman #3 the stand #4 carrie #5 the green mile #6 nightmare and dreamscapes #7 misery #8 cujo #9 the bizzar of bad dreams #10 the tommyknockers #11 the body .

Love your channel and just subscribed. I know the scene in it your talking about and agree. I hate to say it but most people that complain about that stuff are women. I read a review where this book tuner loved a book but said it was gross that a 16 year old girl thought the main character was hot. They didn’t even have a relationship, she just though he was hot and this woman says 16 year old girls never think that about older men . Lol umm I’m a bodybuilder and have had females that age that are my gym buddies or that I’m training try coming on to me all the time. Lol. Some people take their own life experiences and think it applies to everyone. It’s mostly when a book has sexual content Involving women Meanwell men are being chopped pieces and no one cares. Lol. I say just calm down and enjoy the book. Unless it really is actually pro abuse of course

The Dead Zone, especially with the way our World is today. Very underrated.

My top 3 S.K. novels are 1. Cell 2. IT and 3. His short stories

im reading the stand.. im loving it! why are people so critical about 'Needful things'?? i was intrigued by the synopsis.. in comment section too i see.. many liking it! and one more question... is Under the dome novel worth it???? because i was bored of tv series 🥲🥲🥲🥲

I could only get part of the way through pet Sematary and it freaked me out so bad I couldn’t finish it I might try it again now that I’m a little older

on IT: Are there that many prudes in the world where one scene would turn them off from reading the greatest living author?

I've only read Misery and The Green Mile and found both of them underwhelming (especially The Green Mile); in fact, I think the films are better. I'm going to give The Shining a try next. I really want to like King but just based on those two books so far, I can't see what most other readers see.

I Loved "Full Dark No Stars"!!I think I gave it a 5/5..his newest book thou..not so wowed by it.And its "If It Bleeds"Mind you,its ok,but not a 5/5.Just my opinion:)

my top: the stand, insomnia, rose mader, the talisman, the outsider and the dark tower ...