Reading Order

Stephen King Books in Order

Stephen King has published for more than fifty years and shows no sign of slowing down, which makes “in order” a slightly odd request — almost nothing he writes requires anything else to be read first. What you actually need is three things: a publication timeline so you can see the shape of the career, the handful of series that do have a required order, and a map of the connective tissue that ties Castle Rock, Derry and the Dark Tower together. All three are below.

Where to Start with Stephen King

There is no wrong entry point, but there are better ones. New readers who begin with It or The Stand sometimes stall out at page 300 of a 1,100-page book and conclude King isn't for them. A shorter door works better.

The Dark Tower Reading Order

The Dark Tower is the spine of King's entire body of work — a gunslinger named Roland Deschain pursuing a dark man across a world that has “moved on,” picking up companions pulled out of our world along the way. It is also the one series where order genuinely matters, and where the publication order needs one small correction.

1. The Gunslinger (1982; revised 2003)
2. The Drawing of the Three (1987)
3. The Waste Lands (1991)
4. Wizard and Glass (1997)
5. The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) — published last, but set here
6. Wolves of the Calla (2003)
7. Song of Susannah (2004)
8. The Dark Tower (2004)

Two things worth knowing before you start. First, The Gunslinger is the strangest and least representative book in the series — it was assembled from short stories written in King's twenties, and plenty of readers who bounce off it love everything after it. If book one doesn't grab you, read The Drawing of the Three before you quit. Second, The Wind Through the Keyhole is a standalone story-within-a-story set between books four and five; you can also save it for after book seven if you'd rather not interrupt the main run.

Dark Tower tie-in novels

Several standalone novels connect directly to Roland's quest. None are required, but each one deepens the series if read beforehand:

• 'Salem's Lot — Father Callahan's story starts here and resumes in Wolves of the Calla. The most rewarding one to read first.
• The Stand — introduces Randall Flagg, who wears several names across the Tower books.
• The Eyes of the Dragon — a straight fantasy, and Flagg again.
• Insomnia and Hearts in Atlantis — both feed material directly into the last three books.
• The Talisman and its sequel Black House (both with Peter Straub) — same multiverse, and Black House is explicitly a Tower book.

Castle Rock, Derry & the Connected Maine

King invented three Maine towns and then kept going back to them, which is what makes his catalog feel like one long book rather than sixty separate ones. You don't need to read these in order, but knowing the groupings makes the callbacks land.

Castle Rock

The town of the Sheriff Bannerman years and the site of King's most human horror. The core Castle Rock run: The Dead Zone (1979), Cujo (1981), the novella The Body in Different Seasons (1982), The Dark Half (1989), the novella The Sun Dog in Four Past Midnight (1990), and Needful Things (1991), which King wrote as “the last Castle Rock story.” He has since returned — the Gwendy books, written with Richard Chizmar, are set there. Reading The Dead Zone and Cujo before Needful Things is the one sequence Castle Rock fans recommend.

Derry

Derry is the bad one. It is the setting of It (1986) and turns up again in Insomnia (1994), Bag of Bones (1998), Dreamcatcher (2001) and 11/22/63 (2011). The Derry sequence in 11/22/63 is a direct callback to It and is far richer if you've read the earlier book — the single strongest argument for reading It relatively early.

Jerusalem's Lot

The vampire town from 'Salem's Lot, plus the short stories “Jerusalem's Lot” and “One for the Road” in the collection Night Shift.

The Bill Hodges & Holly Gibney Books (in order)

King's detective run — and the closest thing he has to a modern ongoing series. Holly begins as an anxious supporting character and quietly takes over the whole line.

1. Mr. Mercedes (2014)
2. Finders Keepers (2015)
3. End of Watch (2016)
4. The Outsider (2018)
5. If It Bleeds (2020) — the title novella is a Holly story
6. Holly (2023)
7. Never Flinch (2025)

Every Stephen King Novel in Publication Order

Novels only, by first US publication. Titles marked (Bachman) were originally published under his Richard Bachman pen name; titles marked (with…) are collaborations.

• 1970s: Carrie (1974) · 'Salem's Lot (1975) · The Shining (1977) · Rage (1977, Bachman) · The Stand (1978) · The Dead Zone (1979) · The Long Walk (1979, Bachman)
• 1980s: Firestarter (1980) · Cujo (1981) · Roadwork (1981, Bachman) · The Running Man (1982, Bachman) · The Gunslinger (1982) · Christine (1983) · Pet Sematary (1983) · Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) · The Talisman (1984, with Peter Straub) · Thinner (1984, Bachman) · It (1986) · The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) · Misery (1987) · The Tommyknockers (1987) · The Drawing of the Three (1987) · The Dark Half (1989)
• 1990s: The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990) · Needful Things (1991) · The Waste Lands (1991) · Gerald's Game (1992) · Dolores Claiborne (1992) · Insomnia (1994) · Rose Madder (1995) · The Green Mile (1996) · Desperation (1996) · The Regulators (1996, Bachman) · Wizard and Glass (1997) · Bag of Bones (1998) · The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) · Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
• 2000s: Dreamcatcher (2001) · Black House (2001, with Peter Straub) · From a Buick 8 (2002) · Wolves of the Calla (2003) · Song of Susannah (2004) · The Dark Tower (2004) · The Colorado Kid (2005) · Cell (2006) · Lisey's Story (2006) · Blaze (2007, Bachman) · Duma Key (2008) · Under the Dome (2009)
• 2010s: 11/22/63 (2011) · The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) · Joyland (2013) · Doctor Sleep (2013) · Mr. Mercedes (2014) · Revival (2014) · Finders Keepers (2015) · End of Watch (2016) · Gwendy's Button Box (2017, with Richard Chizmar) · Sleeping Beauties (2017, with Owen King) · The Outsider (2018) · Elevation (2018) · The Institute (2019)
• 2020s: Later (2021) · Billy Summers (2021) · Gwendy's Final Task (2022, with Richard Chizmar) · Fairy Tale (2022) · Holly (2023) · Never Flinch (2025)

Alongside those sit the story collections — Night Shift (1978), Different Seasons (1982), Skeleton Crew (1985), Four Past Midnight (1990), Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993), Everything's Eventual (2002), Just After Sunset (2008), Full Dark, No Stars (2010), The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015), If It Bleeds (2020) and You Like It Darker (2024) — plus the nonfiction Danse Macabre (1981) and On Writing (2000). King publishes constantly, so if you want the very newest release, the Stephen King author page on Amazon is the fastest place to check.

Stephen King FAQ

Do I have to read Stephen King books in order?

No. Nearly everything is a standalone. The exceptions are The Dark Tower, the Hodges/Gibney line, The Talisman → Black House, and The Shining → Doctor Sleep.

Which King book is the scariest?

Readers usually name Pet Sematary, It or 'Salem's Lot. King himself has said Pet Sematary disturbed him enough that he put the manuscript in a drawer.

What are the Richard Bachman books?

A pen name King used from 1977 so he could publish more often than one book a year. Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, Thinner, The Regulators and Blaze all appeared as Bachman. The identity was uncovered in 1985.

Is Doctor Sleep a sequel to The Shining?

Yes — it follows a grown-up Danny Torrance. Read The Shining first; the novel assumes you know what happened at the Overlook.

How many books has Stephen King written?

Somewhere north of sixty novels plus a dozen collections, and the number keeps moving. That count includes the Bachman titles and the collaborations with Peter Straub, Owen King and Richard Chizmar.

More King & More Horror

Fifty years in, the honest advice hasn't changed: pick the premise that sounds most like your kind of nightmare and start there. The connections will find you.

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