# What is Stephen King's best novel? \[POLL\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183 "2014-12-26T01:44:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/61 "2014-12-31T15:22:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _'Salem’s Lot_ got my vote. I’d put _11/22/63, The Stand_ and _Misery_ in no particular order right after that. Those are the ones I was picking among, although I’d add _It_ to the pile. I arbitrarily picked _11/22/63_ because it didn’t have as many annoying literary tics like “can you believe that happy crappy?” or “dirty bird” or “baby can you dig your man?” in it. ---
**Author:** ![Sterling\_Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/62 "2014-12-31T15:26:43Z")
I don’t know why The Stand gets so much love. I think it is an average effort among King’s books. I liked Needful Things and Pet Sematary as much as The Stand. The true greats IMO are The Shining, IT, Salem’s Lot and Dark Tower 2 and 4. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/63 "2014-12-31T15:31:47Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > those are the ones i was picking among, although i’d add _it_ to the pile. > > I arbitrarily picked _11/22/63_ because it didn’t have as many annoying literary tics like “can you believe that happy crappy?” or “dirty bird” or “baby can you dig your man?” in it. Jimla! Seeing another random made-up word repeated over and over just made me so smucking irritated. Tak! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/64 "2014-12-31T15:35:20Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > My vote was for **Dreamcatcher** only because I thought it was a good story with good characters (even if the movie was butchered). It made me sad to think someone hated it, _snip_ I’ve actually only read it the once. I plan to give it another chance one of these days. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/65 "2014-12-31T16:20:52Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > _It_ is the most recent Stephen King book I read, and it scared the pants off of me. I’m used to King creeping me out a bit, but there were some scenes in that novel straight out of nightmares, like when the clown is talking to the Ben in the library? Although, the bit at the end, with the pre-teen gang bang solidifying the magic of friendship, is the single biggest WTF moment I have ever had while reading a book. I have _no_ idea what King was thinking there. If it helps, King has said he doesn’t know what he was thinking there either … he wrote the last 100 pages or so of _IT_, along with the entire book _The Tommyknockers_, during the worst of his struggles with drugs and alcohol. He said he doesn’t remember much about the creative process during either of those periods. I can’t vote in this poll, because King is one of my favorite writers. It’s like asking someone to choose between ten of the favorite foods – it just depends on what I’m in the mood for at the time. Having said that, I think _The Shining_ is a masterpiece, along with the 1958 sections of _IT_ and almost all of _The Stand_. Most of the entire Dark Tower series is exceptionally good; I hated all the stuff related to Susannah / Mia and her “chap,” which ruins most of _Song of Susannah_ for me. King’s strength, as I think somebody else has already mentioned, is his ability to write strong, believable characters. How those characters react to whatever situation he creates is what drives his work. He also has a flair for injecting humor where you don’t always expect it. For those reasons, I’ve enjoyed at least sections of everything he’s done, if not the entire work itself. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/66 "2014-12-31T16:41:08Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > You bought the book because the show sucked? > It’s not his worst (cough _Dreamcatcher_ cough), but I wouldn’t recommend it either. Hey, shitweasels were awesome! > [@ExTank](#): > > I voted _The Gunslinger._ Of all the King novels I’ve read, it was the only one that really hooked me from the first sentence. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” I’ll put that up there w/ the greatest opening lines for a novel of all time, right next to “It was the best of times…” ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/67 "2014-12-31T17:07:20Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I haven’t read much of King, but what I have read I have enjoyed (I should try more honestly). > > My vote was for **Dreamcatcher** only because I thought it was a good story with good characters (even if the movie was butchered). It made me sad to think someone hated it, but it made me happy to hear the someone else hated **From a Buick 8** because God help me I tried to get into that book and just couldn’t. It really is one of his absolute worst novels. Maybe THE worst. That doesn’t mean it’s literally unreadable. Only that almost everything he’s written in a multi decade career is better (I never read FaB8; it sounded like a rehash of the mediocre “Christine”). The worst of King is better than a lot of what’s out there for “popular fiction.”. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/68 "2014-12-31T17:18:18Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I voted for _It_. I don’t understand why everyone is all “Oh, the ending is all WTF” - it worked for me. I also voted for **It**. The ending was less than what it could be, but it was the only book I ever read that made me scared while I was reading it. That, and **The Stand** are my favorite SK novels. **The Shawshank Redemption** was my favorite story. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/69 "2014-12-31T17:21:57Z")
I’ve read over 90% of Mr. King’s novels. _The Stand_ is the only one I have read twice. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/70 "2014-12-31T17:22:36Z")
> [@Sterling\_Archer](#): > > I don’t know why The Stand gets so much love. I think it is an average effort among King’s books. I liked Needful Things and Pet Sematary as much as The Stand. The true greats IMO are The Shining, IT, Salem’s Lot and Dark Tower 2 and 4. I think the Stand is notable for its sweeping scope, depicting the breakdown of the entire country. The character depictions in the early going are well-drawn, but in my view, the cast gets too large, and King falls into the Harry Turtledove style of assigning one device to each character and repeating it each time they appear. And Tom Cullen, to me, is Jar Jar Binks. More broadly, I think the Stand fails on plot; the good guys don’t know what they’re doing and ultimately don’t accomplish anything, and the bad guy has no motivation and no real plan. “It” may be tainted in my memory by the horrible acting in the mini-series, but I remember it just dragging on really long. And again, the bad guy didn’t have enough form or motivation for my taste; it was ultimately this generically evil thing that just sat there under the town. I concur on the Shining and 'Salem’s Lot; those are probably my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/71 "2014-12-31T18:32:48Z")
I think _IT_ stands (heh heh) alone at the top. _'Salem’s Lot_, _The Talisman_, _The Stand_ and _Bag of Bones_ follow, IMO. I like most of his work even the ones where I start begging for the end. Bag of Bones had the only written scene to ever give me nightmares. The wife under the bed {shudder} My daughter is afraid of clowns, in a couple more years she’ll be able to read _IT_, then she’ll REALLY know fear. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/72 "2014-12-31T18:41:04Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > \ He also has a flair for injecting humor where you don’t always expect it. For those reasons, I’ve enjoyed at least sections of everything he’s done, if not the entire work itself. I’ve laughed out loud at things he’s written in his books more than once. Regarding the argument that the bad guy in _The Stand_ has no motivation and no plan, that’s kind of the point - he’s an agent of chaos, and what he wants is for things to fall apart and people to not be happy and for society to not get started up again. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/73 "2014-12-31T18:56:08Z")
Am I simply not seeing Hearts in Atlantis? The only King book I ever purchased to read again. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/74 "2014-12-31T19:00:53Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > Am I simply not seeing Hearts in Atlantis? The only King book I ever purchased to read again. The question is ‘his best novel’; _Hearts in Atlantis_ is a collection of novellas. They’re all connected, true (and they tie in to _The Dark Tower_ series) … but it’s not a novel in the strict sense. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/75 "2014-12-31T22:17:13Z")
I voted for _It_. To me, that one is the essence of what’s good about King: children, the '50s, normal things turned into nightmare fuel…I’ve read it many times (and watched the TV miniseries, which I have on video and which I quite like except for the awful CGI at the end) many more. I’ve read pretty much everything King has written, but I’ve reread very few of them (_It_ and _Carrie_ being the two most-reread). ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/76 "2014-12-31T23:10:59Z")
Best single book, _The Drawing of the Three_. But since it doesn’t stand alone, I don’t feel like I can choose it. I love _The Stand_ but I’d have to give it to _The Shining_ for sheer scariness in a tightly written package. _Misery_ is up there too. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/77 "2014-12-31T23:38:47Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve yet to read an SK book but I’ve mentioned wanting to a few times over the last year or so. Apparently someone heard me since, amongst a bunch of other books, I got Doctor Sleep (which I’d never heard of) for Christmas. It’ll probably be a while before I get around to it, but hopefully it’s not a clunker. Do yourself a favor and read The Shining first. Doctor Sleep is a sequel and The Shining rocks. For the best I picked IT. IT has some of the best writing about kids I have ever read. He nailed it. The ending is a bit lame, but some of the scenes in the book are so amazing I can overlook the ending. Second has to be The Drawing of Three. Or the Talisman. Hard to pick. The Tommyknockers (which I haven’t read in _years_) is a love/hate book. King’s descriptions of alcoholism through Gard are perfect, says the recovering alkie. When King describes Gard’s decent and the dumbass things he did while drinking, well, I lived that and King nailed it. The downside is the anti-technology theme that he beats you over the head with. The Stand is a classic but it is like Mac and Cheese. It isn’t high class, but it is pure comfort. His newer stuff seems to be coming back, almost as good as his older stuff. Duma Key was excellent, Revival was pretty good. Mr Mercedes was good as well. 11/22/63 was awesome. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/78 "2015-01-01T00:21:10Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > If it helps, King has said he doesn’t know what he was thinking there either … he wrote the last 100 pages or so of _IT_, along with the entire book _The Tommyknockers_, during the worst of his struggles with drugs and alcohol. He said he doesn’t remember much about the creative process during either of those periods. > > I can’t vote in this poll, because King is one of my favorite writers. It’s like asking someone to choose between ten of the favorite foods – it just depends on what I’m in the mood for at the time. He’s also one of my favorite writers. His shorts are where I really feel it. Last night I proselytized to two people about ‘‘1408’’, the full text of which is available online [right here](http://www.silveraspen.net/1408.html). I reread it and was like damn, you couldn’t get any tropier than a skeptic sleeping in a haunted hotel. But King can make a trope into a masterpiece. > [@](#): > > King’s strength, as I think somebody else has already mentioned, is his ability to write strong, believable characters. How those characters react to whatever situation he creates is what drives his work. Agreed. I actually dislike horror, and so avoided King for a long time (also assuming if he was that prolific, he couldn’t be that good.) I think he’s one of the best writers of our time. I think in our historical texts he will be compared to masters like Poe. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/79 "2015-01-01T00:29:55Z")
_The Stand_, without a doubt, my favorite novel, which I re-read about once a year. I also really enjoy _11/22/63_, I love time travel books. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183/80 "2015-01-01T00:31:59Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > You bought the book because the show sucked? > It’s not his worst (cough _Dreamcatcher_ cough), but I wouldn’t recommend it either. _The Tommyknockers_, anyone? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-stephen-kings-best-novel-poll/708183.md?page=5)