From the publisher: The first complete, in-depth examination of every work published in the immense oeuvre of the “King of Horror,” Stephen King, which serves as the ultimate illustrated resource of the development of a literary great.
Stephen King is perhaps the most well-known author across horror, thriller, science fiction, and mystery genres, with more than 350 million books sold. Stephen King All the Stories examines in extensive detail how each novel, novella, and short story was created, developed, published, and adapted into successful films television and other media.
At 648 pages, Stephen King All the Stories is filled with the most popular titles like Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, and Carrie as well as the lesser-known ones like Joyland and Revival. This illustrated account contains more than 300 photographs that complement King’s journey from a Maine high school teacher and part-time writer to a literary giant, gifted in crafting haunting atmospheres that elevated horror as a genre.
You know a book about Stephen King is asking for trouble when written in bold print across the front cover states “The Story Behind Every Novel, Novella and Short Story”.
But books take time to publish, and so although this reference book goes from Carrie (1974) to Never Flinch (2025), it doesn’t include the recently published Other Worlds Than These (2026), the newest Netflix version of Carrie or mention the recently announced Holly book, due in 2027.
But this is a very minor quibble.
The book ambitiously attempts to cover the whole range of King’s output in a logical order. As a result, it is a 648-paged, oversized book, with fairly small text and lots of colour images that is the size and weight of two house-bricks. Drawing details from a huge range of sources (which are appendiced at the back of the book), it is not a book you can read in one sitting. Nor should it be.
With this logical order in mind, it should therefore not surprise the reader that the first chapter is an introduction to SK’s life before bestseller success: school life, was a teacher, got married to Tabitha, had children etc.
To emphasise this, the whole book is filled with personal details and pictures of SK from his school photo in 1959 to the (almost) present day – Time Magazine, etc and lots in-between.
The second chapter gives us an overview on his writing – his publishing career over five decades, his own personal interests (I love the photo of SK with his cats!) and political concerns which infuse his work.
The main body of the book deals with SK’s books, in generally chronological order, beginning properly with Carrie (1974). No mention of the latest Mike Flanagan Netflix series, but otherwise it delivers.
The structure of each section is generally the same – there’s a synopsis of the book, then an analysis of the book, drawing on various sources and then details of any film, TV series or spinoff.
To link the chapters together, I liked that there are Little Post-It notes dotted throughout the book like little Easter Eggs to point out key ideas – the one in Carrie, for example, points out other SK stories that involve bleeding and blood as a key theme, as well as pointing out a character in a later book (Holly) that may connect to Carrie – that’s a gap of nearly 50 years – talk about long term planning!
Similarly, most books have a “For King Addicts” sub-column at the end, which joins up a lot of the dots between the different books, films and television series. They’re not exhaustive, but they are interesting. I think that the most avid fan of SK will find facts that they didn’t know. Want to know the connection between The Dead Zone and William Golding’s Lord of the Files, for example? See page 101.
Of course, over such a lengthy career and with such a huge number of books, not everything will be perfect. Any author with a few books under their belt (and SK by my rough reckoning has more than 70) is bound to have a few less successful ones, whether deemed so by sales, critics or even by the writer themselves. Some books would gloss over these, but to the authors’ credit when such things are noted, the book points them out (although not in as much detail as the successes, admittedly.)
There are some interesting changes of opinion given at times – on Dreamcatcher, for example, the book wryly points out that SK praised the film’s ability to stay true to the novel at the time of its release, only to later comment that he considered the film a complete disaster. Similar comments are also made by SK on The Tommyknockers, which is clearly not one of his own favourite works. (I quite liked it myself!)
As well each chapter on the books, films etc. there are focussed essays throughout the book to examine key elements – for example, a chapter on the relationship between SK and Peter Straub, one on Richard Bachman, one on the American Vampire comic book series, one on SK’s influence on Joe King, and so on. The analysis is knowledgeable and quite in depth, but also accessible.
The Art and Craft of Stephen King is not a cheap book (£50, although there are deals out there should you care to look around – my copy was little more than a hardback, for example), nor a small one; how could it be, as it examines the whole body of SK’s work? Allowing for this – and also my original point that the book is already out of date! – it is the most comprehensive and thorough collection of material about Stephen King that I have ever read. As it brings together so much material in one book, in my opinion it is essential for any SK fan.
This is clearly a work which has taken a long while, and there’s clearly a lot of love gone into it. Whilst there are many, many books on King’s life and work out there, this one for me is going to be my reference guide for the future, I think.
The book does its job – it informs, it illustrates, it puts the body of work into context, it gives the reader new insights into SK’s work and beliefs. It should go without saying that having spent a week immersed in the book, and I’m sure many more hours to follow, it made me want to read those books I have yet to read, as well as reread many of those I have.
You never know, it might even persuade me to try (again) The Dark Tower series (I know, I know…) and whilst I’m talking of that series, the Edris Elba film version is mentioned in here too. (Let’s move on.)
An author couldn’t ask for any greater or better response.
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© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
THE ART AND CRAFT OF STEPHEN KING by Guy Astic and Frank Lafond
October 2026 |648 pages
ISBN: 979-8894141947
