Brush up on some of Stephen King’s most iconic stories set in the town of Castle Rock before binge watching Hulu’s brand new series Castle Rock.
1. Bag of Bones by Stephen King, narrated by Stephen King
Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. Read more and sample the audio.
2. Cujo by Stephen King, narrated by Lorna Raver
Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. One day, Cujo, a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether. What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inescapably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has ever written. Read more and sample the audio.
3. Dead Zone by Stephen King, narrated by James Franco
When Johnny Smith awakens from a coma and discovers he can see people’s futures by touching them, he must learn to live with this curse that many other people consider a gift. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an ambitious and amoral politician, he must decide if he should take drastic action to change the future. Read more and sample the audio.
4. Needful Things by Stephen King, narrated by Stephen King
Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little “deed,” usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Read more and sample the audio.
5. Dark Half by Stephen King, narrated by Grover Gardner
Thad Beaumont is a writer, and for a dozen years he has secretly published violent bestsellers under the name of George Stark. But, when Thad—a much happier and healthier man now—tries to retire the pseudonym, he finds George Stark won’t go willingly. Read more and sample the audio.
6. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King, narrated by Mare Winningham
Lisey Landon lost her husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty-five-year marriage of profound, sometimes frightening intimacy. Lisey knew there was a dark place where her husband ventured to face his demons. Boo’ya Moon is what Scott called it; a realm that both terrified and healed him. Now, it’s Lisey’s turn to face her husband’s demons. Read more and sample the audio.
7. Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, narrated by Maggie Siff
Every day in the summer of 1974, twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson takes the stairs up to Castle View. Then one day, after catching her breath and hearing the shouts of kids on the playground below, a stranger calls to her. There on a bench sits a man in black jeans, a black coat, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small, neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat… Read more and sample the audio.
8. Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King, narrated by Various Readers
Featuring twenty short horror stories, a television script, an essay, and a poem, Nightmares and Dreamscapes contains unique and chilling plots including everything from dead rock star zombies to evil toys seeking murderous revenge. Read more and sample the audio.
9. Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King, narrated by Various Readers
Enter a nightmarish mindscape of unrelenting horror and shocking revelations that could only come from the imagination of the greatest storyteller of our time. Read more and sample the audio.
10. Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, narrated by Dylan Baker, Stephen King, Will Patton, Michael C. Hall, Dana Ivey, Lois Smith, David Morse, Matthew Broderick, Paul Giamatti, Frances Sternhagen, Robert Petkoff, Norbert Leo Butz, Kyle Beltran
In this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine. A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction. A trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell. A woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise. An idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil. And a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggle for survival ever waged. Read more and sample the audio.
11. Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King, narrated by Dylan Baker, Stephen King, Peter Friedman
A master storyteller at his best—the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Read more and sample the audio.
12. Different Seasons by Stephen King, narrated by Frank Muller
A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas from Stephen King bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters. Read more and sample the audio.
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