Terror Times Two: Every Novel Stephen King Has Co-Written With Other Horror Authors

Jack Sawyer knows only one thing can save his mother: the Talisman. But he isn’t the only one looking. To find the powerful crystal, Jack has to travel away from Wisconsin, through America’s heartland, and into the dangerous Territories. As he searches, a deadly battle between good and evil stretches across the land. And the consequences of failure will cost more than Jack’s mother.

This first book Stephen King collaborated with anyone on, The Talisman combined the powerhouse talents of two bestselling authors. As with several of King’s books, this includes several crossovers to the iconic series, including Twinners and a gunslinger.

Gargoyles. They sit above us, brooding on eaves and glowering on cornice molding. They evoke menace, sadness, and perhaps even a feeling of safety. Stephen King writes on how these stone statues stir his imagination on what their true purpose might be. Paired with stunning photographs of gargoyles ensconced on buildings all over the East Coast, photographer F-Stop Fitzgerald brings the figures out of the shadows while King’s words bring them fully into the light.

In 1992, an independent publicist had the idea to gather fifteen of America’s most popular writers to form a literary rock band. The Rock Bottom Remainders was born. They performed at the 1992 Anaheim Booksellers Association convention in Anaheim, and when the convention was over, they weren’t ready to stop the fun. Instead, they boarded a bus, and played for a month all over America from Boston to Miami, living off of the advance of the book. Each chapter is written by a member of the band, and includes photographs taken by Tabitha King.

Ex-detective Jack Sawyer doesn’t remember his time in the Territories when he was a boy. But the memories don’t want to stay buried. Retired in quiet French Landing, Wisconsin, he initially refuses to help local police when an apparent serial killer targeting children emerges. Except the Fisherman isn’t just a serial killer. He might be something else. Plagues by nightmares and visions, Jack has no choice but to confront the past he longs to forget. And it might all be coming from the Black House.

Almost fifteen years later, King and Straub return to the world of the Talisman for the second installment. The story picks up with a now adult Jake, and is tied much more directly within The Dark Tower world.

Okay so this isn't a horror book but it is a Stephen King collaboration—so we thought it would be fun to include it.

Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King have two things in common: novels and a love of the Red Sox. In early 2004, they decided to document the upcoming baseball season. Their plan was simple. Sit together at Fenway Park, email each other frequently, and write about the games. What they didn’t expect was to witness one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history—and the first Red Sox championship in over eight decades. What began as two fans simply wanting to write about their love of the game is now an incredible glimpse into a historic season.

It’s twenty miles of nothing. An empty stretch of Nevada desert where anything can happen. As one faceless trucker battles for his life against a band of motorcycle outlaws, where he can’t know what he’s fighting against or why. All he knows is he can’t slow down.

The first collaboration with his son, Joe Hill, this novella is as gritty and fast-paced as the title illustrates. At less than fifty pages, this novella packs a powerful, intense punch and will leave readers breathless for more.

A new vampiric bloodline was born in the late nineteenth century in the American West. In 1925, aspiring actress Pearl is attacked by vicious vampires and left for dead. Only the blood from Skinner Sweet saves her. Sweet is the original American vampire. He’s faster, stronger, and can be in the sun. With his blood, Pearl is part of this new lineage. Jumping between the late 1800s, when Sweet evolved, and the 1920s when Pearl adjusts to life as a vampire, the two learn how to navigate life together while struggling with the demons of their past.

Dean Evers enjoys retirement by eating television dinners and watching baseball. Until during one game, behind the batter, a few rows back, Dean sees someone who shouldn’t be there. It’s a face from his past. One who shouldn’t be on this planet, let alone a baseball game. Game by game, more people from Dean’s past sit behind home plate, escalating in their terror, until Dean finally sees a face he was dreading the most.

Stewart and King return back to the ballpark, but instead of documenting a historic season, they take readers on a terrifying journey into a strange world.

Driving down the road, brother and sister Cal and Becky pull over when they hear a child’s desperate cries coming from somewhere in the tall grass. Somehow, within minutes of stepping into the lush meadow, they lose each other and become increasingly disoriented. The more they search, the more lost they get. And the more frantic the boy pleads for help. But his mother warns the boy to stay quiet and for Cal and Becky to stop looking. Or “he” will hear them and find them all.

Their second collaboration, In the Tall Grass was published in two parts in Esquire magazine in the June/July and August editions of 2012. It’s also now a movie streaming on Netflix.

One day, when women go to sleep, they don’t wake up. Their bodies become shrouded in a gauze-like material. And if they’re disturbed, they viciously attack whoever woke them. While the men are left to protect their women and forge a new life without them, the women are somewhere else. A place where they’re given the chance to build a new, peaceful life without men. But one woman, a strange and mysterious Evie, is somehow immune to the same sleeping fate as the rest. Is she the key to bringing the women back? Or will killing her doom the women to the Other Place forever?

The first collaboration with his son, Owen King, Stephen was immediately excited to join forces and bring this dark story to life.

Even though there are three ways to Castle View, twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson takes the Suicide Stairs every time. From the top, she can hear the metal ting of baseball’s meeting bats, and the boisterous shouts echoing from the playground. But one day there’s a man sitting on a bench. A man who calls her over to have a talk. A man wearing a black hat that will soon invade Gwendy’s nightmares.

A chilling novella that revisits the strange town of Castle Rock, Maine with a new character, Gwendy’s Button Box is the beginning of a multiple-book adventure with bestselling author Richard Chizmar.

Editor's Note: This one isn't technically co-written by Stephen King, but it was written with his blessing and it's part of the co-written trilogy, so we thought it made sense to include it.

Gwendy Peterson is not the naïve teenage girl who met a strange man at the top of Castle View. That summer, she was given a black box to take care of. One that gave her small gifts as she met its needs. But the stranger took the box away, promising she’d never see either of them again. But when the box shows up twenty years later with no explanation, she isn’t sure what to do. But two girls are missing. And the box might be the only way to save them and stop the madman behind their disappearances for good.

It seems the black box the mysterious Richard Farris gave Gwendy Peterson when she was twelve years old was destined to stay in her life. It appeared and reappeared, at least two times before. And now it’s back. But this time dark forces are searching for it, wanting to press the colorful buttons that threaten death and destruction. Senator Peterson knows she has no choice but to keep it out of their hands—no matter what. But where can she hide something that powerful? And who can she trust to help her?

The final book in the Gwendy trilogy, this epic story spans an entire lifetime with delightful crossovers and surprising twists.