You can fault Stephen King for a few things, if you feel so inclined. Like, the quantity vs. quality debate… there are arguments there for both sides. He’s got a lot of quality stuff, but he’s also got a lot of stuff, and not all that stuff is great. Hence, the quantity of it all. The overwhelming pile of books. It feels a bit like it never ends, and, at the time of writing, he’s still adding to it, with Other Worlds Than These scheduled for an October 2026 release and all.
Something that’s hard to fault Stephen King for, though, is his ability to tell stories that hit the ground running. He has a bunch of excellent opening lines, with the following being some of the very best. It’s not the same as outlining his best books, because The Stand and The Shining aren’t here, but some of these do rank among his finest works anyway. (Okay, here’s a breaking of the fourth wall and an admittance that The Shining isn’t here because the first line sort of has profanity, and I’m not opposed to almost-profane words, but Google might be, and I’m not risking it; a man has to eat, and bills won’t pay themselves if articles get flagged. As for The Stand? It’s hard to pick an opening line, owing to there being two versions of The Stand, and both have different opening lines, with neither opening line being as great as the opening lines found in any of the other books below).
10
‘Cujo’ (1981)
Cujo kicks off with the fairy tale sort of line: “Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.” It then goes on to describe the actions of a serial killer, thoroughly undermining that fairy tale feel (even by the standards of a dark fairy tale). On one hand, it serves to summarize the events of The Dead Zone, or at least a subplot in The Dead Zone.
On the other hand, there’s a sense that maybe it’s foreshadowing for the titular character, who’s a dog infected with rabies, but Cujo isn’t the real monster, and is more a victim that happens to do a fair amount of damage (see also Carrie). There are other villains in Cujo, but beyond the line referencing a past mishap in the overall cursed town of Castle Rock, it does allude to the “monster” Cujo becomes after contracting rabies.
9
‘Black House’ (2001)
Admittedly, Black House has a strange opening, but at least it sets the stage for what’s a fairly confounding book… in a way that is admirable and fun, at least for some people. Definitely not everyone, though. Black House is a bit divisive, even more so than The Talisman, which it’s a sequel to (and the aforementioned Other Worlds Than These is going to conclude the trilogy, even though King’s co-writer for these books, Peter Straub, passed away in 2022).
This floaty and odd narration does define the very memorable (though, again, divisive) opening stretch of this novel by King and Straub.
The first line here is: “Right here and now, as an old friend used to say, we are in the fluid present, where clear-sightedness never guarantees perfect vision.” This isn’t the style used throughout the entirety of Black House, but this floaty and odd narration does define the very memorable (though, again, divisive) opening stretch of this novel by King and Straub. If you’re feeling kind of brave and have sufficient time to kill, it’s definitely worth devoting yourself to (good to catch up on The Talisman and this before that third book, too).
8
‘The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass’ (1997)
The opening line to The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass is short and sweet, because it’s “’ASK ME A RIDDLE,’ Blaine invited” (caps-lock intended). That’s if you’re not counting the foreword, though, which King calls an argument, because that technically opens Wizard and Glass, coming first and having the author explain his intentions for the series up until that point, and explain this fourth main book (out of seven) in the series.
Of course, with The Dark Tower getting more meta as it goes along, maybe it’s fair to say that the arguments at the start of the installments should be counted as the openings. Hmm. You could make an argument for the arguments. As for the opening line being considered here, though, it’s a direct continuation of the infamous cliffhanger at the end of The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, which readers at the time had to wait six years to read. So, King admitting, right away, “Here, we’re resolving the cliffhanger ASAP,” and doing so in this way, is kind of cool. Also, Blaine is a talking train, and the heroes of The Dark Tower are engaged in a high-stakes game of riddles with him, at the start of Wizard and Glass. It makes (some) sense in context.
7
‘Needful Things’ (1991)
Stephen King himself is fond of the opening line of Needful Things, but that’s not the reason it’s here. That is kind of just validation (promise it was found after Needful Things was already selected). The first four words here are “You’ve been here before,” and then they’re followed by “Sure you have. Sure. I never forget a face.” The prologue goes on like that, addressing the reader directly, or at least seeming to.
It’s instantly immersive, because it puts you in the position that so many characters in the book end up in: customers at a gift shop that’s too good to be true. Needful Things is set in Castle Rock as well, like Cujo, and ends up feeling a good deal more chaotic and apocalyptic than that book. Also, for what it’s worth, the first sentence after the prologue is also pretty great: “In a small town, the opening of a new store is big news.”
6
‘Under the Dome’ (2009)
Under the Dome wastes little time getting to the core of the story, which involves a dome mysteriously forming around a very small town, and life absolutely falling apart for those trapped inside. It’s got a post-apocalyptic feel almost, a bit like Needful Things, but both differentiate themselves from the full-blown post-apocalyptic novel of King’s that is The Stand, owing to the “apocalypse” in both occurring in much more confined settings.
You wouldn’t expect anything else, though, from a book called Under the Dome. To its credit, the title even spells out the premise. But a small amount of time is spent on the calm right before the storm, including the opening line: “From two thousand feet, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester’s Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down.” The dome and death have occurred fewer than 1000 words later, allowing Stephen King to spend the remaining 1000 pages on the fallout. He does really know what he’s doing, as a horror/thriller writer, you know?
5
‘Misery’ (1987)
The first part of the opening line of Misery is barely even comprehensible, at least at first, since it’s “umber whunnnn yerrrnnn umber whunnnn fayunnnn,” and then, “These sounds: even in the haze.” You read on, and get more context, and then of course, if you’re familiar with Misery, the opening stretch of gibberish will read as “Number one… your number one fan.”
Knowing that after reading Misery makes the line easier to appreciate in hindsight, but even in the moment, it’s an admirably bold way to kick off a novel. It’s also essential for getting you into the frequently dazed and psychologically tortured headspace of author Paul Sheldon, since that’s inevitably what the entire book is about: him going through all sorts of hell while being held captive by a woman who claims to be his biggest fan.
4
‘Salem’s Lot’ (1975)
One of Stephen King’s earliest books, Salem’s Lot, also contains what’s probably his first truly perfect opening line: “Everybody thought the man and the boy were father and son.” Even if you know the kind of horror Salem’s Lot eventually tackles, there remains something expertly ominous about this being the way things commence, all for reasons that are kind of hard to explain.
Everybody thought it was one of the best openings in book history, though. Unlike with the man and the boy, though, everybody thought right, in this case. The more subtle and uneasy horror found here is a good way to get you on board with Salem’s Lot being heavy on mystery and suspense, at least early on, taking its time (in a good way) to get to the more extravagant sort of terror later on.
3
‘IT’ (1986)
Commentary will probably let this lengthy opening line down, so here it is in its entirety: “The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years – if it ever did end – began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.” So begins IT, and yes, IT begins with a long line, but IT is also a very long book, so it gets a pass.
The opening line is undeniably evocative, too, setting up the whole twenty-eight years (later?) thing, with the book’s two main timelines, though some interludes lay out that the “terror” began earlier than 1957. Still, the terror and horror of all that happens to the main characters does begin here, and it’s a perfect way to kick off what is undeniably one of the most memorable opening chapters in Stephen King’s entire body of work.
2
’11/22/63′ (2011)
“I have never been what you’d call a crying man” is a difficult-to-forget opening line, even in a book that gets as wild with its alternate history and time travel as 11/22/63. It does a lot very fast, establishing the book’s first-person narration, setting up the seeming stoic qualities of Jake Epping (the protagonist/narrator), and then also kind of warning you, as the reader, that what you’re about to read will be emotional.
That ability to potentially make you cry is disarming, but 11/22/63 is that good, and it’s very easy to care about what’s going on in this one beyond just the time travel story about preventing a certain assassination that happened on the titular date. It’s pretty heartfelt alongside being wildly entertaining, and you’re braced for that, to some extent, right from the opening line, even if you might not consciously realize it at the time.
1
‘The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger’ (1982)
Wizard and Glass was mentioned earlier, and it was tempting to mention the opening line of the final book of The Dark Tower series, though that kicks off in a way that technically spoils Salem’s Lot (it’s a long story), so it wasn’t included here. But, in any event, there’s no real contest when it comes to crowning the best of Stephen King’s opening lines, since it has to be the first book in The Dark Tower series, right?
That first book, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, commences with the immortal: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” That’s the premise of the first book in a sentence, and it also throws you right into the quest to the titular Dark Tower straight away. Speaking of Wizard and Glass, it’s not really until that book that things properly slow down, and you get some of Roland’s backstory (actually, a lot of his backstory). But here, in The Gunslinger, starting things out in such a fast-paced and immediate way was definitely the right call, and if you’re a fan of Stephen King’s, it’s probably going to be easy to keep going on the whole journey (all 3000-ish pages of it) from this first sentence on.
