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All the books, TV shows and movies Stephen King recommended in 2019

It's a pretty lengthy list...

Sam Haysom

on December 30, 2019

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If you count yourself as a hardcore Stephen King fan, chances are you've probably read a decent chunk of the horror master's work.

But have you read the stuff he's been reading? Or watching, for that matter?

Anyone who's dipped in to King's On Writing memoir will know that he's more than happy to talk about the fiction he most enjoys; the end of the book contains a hefty list of titles which King says have "entertained and taught" him, stretching all the way up to 2009.

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But what about his more recent fictional recommendations?

Below is a pretty hefty list of all the books, TV shows and movies King has recommended via his Twitter feed in 2019. (We've included the adaptations of his own work that King has spoken positively about, too, because — although he's obviously biased — he's still pretty selective when it comes to his praise of those.)

TV shows

Somehow, alongside all the novels he churns out and the novels he reads, King also finds time to work his way through a solid chunk of TV shows.

This year he's clearly been on a bit of a streaming binge (Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+ all feature heavily), but he also praised the new Twilight Zone and tweeted a fairly strong defence for Game of Thrones.

Pine Gap (Netflix)

The Passage (FOX)

The Good Fight (CBS)

Bordertown (Netflix)

Black Summer (Netflix)

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Bosch (Amazon)

Game of Thrones (HBO)

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The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access)

The Shield (FX) and Sons of Anarchy (FX)

NOS4R2 (AMC)

Mr. Mercedes (Audience)

Designated Survivor (Netflix)

The 100 (The CW)

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Money Heist (Netflix)

Marianne (Netflix)

Creepshow (Shudder)

Emergence (ABC, King corrected this about his tweet)

The Morning Show (Apple TV+)

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Servant (Apple TV+)

Castle Rock (Hulu)

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The Outsider (HBO)

For All Mankind (Apple TV+)

The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime)

Movies

Only a handful of movie recommendations from the horror master this year, and two of them are based on books from King himself — IT Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep. The second is particularly notable, though, because it's the follow-up to Kubrick's adaption of The Shining — and King really wasn't keen on that one.

For fans of King's novels, that meant his praise of Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep movie was a huge moment.

IT Chapter Two

Ready or Not

Josie & Jack

Doctor Sleep

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Child's Play

Books

King recommended over 25 books and short stories in 2019, and while many of them are new novels, there are a few older classics in there, too.

As you'd expect, there's plenty of horror — but there are also thrillers from the likes of Lee Child and Don Winslow, book club material from Sarah Blake, and a sprawling dark fantasy novel from Leigh Bardugo.

The Girl on the Porch (by Richard Chizmar)

The Border (by Don Winslow)

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"You Are Released" (a short story by Joe Hill, available in the collection Full Throttle)

Cari Mora (by Thomas Harris)

Cemetery Road (by Greg Iles)

Dirty Rotten Hippies and Other Stories (by Bryan Smith)

A Head Full of Ghosts (by Paul Tremblay)

The Guest Book (by Sarah Blake)

Elevator Pitch (Linwood Barclay)

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Necessary People (by Anna Pitoniak)

Koko (by Peter Straub)

Growing Things (by Paul Tremblay)

Good Girl, Bad Girl (by Michael Robotham)

Shaker (by Scott Frank)

Charlesgate Confidential (by Scott Von Doviak)

Full Throttle (by Joe Hill)

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The Ninth House (by Leigh Bardugo)

And Then There Were None (by Agatha Christie)

Dying is Easy (by Joe Hill)

Blue Moon (by Lee Child)

The Unwilling (by Kelly Braffet)

The Evan Delaney series (by Meg Gardiner)

Cold Storage (by David Koepp)

The Dutch House (by Ann Patchett)

Gwendy's Magic Feather (by Richard Chizmar)

The Chill (by Scott Carson)

To keep up-to-date with his latest recommendations, you can follow King on Twitter. That's if you've made it through all of the above first. Good luck.

Topics Books Stephen King

Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.