Desperation
by Stephen King
★ Top 10 book of 1996 · #9 on Best Books of 1996
In the remote Nevada town of Desperation, miners have broken into another dimension and freed a monstrous creature called Tak, who takes over townspeople's bodies. A band of stranded travelers, led by a boy who speaks to God, must face it.
Best for: Horror fans who enjoy an ancient evil in an isolated, dying town
Desperation is #9 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar.
What Desperation is about
Along Highway 50, a lonely stretch of Nevada road, travelers keep disappearing into the mining town of Desperation. Deputy Collie Entragian abducts them, among them married couple Peter and Mary Jackson and Johnny Marinville, a writer on a cross-country motorcycle trip. The deputy is not himself. An ancient evil called Tak has taken hold of him, and it can command the desert's coyotes, buzzards, spiders and scorpions.
The captives' unlikely guide is David Carver, an eleven-year-old whose faith is fierce and unshakable. Behind it all is a buried secret at the China Pit, where miners broke into something they should have left alone. King uses a small group of frightened strangers to ask hard questions about faith, sacrifice and the plain will to survive. It is intense, dark horror, and it was published alongside a mirror novel, The Regulators, set in a parallel version of the same world.
Desperation on the Best Books of 1996
Desperation came out in 1996. Of the 38 books first published in 1996 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #9 on our Best Books of 1996 list.
Why it made the list: 367 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.5 out of 5 (17 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1996 list
- Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace, #7
- Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt, #8
- Airframe Michael Crichton, #10
- Into the Wild Jon Krakauer, #11
See all Best Books of 1996 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1995 Best Books of 1997.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 295 want to read it, 11 are reading it now and 61 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 from 17 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 71 | 55% |
| Reader love | 82 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 39 | 20% |
Questions about Desperation
When was Desperation published?
Desperation by Stephen King was first published in 1996.
Was Desperation one of the best books of 1996?
Desperation is #9 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar. 367 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.5 out of 5 (17 ratings).
Why is Desperation on the Best Books of 1996 list?
367 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.5 out of 5 (17 ratings).
More of the best books of 1996
- A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin, #1
- The Green Mile Stephen King, #2
- Forbidden Knowledge Roger Shattuck, #3
- Push Sapphire, #4
- Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk, #5
- Neverwhere Neil Gaiman, #6
See the full Best Books of 1996, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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