Stephen King Quiz
Pennywise, the Overlook, Annie Wilkes and Castle Rock: 15 questions on the King of Horror and his books.
Which King novel features a shape-shifting clown called Pennywise?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
It
It, published in 1986, follows the Losers' Club as children in 1958 and again as adults in 1985 as they fight an ancient evil that most often appears as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
The novel runs to more than 1,100 pages, and Bill Skarsgård's 2017 film version became the highest-grossing horror film ever at the time.
Who played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film of The Shining?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson played the writer and winter caretaker whose descent into madness produced the famous ad-libbed line 'Here's Johnny!' King himself disliked the film's cold take on his story.
The scene where Nicholson hacks through the bathroom door reportedly needed 60 doors because he had worked as a volunteer fire marshal.
What was Stephen King's first published novel?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Carrie
Carrie, the story of a bullied telekinetic teenager, was published by Doubleday in April 1974. The paperback rights sold for 400,000 dollars, allowing King to quit his teaching job.
King threw the early pages of Carrie in the bin, and his wife Tabitha fished them out and urged him to finish the book.
What is the name of the haunted hotel in The Shining?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Overlook Hotel
The Overlook Hotel sits in the Colorado Rockies and closes for the winter, leaving the Torrance family alone with its ghosts. The hotel's malign presence feeds on young Danny's psychic gift.
King got the idea during a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where he and his wife were the only guests before it closed for winter.
What breed of dog is Cujo in the 1981 novel?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Saint Bernard
Cujo is a friendly 200-pound Saint Bernard who is bitten by a rabid bat and turns into a killer, trapping Donna Trenton and her son in a broken-down Pinto for days.
King has said he barely remembers writing Cujo because he was in the depths of his cocaine and alcohol addiction at the time.
Which 1983 novel is about a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Christine
Christine is a vintage red and white Plymouth Fury that transforms nerdy teenager Arnie Cunningham into a sneering bully while killing anyone who crosses her. John Carpenter filmed it the same year.
Plymouth built only about 5,300 Furys in 1958, so the film crew bought up more than 20 similar cars and converted them.
Under what pen name did King publish Thinner and The Running Man?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Richard Bachman
King created Richard Bachman in the late 1970s to publish extra books without flooding the market and to see if they would sell without his name. A bookstore clerk exposed the secret in 1985.
King borrowed the name from Richard Stark, a pen name of Donald Westlake, and the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive playing on his stereo.
Which fictional Maine town is the setting for It, Insomnia and much of 11/22/63?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Derry
Derry is King's dark mirror of Bangor, Maine, where he lives. Its sewers hide Pennywise, and the town's history of disasters and disappearances stretches back centuries.
Castle Rock, home of Cujo and Needful Things, is named after the fort in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.
In Misery, what is the name of the novelist held captive by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Paul Sheldon
Paul Sheldon writes romance novels about a heroine called Misery Chastain. After a car crash he is rescued by nurse Annie Wilkes, who forces him to resurrect the character he has just killed off.
Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Annie in the 1990 film, the only Oscar win for a King adaptation.
The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from a novella in which King collection?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Different Seasons
Different Seasons, published in 1982, contains four novellas. Three became films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Body, which became Stand by Me, and Apt Pupil.
The Shawshank Redemption flopped at the box office in 1994 but has topped IMDb's user-voted list of the best films for years.
In The Stand, what nickname is given to the weaponised flu that wipes out most of humanity?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Captain Trips
Captain Trips is the superflu that escapes from a military lab and kills more than 99 percent of the world's population, setting up the battle between Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg.
King's 1990 uncut edition restored around 400 pages that had been trimmed from the 1978 original, taking the novel past 1,150 pages.
Who is the gunslinger at the centre of King's Dark Tower series?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Roland Deschain
Roland Deschain of Gilead is the last gunslinger, pursuing the man in black across a dying world in search of the Dark Tower. The eight-book series took King more than 30 years to complete.
The opening line, 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed', was inspired by Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland.
Which 2013 novel is the sequel to The Shining, following a grown-up Danny Torrance?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Doctor Sleep
Doctor Sleep finds Dan Torrance working in a hospice and battling alcoholism before he must protect a girl named Abra from the True Knot, a cult that feeds on children with the shining.
The novel won the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and was filmed in 2019 with Ewan McGregor as Dan.
What is the name of the Creed family's cat in Pet Sematary?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Church
Church, short for Winston Churchill, belongs to young Ellie Creed. After he is killed on the road, Louis buries him in the ancient Micmac burial ground and he comes back wrong.
King based the story on his own family's experience at a rented house in Orrington, Maine, where their daughter's cat was killed on the highway.
In which year was King seriously injured when a van struck him while he walked near his home in Lovell, Maine?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1999
On 19 June 1999 a minivan hit King on the shoulder of Route 5, breaking his right leg in nine places, shattering his hip and collapsing a lung. He needed months of surgery and rehab.
King later bought the van through his lawyer for 1,500 dollars and said he intended to smash it with a sledgehammer.
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All Literature quizzes →About the Stephen King Quiz
Stephen King sold his first novel, Carrie, in 1973 after his wife Tabitha rescued the manuscript from the bin. More than 60 novels and some 400 million copies later, he is the most adapted living author, with his stories behind The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, It and Stand by Me.
This quiz walks through the King library from the early classics to the Dark Tower. You will name the clown, the hotel and the haunted Plymouth, visit the cursed Maine town of Derry, meet his pen name, and finish with a few questions for Constant Readers who know the small details of Pet Sematary and the author's own life. Horror fans, movie buffs and book lovers alike will find something to argue about.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
How many questions are in the Stephen King Quiz?
There are 15 multiple choice questions covering his novels, characters, pen name and the most famous film adaptations, each with an explanation and a bonus fact.
Which Stephen King books are in the quiz?
Carrie, The Shining, It, Cujo, Christine, Misery, The Stand, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, the Dark Tower series and the novella behind The Shawshank Redemption.
Do I need to have read the books to do well?
Not for the early questions, since the films cover those, but the Medium rating reflects a few deeper cuts that reward people who have read the novels.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which King novel features a shape-shifting clown called Pennywise?
It It, published in 1986, follows the Losers' Club as children in 1958 and again as adults in 1985 as they fight an ancient evil that most often appears as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The novel runs to more than 1,100 pages, and Bill Skarsgård's 2017 film version became the highest-grossing horror film ever at the time. - Who played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film of The Shining?
Jack Nicholson Jack Nicholson played the writer and winter caretaker whose descent into madness produced the famous ad-libbed line 'Here's Johnny!' King himself disliked the film's cold take on his story. The scene where Nicholson hacks through the bathroom door reportedly needed 60 doors because he had worked as a volunteer fire marshal. - What was Stephen King's first published novel?
Carrie Carrie, the story of a bullied telekinetic teenager, was published by Doubleday in April 1974. The paperback rights sold for 400,000 dollars, allowing King to quit his teaching job. King threw the early pages of Carrie in the bin, and his wife Tabitha fished them out and urged him to finish the book. - What is the name of the haunted hotel in The Shining?
The Overlook Hotel The Overlook Hotel sits in the Colorado Rockies and closes for the winter, leaving the Torrance family alone with its ghosts. The hotel's malign presence feeds on young Danny's psychic gift. King got the idea during a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where he and his wife were the only guests before it closed for winter. - What breed of dog is Cujo in the 1981 novel?
Saint Bernard Cujo is a friendly 200-pound Saint Bernard who is bitten by a rabid bat and turns into a killer, trapping Donna Trenton and her son in a broken-down Pinto for days. King has said he barely remembers writing Cujo because he was in the depths of his cocaine and alcohol addiction at the time. - Which 1983 novel is about a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury?
Christine Christine is a vintage red and white Plymouth Fury that transforms nerdy teenager Arnie Cunningham into a sneering bully while killing anyone who crosses her. John Carpenter filmed it the same year. Plymouth built only about 5,300 Furys in 1958, so the film crew bought up more than 20 similar cars and converted them. - Under what pen name did King publish Thinner and The Running Man?
Richard Bachman King created Richard Bachman in the late 1970s to publish extra books without flooding the market and to see if they would sell without his name. A bookstore clerk exposed the secret in 1985. King borrowed the name from Richard Stark, a pen name of Donald Westlake, and the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive playing on his stereo. - Which fictional Maine town is the setting for It, Insomnia and much of 11/22/63?
Derry Derry is King's dark mirror of Bangor, Maine, where he lives. Its sewers hide Pennywise, and the town's history of disasters and disappearances stretches back centuries. Castle Rock, home of Cujo and Needful Things, is named after the fort in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. - In Misery, what is the name of the novelist held captive by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes?
Paul Sheldon Paul Sheldon writes romance novels about a heroine called Misery Chastain. After a car crash he is rescued by nurse Annie Wilkes, who forces him to resurrect the character he has just killed off. Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Annie in the 1990 film, the only Oscar win for a King adaptation. - The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from a novella in which King collection?
Different Seasons Different Seasons, published in 1982, contains four novellas. Three became films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Body, which became Stand by Me, and Apt Pupil. The Shawshank Redemption flopped at the box office in 1994 but has topped IMDb's user-voted list of the best films for years. - In The Stand, what nickname is given to the weaponised flu that wipes out most of humanity?
Captain Trips Captain Trips is the superflu that escapes from a military lab and kills more than 99 percent of the world's population, setting up the battle between Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg. King's 1990 uncut edition restored around 400 pages that had been trimmed from the 1978 original, taking the novel past 1,150 pages. - Who is the gunslinger at the centre of King's Dark Tower series?
Roland Deschain Roland Deschain of Gilead is the last gunslinger, pursuing the man in black across a dying world in search of the Dark Tower. The eight-book series took King more than 30 years to complete. The opening line, 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed', was inspired by Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland. - Which 2013 novel is the sequel to The Shining, following a grown-up Danny Torrance?
Doctor Sleep Doctor Sleep finds Dan Torrance working in a hospice and battling alcoholism before he must protect a girl named Abra from the True Knot, a cult that feeds on children with the shining. The novel won the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and was filmed in 2019 with Ewan McGregor as Dan. - What is the name of the Creed family's cat in Pet Sematary?
Church Church, short for Winston Churchill, belongs to young Ellie Creed. After he is killed on the road, Louis buries him in the ancient Micmac burial ground and he comes back wrong. King based the story on his own family's experience at a rented house in Orrington, Maine, where their daughter's cat was killed on the highway. - In which year was King seriously injured when a van struck him while he walked near his home in Lovell, Maine?
1999 On 19 June 1999 a minivan hit King on the shoulder of Route 5, breaking his right leg in nine places, shattering his hip and collapsing a lung. He needed months of surgery and rehab. King later bought the van through his lawyer for 1,500 dollars and said he intended to smash it with a sledgehammer.
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