The Tommyknockers
- 745
- Pages
- about 14 h
- Reading time
- Series 1993
- On screen
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Our view
“The Tommyknockers” has a strong idea, a town slowly changed by something buried in the woods, lost for long stretches inside an overgrown book. King himself has been harsh about it while granting there is a good novel underneath. Some readers find the middle confusing and uneven in pace, though the opening and the ending hold up better. At almost 750 pages it is for King’s committed following rather than newcomers.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 science fiction horror novel by Stephen King. The novel is an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods. King has since soured on The Tommyknockers, describing it as "an awful book", due to his drug addiction while writing the novel, though acknowledges the story's potential: "There's really a good book in here, underneath all the sort of spurious energy that cocaine provides, and I ought to go back." A miniseries adaptation was released in 1993.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- SeriesThe TommyknockersIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.8 across 382 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 72% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Horror average of 7.5. That is how 7.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 18 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 6.7 | 364 | 95% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Tommyknockers?
It has 745 pages — longer than 92% of the ranked books in Horror.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Horror — with scores between 6.9 and 7.7, closest to this book.
