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The Dark Half
From the Flap:
When Thad Beaumont wakes to the nightmare of George Stark, he hears birds, thousands of them, all cheeping and twittering at the same time, and with the sound comes a presentiment full of memory and foreboding: The sparrows are flying again.
Thad Beaumont is a writer, and for a dozen years he secretly published novels under the name of "George Stark" because he was no longer able to write under his own name. He even invented a slightly sinister author biography to satisfy the many fans of Stark's violent bestsellers. But Thad is a healthier and happier man now, the father of infant twins, and starting to write as himself again. He no longer needs George Stark, and in fact has a good reason to lay Stark to rest. So, with nationwide publicity, a bit of guilt, and a good deal of relief, the pseudonym is retired.
In the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where Thad and Liz keep a summer home, Sheriff Alan Pangborn ponders the brutal roadside murder of a man named Homer Gamache. When Homer's pick-up truck is found, the bloody fingerprints of the perpetrator are all over it. They match Thad Beaumont's exactly. Armed with evidence, Pangborn pays the Beaumonts a visit, and suddenly he too is thrust into a dream so bizarre that neither criminal science nor his own sharp mind can make sense of it.
At the center of the nightmare is the devastating figure of George Stark, Thad Beaumont's dark half--impossibly alive and relentlessly on the loose--a killing machine that destroys everyone on the path that leads to the man who created him. As Stark approaches, as Thad and Liz contend with the escalating horror and implacable threat of his existence and Thad reaches deep inside his own mind to mount a defense, forces gather in the air above Castle Lake, outriders of the dead to the land of the living....To whom do they belong?
Here is The Dark Half, a tale of terror so real and fascinating that Stephen King's growing legion of fans will find themselves squirming in the master's heart-stopping, blood-curdling grip--and loving every minute of it.
When Thad Beaumont wakes to the nightmare of George Stark, he hears birds, thousands of them, all cheeping and twittering at the same time, and with the sound comes a presentiment full of memory and foreboding: The sparrows are flying again.
Thad Beaumont is a writer, and for a dozen years he secretly published novels under the name of "George Stark" because he was no longer able to write under his own name. He even invented a slightly sinister author biography to satisfy the many fans of Stark's violent bestsellers. But Thad is a healthier and happier man now, the father of infant twins, and starting to write as himself again. He no longer needs George Stark, and in fact has a good reason to lay Stark to rest. So, with nationwide publicity, a bit of guilt, and a good deal of relief, the pseudonym is retired.
In the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where Thad and Liz keep a summer home, Sheriff Alan Pangborn ponders the brutal roadside murder of a man named Homer Gamache. When Homer's pick-up truck is found, the bloody fingerprints of the perpetrator are all over it. They match Thad Beaumont's exactly. Armed with evidence, Pangborn pays the Beaumonts a visit, and suddenly he too is thrust into a dream so bizarre that neither criminal science nor his own sharp mind can make sense of it.
At the center of the nightmare is the devastating figure of George Stark, Thad Beaumont's dark half--impossibly alive and relentlessly on the loose--a killing machine that destroys everyone on the path that leads to the man who created him. As Stark approaches, as Thad and Liz contend with the escalating horror and implacable threat of his existence and Thad reaches deep inside his own mind to mount a defense, forces gather in the air above Castle Lake, outriders of the dead to the land of the living....To whom do they belong?
Here is The Dark Half, a tale of terror so real and fascinating that Stephen King's growing legion of fans will find themselves squirming in the master's heart-stopping, blood-curdling grip--and loving every minute of it.
431 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
2263 people are currently reading
78470 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,614 books886k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,009 reviews
July 1, 2019
“But writers INVITE ghosts, maybe; along with actors and artists, they are the only totally accepted mediums of our society. They make worlds that never were, populate them with people who never existed, and then invite us to join them in their fantasies. And we do it, don't we? Yes. We PAY to do it.”
Thad Beaumont wanted to write from the time he discovered that a person could make a living as a writer. He pounded away at the typewriter so much that his parents were beginning to fear that something was wrong with him.
They were right...
something is wrong with Thad, but to fully understand what is wrong will take decades to figure out.
Birds, thousands of them, chittering and flapping their wings, a cacophony of noise. Sparrows in particular. The sounds of them are a precursor to setting off a lightning storm in Thad’s head that leaves him flopping on the ground like a fish trying to find its way back to water. His parents take him to a doctor, and scans show that something is in his head.
The surgeon takes that something out of Thad’s head. It is something so unusual that he decides not to tell Thad or his parents. He has saved Thad’s life, and for now that is enough.
Thad goes on to write a couple of critically acclaimed books which unfortunately do not do well financially. He teaches to make ends meet, but there is something nagging at him like he has left some unfinished business. He decides to create a pseudonym that will allow him to get these increasingly dark thoughts out of his head and put them on paper.
He becomes George Stark, or George Stark becomes him. The separation between them creates no daylight.
While writing as George Stark, he transforms into someone else, someone meaner, someone who likes seeing blood. ”Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.” Thad Beaumont writes with a typewriter, but George Stark don’t write with no faggoty typewriter; oh no, it is Black Beauty pencils or nothing. The words are etched into the paper like words carved over the doors of the ”stone hotels” in which Stark has spent so much time incarcerated.
The sparrows are back. The sparrows are flying.
Stephen King shares some interesting thoughts about sparrows. Sparrows are so common here in Kansas that they have about the same significance as a blade of grass or a tree leaf. ”Gatherings of sparrows are rather more ominous…. Sparrows are said to be outriders of the deceased. Which means their job is to guide lost souls back into the land of the living. They are, in other words, the harbingers of the living dead.”
Living dead? Like zombies you might ask?
Well, not exactly.
When Thad decides to retire George Stark and go back to writing as Thad Beaumont, things start to get weird and not in a wow isn’t that kind of weird way, but more in a OMG someone is killing everyone Thad knows kind of way.
And Thad is the number one suspect.
It doesn’t take long for Thad to realize that he is involved, that he is the source of the problem.
”I am the knower. I am the owner. I am the bringer.”
George Stark doesn't like being dead. He wants just what everybody else wants. He wants to live. ”When you fuck with him you are fucking with the best.” As things become clear, crazy clear, Thad realizes that he can’t share these revelations with his wife Liz.
” I’m not going to tell Liz this time, he thought. Be damned if I will. And not just because I’m scared, either...although I am. It’s perfectly simple--not all secrets are bad secrets., Some are good secrets. Some are necessary secrets, and this one is both of those.”
George Stark drives a 1966 Black Oldsmobile Toronado. In college I drove a 1969 White Oldsmobile Toronado. There are differences between the years, but let's just say I understand the power that Stark felt when he was driving that Black Beauty down the road. My father has a 1966 Black Toronado he is having restored. I hope he doesn’t turn into George Stark!!!
When Stephen King writes about writers, it is simply irresistible. I don’t know if there is another writer on the planet who understands all the nuances of being a writer, a famous writer, better than King. He conjures things out of his mind that scare the hell out of millions of people every time he releases a new book. His nightmares have nightmares. As King taps into the dark side of himself to find those horrors, I think he has met his George Stark. This evil doppelganger feeds him with the images that become words that become horrors made out of the worst of human impulses. I guess the question he has to ask himself is will these feathered soul catchers come for him someday.
The day after I finished reading this book I opened the garage to take out a bag of trash before heading to work, and hundreds of birds exploded over my head flying just a few feet over the top of my house. They were sparrows, providing me with one last bone deep chill that brushed skeletal fingers down my spine.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Thad Beaumont wanted to write from the time he discovered that a person could make a living as a writer. He pounded away at the typewriter so much that his parents were beginning to fear that something was wrong with him.
They were right...
something is wrong with Thad, but to fully understand what is wrong will take decades to figure out.
Birds, thousands of them, chittering and flapping their wings, a cacophony of noise. Sparrows in particular. The sounds of them are a precursor to setting off a lightning storm in Thad’s head that leaves him flopping on the ground like a fish trying to find its way back to water. His parents take him to a doctor, and scans show that something is in his head.
The surgeon takes that something out of Thad’s head. It is something so unusual that he decides not to tell Thad or his parents. He has saved Thad’s life, and for now that is enough.
Thad goes on to write a couple of critically acclaimed books which unfortunately do not do well financially. He teaches to make ends meet, but there is something nagging at him like he has left some unfinished business. He decides to create a pseudonym that will allow him to get these increasingly dark thoughts out of his head and put them on paper.
He becomes George Stark, or George Stark becomes him. The separation between them creates no daylight.
While writing as George Stark, he transforms into someone else, someone meaner, someone who likes seeing blood. ”Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.” Thad Beaumont writes with a typewriter, but George Stark don’t write with no faggoty typewriter; oh no, it is Black Beauty pencils or nothing. The words are etched into the paper like words carved over the doors of the ”stone hotels” in which Stark has spent so much time incarcerated.
The sparrows are back. The sparrows are flying.
Stephen King shares some interesting thoughts about sparrows. Sparrows are so common here in Kansas that they have about the same significance as a blade of grass or a tree leaf. ”Gatherings of sparrows are rather more ominous…. Sparrows are said to be outriders of the deceased. Which means their job is to guide lost souls back into the land of the living. They are, in other words, the harbingers of the living dead.”
Living dead? Like zombies you might ask?
Well, not exactly.
When Thad decides to retire George Stark and go back to writing as Thad Beaumont, things start to get weird and not in a wow isn’t that kind of weird way, but more in a OMG someone is killing everyone Thad knows kind of way.
And Thad is the number one suspect.
It doesn’t take long for Thad to realize that he is involved, that he is the source of the problem.
”I am the knower. I am the owner. I am the bringer.”
George Stark doesn't like being dead. He wants just what everybody else wants. He wants to live. ”When you fuck with him you are fucking with the best.” As things become clear, crazy clear, Thad realizes that he can’t share these revelations with his wife Liz.
” I’m not going to tell Liz this time, he thought. Be damned if I will. And not just because I’m scared, either...although I am. It’s perfectly simple--not all secrets are bad secrets., Some are good secrets. Some are necessary secrets, and this one is both of those.”
George Stark drives a 1966 Black Oldsmobile Toronado. In college I drove a 1969 White Oldsmobile Toronado. There are differences between the years, but let's just say I understand the power that Stark felt when he was driving that Black Beauty down the road. My father has a 1966 Black Toronado he is having restored. I hope he doesn’t turn into George Stark!!!
When Stephen King writes about writers, it is simply irresistible. I don’t know if there is another writer on the planet who understands all the nuances of being a writer, a famous writer, better than King. He conjures things out of his mind that scare the hell out of millions of people every time he releases a new book. His nightmares have nightmares. As King taps into the dark side of himself to find those horrors, I think he has met his George Stark. This evil doppelganger feeds him with the images that become words that become horrors made out of the worst of human impulses. I guess the question he has to ask himself is will these feathered soul catchers come for him someday.
The day after I finished reading this book I opened the garage to take out a bag of trash before heading to work, and hundreds of birds exploded over my head flying just a few feet over the top of my house. They were sparrows, providing me with one last bone deep chill that brushed skeletal fingers down my spine.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
May 23, 2021
Somewhat autobiographical, questions about identity, personality disorders, and paranormal manifestations mix up together to one of King´s average and weaker novels.
If another author, without King´s amazing characterization skills, would have written a book with hardly a real plot or characterization, it would have pretty certainly failed, but so it´s a solid, average read. I wouldn´t recommend reading it, King should truly have considered leaving more unfinished manuscripts like this one and Cujo, Christine, Tommyknockers, etc. in this ominous treasure chest of undead and half baked works he likes referring to, but I read it before I became a meta score swarm intelligence rating worshipper, shame on me and my own fault.
What´s really a bit annoying and I can still remember vividly, is the unsatisfying end and conclusion, the use of some not really that terrifying elements.
Fun fact, nothing to do with the novel but with his addictions, maybe fun fact might be inappropriate, but meh :
I am just realizing that he wrote The Dark Tower 2 The Drawing of the Three, where just before his rehab, when some of his best other works have been produced. When one contrasts the stoned as hell writing and the horrible, directly afterward The Tommyknockers, not read because of the ratings, and this, one could come to the wrong conclusion that drugs give inspiration, but then came The Stand and his other amazing works.
The Dark Half and Tommyknockers definitively suffered from an insecure, nervous, sober writer who, as he said, wasn´t sure anymore if he still could write without his demonic little helpers and I see The Stand as his ultimate self test, including one of his only writer´s block moments. Creativity seems to sometimes flow better on self destruction mode.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
If another author, without King´s amazing characterization skills, would have written a book with hardly a real plot or characterization, it would have pretty certainly failed, but so it´s a solid, average read. I wouldn´t recommend reading it, King should truly have considered leaving more unfinished manuscripts like this one and Cujo, Christine, Tommyknockers, etc. in this ominous treasure chest of undead and half baked works he likes referring to, but I read it before I became a meta score swarm intelligence rating worshipper, shame on me and my own fault.
What´s really a bit annoying and I can still remember vividly, is the unsatisfying end and conclusion, the use of some not really that terrifying elements.
Fun fact, nothing to do with the novel but with his addictions, maybe fun fact might be inappropriate, but meh :
I am just realizing that he wrote The Dark Tower 2 The Drawing of the Three, where just before his rehab, when some of his best other works have been produced. When one contrasts the stoned as hell writing and the horrible, directly afterward The Tommyknockers, not read because of the ratings, and this, one could come to the wrong conclusion that drugs give inspiration, but then came The Stand and his other amazing works.
The Dark Half and Tommyknockers definitively suffered from an insecure, nervous, sober writer who, as he said, wasn´t sure anymore if he still could write without his demonic little helpers and I see The Stand as his ultimate self test, including one of his only writer´s block moments. Creativity seems to sometimes flow better on self destruction mode.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
June 13, 2025
George Stark. Not a very nice guy.
The Dark Half was my fourth Stephen King Reread in 2019 and it was just as brilliant as I remembered!
Equal parts warped, dark and brutal, this story is a must read for any King fan.
I won't get into the connections between this and King's own life and experience with Richard Bachman.
Let's just hope this twisted tale of a 'pseudonym gone rogue' is 100% a work of fiction.
I mean, a man gets beaten to death with his own prosthetic arm!
That's rough and that doesn't even begin to brush the surface of this super violent narrative.
The story begins when our protagonist, Thad Beaumont, is just a kid suffering from debilitating headaches and auditory hallucinations.
During surgical exploration of his brain, it is discovered that Thad !
With that strange occurrence out of the way, Thad goes on to live a healthy, normal life.
He becomes a college professor and writer, gets married, has twins, creates a pseudonym, George Stark, to write under that he subsequently kills off after being outed.
You know, the usual.
There's one problem with this, however, George Stark doesn't want to be dead.
George wants to continue his successful pulp fiction writing and he needs Thad on board in order to do so.
When people involved with Thad's career begin being brutally murdered, Thad is the prime suspect.
Even though he has a solid alibi, there is physical evidence linking him to the crimes, like fingerprints!
Thad is innocent and sets out to prove it, as well as stop the person responsible.
Along with everyone's favorite Sheriff, Alan Pangborn, the pieces of the puzzle start to come together with startling results.
The sparrows are flying again...
If you are looking for a viscious, creepy read to pick up, look no further.
This King Classic has some of the best body horror ever written and will leave you with a sense of dreadful anticipation the entire way through!!!
Highly recommend!
The Dark Half was my fourth Stephen King Reread in 2019 and it was just as brilliant as I remembered!
Equal parts warped, dark and brutal, this story is a must read for any King fan.
I won't get into the connections between this and King's own life and experience with Richard Bachman.
Let's just hope this twisted tale of a 'pseudonym gone rogue' is 100% a work of fiction.
I mean, a man gets beaten to death with his own prosthetic arm!
That's rough and that doesn't even begin to brush the surface of this super violent narrative.
The story begins when our protagonist, Thad Beaumont, is just a kid suffering from debilitating headaches and auditory hallucinations.
During surgical exploration of his brain, it is discovered that Thad !
With that strange occurrence out of the way, Thad goes on to live a healthy, normal life.
He becomes a college professor and writer, gets married, has twins, creates a pseudonym, George Stark, to write under that he subsequently kills off after being outed.
You know, the usual.
There's one problem with this, however, George Stark doesn't want to be dead.
George wants to continue his successful pulp fiction writing and he needs Thad on board in order to do so.
When people involved with Thad's career begin being brutally murdered, Thad is the prime suspect.
Even though he has a solid alibi, there is physical evidence linking him to the crimes, like fingerprints!
Thad is innocent and sets out to prove it, as well as stop the person responsible.
Along with everyone's favorite Sheriff, Alan Pangborn, the pieces of the puzzle start to come together with startling results.
The sparrows are flying again...
If you are looking for a viscious, creepy read to pick up, look no further.
This King Classic has some of the best body horror ever written and will leave you with a sense of dreadful anticipation the entire way through!!!
Highly recommend!
July 17, 2021
Recovering alcoholic Thad Beaumont is a cerebral literary writer whose books don't sell well; who also happens to have a very dark and popular crime fiction series written under the 'George Stark' pen name. When his alter-ego is exposed, he decides to give George Stark a very public 'mock-burial'! ... Thad's dark half 'George Stark' emerges from the grave with all Thad's compulsive behaviours and addictions... and is hell-bent on his mission to gruesomely murder everyone responsible for his 'death'!!!
OMG the sparrows, the sparrows! The Sparrows! This is a truly classic Stephen King work in which he wields a truly horrific malignant force in the form of George Stark, smashing his way into the normality of suburban life! Classic!
The Dark Half was the last book King wrote before he got clean. A work that is strongly tied to King trying to let go of the darker writing of his alter-ego Richard Bachman. Reading the book with this foreknowledge clearly illustrates the motivation and rationale for this frenetically deranged story!
OMG the sparrows, the sparrows! The Sparrows! This is a truly classic Stephen King work in which he wields a truly horrific malignant force in the form of George Stark, smashing his way into the normality of suburban life! Classic!
The Dark Half was the last book King wrote before he got clean. A work that is strongly tied to King trying to let go of the darker writing of his alter-ego Richard Bachman. Reading the book with this foreknowledge clearly illustrates the motivation and rationale for this frenetically deranged story!
July 13, 2023
“He sometimes believed that the compulsion to make fiction was no more than a bulwark against confusion, maybe even insanity. It was a desperate imposition of order by people able to find that precious stuff only in their minds . . . never in their hearts.”
Creating George Stark was easy. Getting rid of him won't be . . .
Thad Beaumont should be happy. For years now his secret persona 'George Stark', author of super violent pulp thrillers, has paid the family bills. But now, Thad is writing seriously again under his own name, and his menacing pseudonym has been buried forever.
And yet . . . something is terribly wrong in Thad Beaumont's world…..George Stark, doesn’t want to stay buried!
As with all of Mr King’s works, The Dark Half is a disturbing, psychological thriller that pushes the boundaries of reality. In The Dark Half, he brings together characters written about in other works in his very own creation of creepy, a piece of small town America, called Castle Rock.
I found the entire cast interesting, each added something unique to the story line. Though the plot itself did feel drawn out a little, the journey there was paced well and held my interest. Stephen King’s writing style is prominent, but felt more intimate than his earlier works.
The characters were people I cared about and George Stark was deliciously horrible! I also really enjoyed the ending. Some people say that Stephen King sometimes struggles with his endings but I Iiked this one. Quite macabre and slowly builds up to it's climax.
Sure, I’ve read creepier, gorier books from Mr King. But this one had just enough of both to satisfy this genre without making it difficult to read. The thriller-suspense is light, The Dark Half is pretty much a crime book. It could have been a tad shorter, a tad more intense, but it’s definitely a novel I’d be happy to recommend to all.
“Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.”
Creating George Stark was easy. Getting rid of him won't be . . .
Thad Beaumont should be happy. For years now his secret persona 'George Stark', author of super violent pulp thrillers, has paid the family bills. But now, Thad is writing seriously again under his own name, and his menacing pseudonym has been buried forever.
And yet . . . something is terribly wrong in Thad Beaumont's world…..George Stark, doesn’t want to stay buried!
As with all of Mr King’s works, The Dark Half is a disturbing, psychological thriller that pushes the boundaries of reality. In The Dark Half, he brings together characters written about in other works in his very own creation of creepy, a piece of small town America, called Castle Rock.
I found the entire cast interesting, each added something unique to the story line. Though the plot itself did feel drawn out a little, the journey there was paced well and held my interest. Stephen King’s writing style is prominent, but felt more intimate than his earlier works.
The characters were people I cared about and George Stark was deliciously horrible! I also really enjoyed the ending. Some people say that Stephen King sometimes struggles with his endings but I Iiked this one. Quite macabre and slowly builds up to it's climax.
Sure, I’ve read creepier, gorier books from Mr King. But this one had just enough of both to satisfy this genre without making it difficult to read. The thriller-suspense is light, The Dark Half is pretty much a crime book. It could have been a tad shorter, a tad more intense, but it’s definitely a novel I’d be happy to recommend to all.
“Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.”
February 7, 2017
A totally wild ride! Something I likely wouldn't have picked up on my own as I'd somehow missed this King novel. So glad I did as I enjoyed it much more than expected. As always, SK is a genius at creating characters who are flawed, intriguing, and yet somehow redeeming. I now need to hunt down the film version to compare notes on how it varies from the book.
Buddy Read with Amber and Kelly! Woot and double woot.
Buddy Read with Amber and Kelly! Woot and double woot.
August 30, 2021
A man. An average American man, a fledgling author of two novels with mediocre sales. An author who uses a pseudonym to write in a different genre - much like J.K Rowling, Nora Roberts and our very own Stephen King, to name a few. But you can write under a thousand different names, however it will still be the same person who is writing. Or is it?
Have you seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? Did you like it or did it creep you out? Do you feel differently about large flocks of birds?
A small town in Maine with a diverse group of characters - Alan Pangborn, Polly Chalmers, Norris Ridgewick, Andy Clutterbuck amongst those who are to reappear some years later when they meet a newcomer to town who sets up a mysterious shop known as NEEDFUL THINGS. And did somebody mention a rabid dog?
These three paragraphs form the central horrifying plot to Stephen King's The Dark Half. This book is not a slap in the face horror like IT, nor does it weave its way through a large cast of characters belonging to the one town like Under the Dome. King draws on what he knows and what he has used on several occasions and that is to make his MC an author. A classic good versus evil tale that WILL NOT keep you guessing. It is designed for you to work out what is going on from the early pages but that is the point. You understand the why, but how will it end?
Have you seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? Did you like it or did it creep you out? Do you feel differently about large flocks of birds?
A small town in Maine with a diverse group of characters - Alan Pangborn, Polly Chalmers, Norris Ridgewick, Andy Clutterbuck amongst those who are to reappear some years later when they meet a newcomer to town who sets up a mysterious shop known as NEEDFUL THINGS. And did somebody mention a rabid dog?
These three paragraphs form the central horrifying plot to Stephen King's The Dark Half. This book is not a slap in the face horror like IT, nor does it weave its way through a large cast of characters belonging to the one town like Under the Dome. King draws on what he knows and what he has used on several occasions and that is to make his MC an author. A classic good versus evil tale that WILL NOT keep you guessing. It is designed for you to work out what is going on from the early pages but that is the point. You understand the why, but how will it end?
March 22, 2017
This REALLY is one hell of a crazy-ass read, and it all begins with an eleven year old boy's excruciating headaches that lead to surgery, bizarre results and the freakish sparrow phenomenon afterward.
...Now this young boy Thad began writing weird stories at an early age, and as he grew up decided to use a pen name for a period of time.....sound familiar?
...Anyway, the time came to bury the alias and one George Stark with full honors....grave, headstone and publicity to boot.
...As the story progresses, a grown up Thad with wife and twins (now writing under his own name) begins to re-experience awful headaches in addition to frightening dreams. Injurious things then start to happen....grotesque murders begin, and most ominous of all...."The sparrows are flying again."
Overall, I really enjoyed this one albeit thought it a bit drawn out. Was actually torn between three and four stars for a good while, but that extra dose of KING weird with the scads of creepy birds late in the story, and the final warning nudged my rating up.
(some gore and super ickiness in this one folks)
December 16, 2024
The Dark Half is fine; it isn’t King's best work, and it’s not his worst. What I like most about it is it gives me the chance to talk about my favorite actor, Richard Widmark 💕
(I promise there's a point to this!)
As first impressions go, Richard Widmark made a strong one on American audiences — a strong, chilling first impression.
Making his film debut in 1947's Kiss of Death, he played a young gangster on the rise, the villainous Tommy Udo, a man who slabbers over bloody boxing matches and, most famously, giggles like The Joker while throwing little old ladies down the stairs.
The role made Widmark an overnight sensation. People would approach him in the street with tape recorders, hoping to capture his trademark laugh. He was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" at the 1948 Oscars (losing to Edmund Glenn as Santa Claus), and won the 1948 Golden Globe for "Best New Star of the Year". Widmark would work steadily until running over his foot with his own tractor in 1992, necessitating his retirement.
Post-Kiss of Death, Widmark played three more villains until his chance came to play a good guy in 1949's Down to the Sea in Ships (my personal favorite of his!), and he would achieve something of leading man status... but it didn't stick. No one remembers Widmark as they do Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, or Jimmy Stewart. And I think it comes down to first impressions.
Audiences saw in Widmark a sense of danger, and they loved it. The New York Times went so far as to describe him as "a cinematically anti-social actor with a specialty for psychotic villains". So even when he was in leading man roles, like opposite Marilyn Monroe in 1952’s Don't Bother to Knock or, in what was perhaps his most defining role, 1953’s Pickup on South Street, there was a deviance to his characters—a capacity for darkness lurking just beneath the surface. That's what the people wanted, and that's who they remember.
But why am I talking so much about Richard Widmark?
Enter Author Donald E. Westlake
The author of over 100 books, the late Westlake was a master of crime fiction... but not everything he wrote had his name on it. He developed a penchant for using pseudonyms on much of his work, a habit that started out of necessity in the '50s. As he described it,
"When you're first in love, you want to do it all the time. I loved writing, and I was just pushing out too much stuff for a rational marketplace to contend with. I first started putting pen names on short stories because magazines wouldn't publish the same byline twice in the same magazine."
When he began work as a novelist full-time in the '60s, though he would sometimes use his real name, he still employed pseudonyms. The most notable was the one attached to his series of Parker novels, published under the name "Richard Stark".
Guess where this name came from? ;)
The Parker series followed the title character, a ruthless career criminal who would murder without second thought and exact brutal revenge. For such gruesome subject matter, Westlake wanted a penname to match. He recalled seeing Kiss of Death, and how Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo particularly stuck with him, saying,
"Part of the character's fascination and danger is his unpredictability. He's fast and mean, and that's what I wanted the writing to be: crisp and lean, no fat, trimmed down...stark."
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark.
Stephen King and the Death of a Man Who Never Lived
Much like Richard Widmark, Stephen King found pretty immediate success. His first novel Carrie was a smash hit, and he became one of the bestselling authors in the world, continuing to write to this day. This success was not one King had expected, nor something he took for granted. After publishing two more bestsellers, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, King developed a pseudonym of his own.
There are two stories on how this came about:
1.) King wanted to try and replicate his success under another name, to see if it was a matter of talent or luck, or
2.) Like with Westlake's early short stories, King was producing such a high volume of work and publishers didn't want to release multiple books by the same author in one year.
Probably a little from Column A, a little from Column B.
King's first idea for a pseudonym was "Gus Pillsbury", Pillsbury being his mother's maiden name, but he ultimately went with "Richard Bachman", under which he first published the novel Rage in 1977. The surname came from his affinity for the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and the front name was in honor of Donald E. Westlake's gory alias, Richard Stark. So,
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark into Richard Bachman.
King published five books under the Bachman pseudonym until an attentive young Washington, D.C. bookseller named Steve Brown became convinced the two authors were the same man in 1984, finding so many similarities in Bachman's latest Thinner with the work of King.
So certain was he that Brown went to the Library of Congress to look up the Bachman books' copyright licenses on their (new for the '80s) computer system. It showed that Bachman had the same agent as King, Kirby McCauley, but little else. Brown did notice, however, the oldest document hadn't been uploaded yet, and he asked the librarian to find him the physical copy. There, he found his answer:
Stephen King, Bangor, ME
Brown xeroxed the document and included with it a letter to King, c/o Kirby McCauley. In it, he explained his research into finding Bachman's identity and expressed a wish to write an article about it, but wouldn't if the reveal would hurt King. Two weeks later, Brown received a phone call at work from King himself. They then spent the next three nights talking over how Brown would write the exposé.
Published in the Washington Post on April 9, 1985 under the title, "Stephen King Shining Through", the article by Brown proclaimed, "Novelist Richard Bachman died of exposure early this year. I helped kill him."
And Now, The Dark Half
While King and Brown's collaboration on "killing" Bachman was amicable, it seeded an idea in King's head - one of a similar situation, but under duress; one of a pseudonym unwilling to die. So was the genesis of his 1989 The Dark Half.
In it, author Thad Beaumont makes his living publishing very popular, but very extreme horror/crime fiction under a pseudonym. He writes some stuff under his own name, but they underperform. When an upstart lawyer discovers him as the man behind the pseudonym, he tries to blackmail Beaumont into cutting him in. Instead, Beaumont and his wife choose to make the reveal themselves, and do an editorial with People magazine announcing the pseudonym’s death and the subsequent end of its career.
But Thad struggles to write without it, all while everyone involved with “killing” the pseudonym met painful ends. While the pseudonym was never really alive, it isn’t really dead, either.
The pseudonym’s name? George Stark.
Now guess where this name came from? ;)
King called Westlake to ask his permission to use the surname Stark for The Dark Half's brutal pseudonym, a tribute to both men's aliases. Westlake was game. So,
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark into Richard Bachman into George Stark
What's most interesting in The Dark Half to me is King's commentary on the freedom that comes with writing under a pseudonym. Thad reflects that the degree of separation makes him really feel like someone else, and that the words come easier. Did King feel less pressure when he wrote under Bachman, knowing the spotlight was so briefly off him? Did Westlake feel empowered to write darker scenes if they were supposedly coming from someone else?
Pseudonyms, Public Personas, First Impressions, and Assumed Identities... For me, it all comes back to Richard Widmark
Despite his onscreen persona, Richard Widmark was a mild-mannered Midwesterner, a homebody, and a family man — a man who still ordered old-fashioned chocolate sodas into the 1990s, who discovered his true passion in life was not acting, but field mowing (hence the unfortunate tractor accident...) He was a lifelong Democrat and supporter of gun control, earning him the ire of fellow actor John Wayne.
Of his career, he said this in 1976,
"I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence."
Yet he could enact it so effectively onscreen. I think it shows we all have many faces that manifest in different ways and in different times, and these are part us — like Bachman was part of King, or George Stark was part of Thad Beaumont — but it isn't the whole of us. I think that part stays safe, unchanged, and is the most openly shared.
(I promise there's a point to this!)
As first impressions go, Richard Widmark made a strong one on American audiences — a strong, chilling first impression.
Making his film debut in 1947's Kiss of Death, he played a young gangster on the rise, the villainous Tommy Udo, a man who slabbers over bloody boxing matches and, most famously, giggles like The Joker while throwing little old ladies down the stairs.
The role made Widmark an overnight sensation. People would approach him in the street with tape recorders, hoping to capture his trademark laugh. He was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" at the 1948 Oscars (losing to Edmund Glenn as Santa Claus), and won the 1948 Golden Globe for "Best New Star of the Year". Widmark would work steadily until running over his foot with his own tractor in 1992, necessitating his retirement.
Post-Kiss of Death, Widmark played three more villains until his chance came to play a good guy in 1949's Down to the Sea in Ships (my personal favorite of his!), and he would achieve something of leading man status... but it didn't stick. No one remembers Widmark as they do Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, or Jimmy Stewart. And I think it comes down to first impressions.
Audiences saw in Widmark a sense of danger, and they loved it. The New York Times went so far as to describe him as "a cinematically anti-social actor with a specialty for psychotic villains". So even when he was in leading man roles, like opposite Marilyn Monroe in 1952’s Don't Bother to Knock or, in what was perhaps his most defining role, 1953’s Pickup on South Street, there was a deviance to his characters—a capacity for darkness lurking just beneath the surface. That's what the people wanted, and that's who they remember.
But why am I talking so much about Richard Widmark?
Enter Author Donald E. Westlake
The author of over 100 books, the late Westlake was a master of crime fiction... but not everything he wrote had his name on it. He developed a penchant for using pseudonyms on much of his work, a habit that started out of necessity in the '50s. As he described it,
"When you're first in love, you want to do it all the time. I loved writing, and I was just pushing out too much stuff for a rational marketplace to contend with. I first started putting pen names on short stories because magazines wouldn't publish the same byline twice in the same magazine."
When he began work as a novelist full-time in the '60s, though he would sometimes use his real name, he still employed pseudonyms. The most notable was the one attached to his series of Parker novels, published under the name "Richard Stark".
Guess where this name came from? ;)
The Parker series followed the title character, a ruthless career criminal who would murder without second thought and exact brutal revenge. For such gruesome subject matter, Westlake wanted a penname to match. He recalled seeing Kiss of Death, and how Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo particularly stuck with him, saying,
"Part of the character's fascination and danger is his unpredictability. He's fast and mean, and that's what I wanted the writing to be: crisp and lean, no fat, trimmed down...stark."
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark.
Stephen King and the Death of a Man Who Never Lived
Much like Richard Widmark, Stephen King found pretty immediate success. His first novel Carrie was a smash hit, and he became one of the bestselling authors in the world, continuing to write to this day. This success was not one King had expected, nor something he took for granted. After publishing two more bestsellers, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, King developed a pseudonym of his own.
There are two stories on how this came about:
1.) King wanted to try and replicate his success under another name, to see if it was a matter of talent or luck, or
2.) Like with Westlake's early short stories, King was producing such a high volume of work and publishers didn't want to release multiple books by the same author in one year.
Probably a little from Column A, a little from Column B.
King's first idea for a pseudonym was "Gus Pillsbury", Pillsbury being his mother's maiden name, but he ultimately went with "Richard Bachman", under which he first published the novel Rage in 1977. The surname came from his affinity for the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and the front name was in honor of Donald E. Westlake's gory alias, Richard Stark. So,
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark into Richard Bachman.
King published five books under the Bachman pseudonym until an attentive young Washington, D.C. bookseller named Steve Brown became convinced the two authors were the same man in 1984, finding so many similarities in Bachman's latest Thinner with the work of King.
So certain was he that Brown went to the Library of Congress to look up the Bachman books' copyright licenses on their (new for the '80s) computer system. It showed that Bachman had the same agent as King, Kirby McCauley, but little else. Brown did notice, however, the oldest document hadn't been uploaded yet, and he asked the librarian to find him the physical copy. There, he found his answer:
Stephen King, Bangor, ME
Brown xeroxed the document and included with it a letter to King, c/o Kirby McCauley. In it, he explained his research into finding Bachman's identity and expressed a wish to write an article about it, but wouldn't if the reveal would hurt King. Two weeks later, Brown received a phone call at work from King himself. They then spent the next three nights talking over how Brown would write the exposé.
Published in the Washington Post on April 9, 1985 under the title, "Stephen King Shining Through", the article by Brown proclaimed, "Novelist Richard Bachman died of exposure early this year. I helped kill him."
And Now, The Dark Half
While King and Brown's collaboration on "killing" Bachman was amicable, it seeded an idea in King's head - one of a similar situation, but under duress; one of a pseudonym unwilling to die. So was the genesis of his 1989 The Dark Half.
In it, author Thad Beaumont makes his living publishing very popular, but very extreme horror/crime fiction under a pseudonym. He writes some stuff under his own name, but they underperform. When an upstart lawyer discovers him as the man behind the pseudonym, he tries to blackmail Beaumont into cutting him in. Instead, Beaumont and his wife choose to make the reveal themselves, and do an editorial with People magazine announcing the pseudonym’s death and the subsequent end of its career.
But Thad struggles to write without it, all while everyone involved with “killing” the pseudonym met painful ends. While the pseudonym was never really alive, it isn’t really dead, either.
The pseudonym’s name? George Stark.
Now guess where this name came from? ;)
King called Westlake to ask his permission to use the surname Stark for The Dark Half's brutal pseudonym, a tribute to both men's aliases. Westlake was game. So,
Richard Widmark into Richard Stark into Richard Bachman into George Stark
What's most interesting in The Dark Half to me is King's commentary on the freedom that comes with writing under a pseudonym. Thad reflects that the degree of separation makes him really feel like someone else, and that the words come easier. Did King feel less pressure when he wrote under Bachman, knowing the spotlight was so briefly off him? Did Westlake feel empowered to write darker scenes if they were supposedly coming from someone else?
Pseudonyms, Public Personas, First Impressions, and Assumed Identities... For me, it all comes back to Richard Widmark
Despite his onscreen persona, Richard Widmark was a mild-mannered Midwesterner, a homebody, and a family man — a man who still ordered old-fashioned chocolate sodas into the 1990s, who discovered his true passion in life was not acting, but field mowing (hence the unfortunate tractor accident...) He was a lifelong Democrat and supporter of gun control, earning him the ire of fellow actor John Wayne.
Of his career, he said this in 1976,
"I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence."
Yet he could enact it so effectively onscreen. I think it shows we all have many faces that manifest in different ways and in different times, and these are part us — like Bachman was part of King, or George Stark was part of Thad Beaumont — but it isn't the whole of us. I think that part stays safe, unchanged, and is the most openly shared.
September 3, 2017
When someone discovered literary writer Thad Beaumont was also crime writer George Stark and tried to blackmail him, Beaumont and his wife decided to go public and kill off George Stark themselves. But when the pseudonym takes on a life of his own and starts killing people connected to Thad, can anything stop him?
I read this sometime in that hazy dawn of time before Goodreads. Since we had a trip to Maine coming up, I decided to read it again.
The Dark Half is an underrated book. Thad Beaumont had a parasitic twin removed from inside his skull when he was 12. Since then, he's become a critically acclaimed literary writer and a blockbuster crime writer under the pseudonym George Stark, who goes on a murderous rampage when Thad kills him off.
This is one of those books where the main character is the least interesting one. Alan Pangborn is a great viewpoint character and a lot more interesting than Thad. He's a small town sheriff trying to do his job despite some crazy shit happening.
Basically, The Dark Half is Parker chasing down Donald Westlake. Since I've read all 23 Parker books Richard Stark wrote since the first time I read this, the reread was a much richer experience. I noticed some Richard Stark influence in the George Stark chapters. Also, I enjoyed the Creepshow reference, although I might have to check the timeline to see which one actually came first. "Call me Billie, everyone does!"
Aside from the psychopomp business with the sparrows and Stark falling apart, The Dark Half is pretty much a crime book. It doesn't feel nearly as long winded as some of King's books and the ending didn't suck for once. George Stark was a chilling villain and since I forgot the ending, I had no idea if Thad would live or not. Four out of five stars.
I read this sometime in that hazy dawn of time before Goodreads. Since we had a trip to Maine coming up, I decided to read it again.
The Dark Half is an underrated book. Thad Beaumont had a parasitic twin removed from inside his skull when he was 12. Since then, he's become a critically acclaimed literary writer and a blockbuster crime writer under the pseudonym George Stark, who goes on a murderous rampage when Thad kills him off.
This is one of those books where the main character is the least interesting one. Alan Pangborn is a great viewpoint character and a lot more interesting than Thad. He's a small town sheriff trying to do his job despite some crazy shit happening.
Basically, The Dark Half is Parker chasing down Donald Westlake. Since I've read all 23 Parker books Richard Stark wrote since the first time I read this, the reread was a much richer experience. I noticed some Richard Stark influence in the George Stark chapters. Also, I enjoyed the Creepshow reference, although I might have to check the timeline to see which one actually came first. "Call me Billie, everyone does!"
Aside from the psychopomp business with the sparrows and Stark falling apart, The Dark Half is pretty much a crime book. It doesn't feel nearly as long winded as some of King's books and the ending didn't suck for once. George Stark was a chilling villain and since I forgot the ending, I had no idea if Thad would live or not. Four out of five stars.
June 5, 2021
“Inside him a voice whispered for the first time: Who are you when you write, Thad? Who are you then?I discovered this book when I was fourteen or so, a teenager safe in the invincibility of youth. It grabbed me then, had me glued to its pages, enthralled by King’s storytelling. Rereading it now, I was a bit worried to see if the magic is lost as the wrinkles are gained — but I still loved it. The story is relatively snappy (it’s definitely not one of those monstrous doorstoppers that King can be quite prone to), the dialogue is the usual King-good, the characters are nicely drawn (Alan Pangborn is a standout here). The protagonist is a writer, and you can just *feel* that King has a personal connection to the craft here, showing us the conjuring of stories as something utterly personal and yet terrifyingly alien in nature. Who and what are you when you create stories and enthrall others in your fantasy worlds?
And for that voice he had no answer.”
“You talked to them about how crazy it would be to believe not just in a vengeful ghost, but in the ghost of a man who never was. But writers INVITE ghosts, maybe; along with actors and artists, they are the only totally accepted mediums of our society. They make worlds that never were, populate them with people who never existed, and then invite us to join them in their fantasies. And we do it, don’t we? Yes. We PAY to do it.”
For a short while King also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman - and those books were a bit darker and more unpleasant than the usual King fare. Then the proverbial cat got out of the proverbial bag, and King decided to kill off the pseudonym. His protagonist in written shortly after The Dark Half, Thad Beaumont, does the same to his writing alter ego (or rather, id) George Stark — but Stark, “not a very nice guy,” refuses to go away lightly. The bloodthirsty pseudonym, who just may have a very physical connection to Thad, goes on a blood-chilling rampage, and nothing good can happen once your inner demons decide to come to life.
“He wants the same thing you or I would want if we were in his position. He wants not to be dead anymore. That’s all he wants. Not to be dead anymore. I’m the only one who might be able to make that happen. And if I can’t, or won’t… well… he can at least make sure he isn’t lonely.”When Thad was a young boy, almost dying from a brain tumor, he used to hear birds - sparrows, actually. And now George Stark climbed out of his makeshift grave, and sparrows are flying again.
Just like From a Buick 8, this is one of underrated King’s books that nevertheless are among my favorites of his. The part where Thad’s wife with horror realizes how actually similar Thad and Stark are, despite the physical differences, still creeps me out. It’s not the body horror that gets me — and there’s enough of that, let’s be honest — but that idea that even the nicest and most mild-mannered among us have that terrifying dark half, that bottomless id, that luckily for those of us who aren’t Thad Beaumont mostly manages to stay safely hidden instead of giving in to its urges and going unpleasantly, revoltingly berserk.
“No you don’t, Alan thought. You don’t understand what you are, and I doubt that you ever will. Your wife might… although I wonder if things will ever be right between the two of you after this, if she’ll ever want to understand, or dare to love you again. Your kids, maybe, someday… but not you, Thad. Standing next to you is like standing next to a cave some nightmarish creature came out of. The monster is gone now, but you still don’t like to be too close to where it came from. Because there might be another. Probably not; your mind knows that, but your emotions—they play a different tune, don’t they? Oh boy. And even if the cave is empty forever, there are the dreams. And the memories.”
I remember feeling torn about that passage above. Yes, Stark existed because of Thad — but how responsible can Thad really be for the actions of his escaped id? It seems that he himself feels he is, and so does Alan, but to met it felt like a parent feeling responsible for actions of adult child. And yet we all know that Thad will continue on with the heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders, deserved or not - it won’t matter.
Actually, when a few years later I came across a single line in another King book about a writer in trouble, Bag of Bones and then another brief line in Needful Things, I was taken aback and yet not quite surprised at the casual reveal of Thad Beaumont’s . And yet that stopped me from revisiting this book until now — because damn you, Uncle Stevie, you can be a mean bastard.
And those damn sparrows! King is very good at taking something very mundane and turning it into creepy galore, but that he manages to pull it off with sparrows — that tiny annoying pest of a bird — is pretty fragging impressive. It’s easy to take so etching impressive and make it terrifying; it takes more skill to make small ordinary things bone-chilling.
“White sky—he saw a white sky broken by the silhouettes of houses and telephone poles. And everywhere there were sparrows. They lined every roof, crowded every pole, waiting only for the command of the group mind. Then they would explode skyward with a sound like thousands of sheets flapping in a brisk wind.”
Yup, sparrows rejoin the list of creepy creatures now. Tread carefully around those.
4 stars.
February 29, 2016
Stephen King once wrote some books under the pen name Richard Bachman, but the gag was blown by a book store clerk in 1985. In The Dark Half, a writer using a pen name is exposed and a murderous rampage occurs as a result with numerous victims getting killed in a variety of gruesome ways, including one guy getting beaten to death with his own prosthetic arm. Uh…Mr. King? I can assure you that I have no interest at all in revealing any secret of yours that I may accidently come across someday. I promise.
Thad Beaumont is a college professor and writer with a wife and baby twins. Thad writes very serious literature and was a National Book Award nominee for his first novel. Unfortunately, he never really found commercial success and got a fat case of writer’s block along the way. So Thad comes up with the pen name, George Stark, that he uses to write gory crime novels, and those books all become popular best sellers. Part of the Stark mystique is the elaborate history Thad devises for him with George sharing a lot of characteristics with the ruthless killer who is the star of the books.
When someone threatens to blow the whistle about who Stark really is, Thad beats them to the punch by going public and declaring that he’s tired of George Stark and will no longer write the crime novels. However, a lot of people connected with ending the Stark name start getting killed. And how can Thad’s fingerprints be all over the crime scenes even though he was hundreds of miles away? Apparently George Stark is a little more real than Thad thought. And he’s very pissed off.
If you ever get into discussions about King’s books with his fans, The Dark Half doesn’t get mentioned a lot, and that’s a shame because I think it’s one of his most underrated books. It’s obvious that the idea was inspired by King’s own use of a pen name, and it’s one of the first books that King really started digging into the idea of what it means to write and create something. Those are themes he’d come to explore a lot more in later years, but when Thad asks himself, “Who am I when I write?”, you can feel King pondering that question himself.
This feels a little bit different from some other King books because it's a hybrid of crime and horror. As always with King, he starts throwing in more detail than he needs to, and it probably would have been a better book if he trimmed a hundred pages. I still think it’s one of his better efforts and that Stark is one of his scarier villains.
I also have a soft spot for this one because it led me to another writer who became one of my favorites. During the story, while Thad is giving an interview about how he came up with George Stark, he mentions being inspired by Donald Westlake using Richard Stark as a pen name for his Parker crime novels. I’d never even heard of Westlake back then in those caveman days before the internet or Amazon, but I thought he sounded interesting so I eventually tracked some of his books down and have been a fan since.
Not as good as The Stand or Salem’s Lot or The Dead Zone, but a helluva lot better than Rose Madder or Desperation, this is one that I think should get more attention from King fans.
Thad Beaumont is a college professor and writer with a wife and baby twins. Thad writes very serious literature and was a National Book Award nominee for his first novel. Unfortunately, he never really found commercial success and got a fat case of writer’s block along the way. So Thad comes up with the pen name, George Stark, that he uses to write gory crime novels, and those books all become popular best sellers. Part of the Stark mystique is the elaborate history Thad devises for him with George sharing a lot of characteristics with the ruthless killer who is the star of the books.
When someone threatens to blow the whistle about who Stark really is, Thad beats them to the punch by going public and declaring that he’s tired of George Stark and will no longer write the crime novels. However, a lot of people connected with ending the Stark name start getting killed. And how can Thad’s fingerprints be all over the crime scenes even though he was hundreds of miles away? Apparently George Stark is a little more real than Thad thought. And he’s very pissed off.
If you ever get into discussions about King’s books with his fans, The Dark Half doesn’t get mentioned a lot, and that’s a shame because I think it’s one of his most underrated books. It’s obvious that the idea was inspired by King’s own use of a pen name, and it’s one of the first books that King really started digging into the idea of what it means to write and create something. Those are themes he’d come to explore a lot more in later years, but when Thad asks himself, “Who am I when I write?”, you can feel King pondering that question himself.
This feels a little bit different from some other King books because it's a hybrid of crime and horror. As always with King, he starts throwing in more detail than he needs to, and it probably would have been a better book if he trimmed a hundred pages. I still think it’s one of his better efforts and that Stark is one of his scarier villains.
I also have a soft spot for this one because it led me to another writer who became one of my favorites. During the story, while Thad is giving an interview about how he came up with George Stark, he mentions being inspired by Donald Westlake using Richard Stark as a pen name for his Parker crime novels. I’d never even heard of Westlake back then in those caveman days before the internet or Amazon, but I thought he sounded interesting so I eventually tracked some of his books down and have been a fan since.
Not as good as The Stand or Salem’s Lot or The Dead Zone, but a helluva lot better than Rose Madder or Desperation, this is one that I think should get more attention from King fans.
October 5, 2017
3.5 Stars
What inspires an author to write a story?
Without question, King is a man with tremendous imagination. He took inspiration for The Shining when he stayed in a deserted hotel along with his wife, and he wrote Pet Sematary after King and his family stayed a year near an actual Pet Sematary in Orrington.
But for The Dark Half, his inspiration was a lot closer to home.
King wrote couple of novels under pseudonym Richard Bachman in 70s and 80s. But in 1985, a bookstore clerk figured Bachman is King and wrote an article about it with King's blessing.
In short, The cat was out of the bag.
Wait, Mild Spoilers Aheaaaaaaad
Four years after, in 1989, King wrote The Dark Half: A dark tale where a novelist with pseudonym reveals his secret identity to the public and vows not to write another novel under that particular pen name. But the pen name AKA his Dark Half doesn't like that.... NOT ONE BIT. So that high toned son of a bitch takes a human form and starts killing everyone who was involved in exposing his identity and more!
I think the bookstore clerk who exposed Bachman had a heart attack after reading this novel.
The Dark half is the next level of Jekyll and Hyde:
Thad Beaumont is a novelist who writes novels in his own name as well as a pseudonym. The works of his Pseudonym, George Stark is grittier, ruthless and more famous, just like the personality of George Stark envisioned by Thad.
But Thad knows George Stark is not just a pseudonym or just a fragment of his imagination, he could feel Stark's exertion over him when he writes stark novels. Thad can feel a dark person lives inside him, who surfaces only to write Stark's bloody novels.
The Dark half is a wicked version of Frankenstein and his monster:
When Thad kills off Stark finally, Stark comes back from the dead like Frankenstein's monster. Hyde is no longer imprisoned in Jekyll's body, but he has his own form and control! And like Frankenstein's monster, Stark starts his rampage to kill everyone connected to him and his creator.
The Dark half is Cape fear with crazier Max Cady:
When it comes to planning, torturing and murdering, there is no one as good as Stark. He is a killer and he is gonna get you, hoss.
The story is divided into three parts. Part one is the longest, bloodiest and most enjoyable of them all. I literally flew through part one in a matter of hours. It's even more surprising for me because I've always found King's initial chapters slow as he uses these chapters to build his characters. But boy oh boy, this book did not dilly dally on those and went straight to action!
Part two considerably slowed down the pace, only to pick it up as the chapters progressed.
Dark half is a high octane physiological horror ride: An extremely fun, yet flawed ride.
The major issue with the story is the plot itself: It is something worthy of Goosebumps, not an actual adult novel. A man who has never existed coming to life? Then he slowly losing his shape because he is not real? And the only way to become real is by learning how to write?
Every time I was at the edge of the seat reading the horror, one of these less savvy plot point shows its face, effectively killing the mood.
*I can't control my hand!*
I even found some lazy writing here! At the beginning, King introduces Thad as not a laughing man. Guess what he does most of the book? Laugh! And the whole relationship of Thad and his family with Sheriff Alan felt odd!
The story is set in the 80s and there are a lot of 80s techs which was unintentionally funny. Like waiting for a computer analysis for a whole day, IBM machines and dialogues like:
Nevertheless, I bow down in front of a sheer wicked imagination of King. Even though the names of characters were different, we all know that the story is about King and Bachman, where Bachman is a homicidal maniac on a rampage. I loved the dedication and dust cover of this book.
Bachman is still at large.
Well played, Mr. King, Well played.
I would recommend this to King fans looking for a different type of high!
And finally, Shout out to Craig AKA LoneTiger for a fantastic buddy read. And to clarify, no sparrows were harmed during our buddy read!
What inspires an author to write a story?
Without question, King is a man with tremendous imagination. He took inspiration for The Shining when he stayed in a deserted hotel along with his wife, and he wrote Pet Sematary after King and his family stayed a year near an actual Pet Sematary in Orrington.
But for The Dark Half, his inspiration was a lot closer to home.
King wrote couple of novels under pseudonym Richard Bachman in 70s and 80s. But in 1985, a bookstore clerk figured Bachman is King and wrote an article about it with King's blessing.
In short, The cat was out of the bag.
Wait, Mild Spoilers Aheaaaaaaad
Four years after, in 1989, King wrote The Dark Half: A dark tale where a novelist with pseudonym reveals his secret identity to the public and vows not to write another novel under that particular pen name. But the pen name AKA his Dark Half doesn't like that.... NOT ONE BIT. So that high toned son of a bitch takes a human form and starts killing everyone who was involved in exposing his identity and more!
I think the bookstore clerk who exposed Bachman had a heart attack after reading this novel.
The Sparrows are flying.
The Dark half is the next level of Jekyll and Hyde:
Thad Beaumont is a novelist who writes novels in his own name as well as a pseudonym. The works of his Pseudonym, George Stark is grittier, ruthless and more famous, just like the personality of George Stark envisioned by Thad.
But Thad knows George Stark is not just a pseudonym or just a fragment of his imagination, he could feel Stark's exertion over him when he writes stark novels. Thad can feel a dark person lives inside him, who surfaces only to write Stark's bloody novels.
The Dark half is a wicked version of Frankenstein and his monster:
When Thad kills off Stark finally, Stark comes back from the dead like Frankenstein's monster. Hyde is no longer imprisoned in Jekyll's body, but he has his own form and control! And like Frankenstein's monster, Stark starts his rampage to kill everyone connected to him and his creator.
The Dark half is Cape fear with crazier Max Cady:
When it comes to planning, torturing and murdering, there is no one as good as Stark. He is a killer and he is gonna get you, hoss.
The story is divided into three parts. Part one is the longest, bloodiest and most enjoyable of them all. I literally flew through part one in a matter of hours. It's even more surprising for me because I've always found King's initial chapters slow as he uses these chapters to build his characters. But boy oh boy, this book did not dilly dally on those and went straight to action!
Part two considerably slowed down the pace, only to pick it up as the chapters progressed.
Dark half is a high octane physiological horror ride: An extremely fun, yet flawed ride.
The major issue with the story is the plot itself: It is something worthy of Goosebumps, not an actual adult novel. A man who has never existed coming to life? Then he slowly losing his shape because he is not real? And the only way to become real is by learning how to write?
Every time I was at the edge of the seat reading the horror, one of these less savvy plot point shows its face, effectively killing the mood.
*I can't control my hand!*
I even found some lazy writing here! At the beginning, King introduces Thad as not a laughing man. Guess what he does most of the book? Laugh! And the whole relationship of Thad and his family with Sheriff Alan felt odd!
The story is set in the 80s and there are a lot of 80s techs which was unintentionally funny. Like waiting for a computer analysis for a whole day, IBM machines and dialogues like:
❝ The babies are insurance. Like write-protect on a floppy disk, isn’t that so, Thad?❞
Nevertheless, I bow down in front of a sheer wicked imagination of King. Even though the names of characters were different, we all know that the story is about King and Bachman, where Bachman is a homicidal maniac on a rampage. I loved the dedication and dust cover of this book.
Bachman is still at large.
Well played, Mr. King, Well played.
I would recommend this to King fans looking for a different type of high!
And finally, Shout out to Craig AKA LoneTiger for a fantastic buddy read. And to clarify, no sparrows were harmed during our buddy read!
August 14, 2014
Before and after reading THE DARK HALF, I read some reviews of this book...as usual, some I liked, and some I didn't. I don't normally argue with someone about their thoughts on a novel- because everyone has a right to their own opinion, but I will say - I really dislike when people call Stephen King a hack. Fine I get it, you don't like him...you will never read another word he writes, but name calling is really unnecessary, and it not only insults the author, but it insults the people who enjoy his work. Some people read for entertainment, and if Stephen King does anything...he certainly entertains- in my humble opinion.
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Stephen King wrote THE DARK HALF right after he was outed for being Richard Bachman- a book seller read the book Thinner and grew suspicious that Bachman's writing style was very similar to King's. THE DARK HALF seems to be King's cleansing of any bitterness he felt about the experience...and ohhhhhhh does he cleanse.
Thad Beaumont is an author who lives in the town of Ludlow, Maine. He writes serious books under his own name- which are not real money makers, and decides to write pulp fiction under the pen name "George Stark". When Thad's authorship of Stark's novels becomes public knowledge, Thad decides to kill off his alter ego. His alter ego has other plans.
I am glad I finally read this! It was a quick read for a Stephen King book. Suspenseful, fun, and a tad gory. What more can you ask for in a horror novel?
Stephen King wrote THE DARK HALF right after he was outed for being Richard Bachman- a book seller read the book Thinner and grew suspicious that Bachman's writing style was very similar to King's. THE DARK HALF seems to be King's cleansing of any bitterness he felt about the experience...and ohhhhhhh does he cleanse.
Thad Beaumont is an author who lives in the town of Ludlow, Maine. He writes serious books under his own name- which are not real money makers, and decides to write pulp fiction under the pen name "George Stark". When Thad's authorship of Stark's novels becomes public knowledge, Thad decides to kill off his alter ego. His alter ego has other plans.
I am glad I finally read this! It was a quick read for a Stephen King book. Suspenseful, fun, and a tad gory. What more can you ask for in a horror novel?
November 25, 2022
Thad Beaumont ha escrito varios libros con el seudónimo de George Stark, hasta que un día decide acabar finalmente con el engaño: Stark no es real, solo es él mismo. Ahora, el problema es que George Stark ha regresado, de alguna forma se ha materializado y ha dejado de ser una ilusión para vengarse uno por uno de aquellos que no creen en la existencia de él. Y esta vez pretende no irse nunca.
Un libro que como siempre desde un inicio pensé que me iba a gustar y fue así pero no del todo. Los personajes están perfilados para ser presentables, cumpliendo con detalles que los caracterizan; el maldito psicópata que hace de las suyas es realmente imponente y da en su mayoría de escenas mucha incomodidad ante el peligro que supone. Las escenas sangrientas no son maquilladas y mantienen esa esencia explícita, potente y macabra que caracteriza al escritor.
Me ha gustado como se juega con la dualidad del ser y las consecuencias que trae para la mente del protagonista; el poder de la imaginación y creación dentro de la ficción. Ese tono oscuro de dos seres que comparten y forman un todo, específicamente una mitad y otra mitad. Pero, ¿dónde está la línea que divide a ambos personajes? ¿o en realidad ambos se complementan y son un todo? ¿o simplemente el uno es distinto al otro y no pueden coexistir? Me encanta ese jugueteo que te hace dudar.
Es una historia bastante lineal en la que te esperas muchas cosas que efectivamente al final suceden, donde pocas veces llega a sorprender y es por eso mismo que lamentablemente no llegó a más. Está muy bien, se deja leer y no escarba ni se pierde en muchos detalles que le quitan ritmo a la lectura como es costumbre en King. Pero, yo entiendo perfectamente que algunos le den una nota de 1 o 2 estrellas porque no innova ni entrega algo nuevo. Al terminar de leer solo me dejó en la más profunda indiferencia y para lectores que ya han incursionado bastante en el género (reitero), no sorprende en ningún momento.
Un libro que como siempre desde un inicio pensé que me iba a gustar y fue así pero no del todo. Los personajes están perfilados para ser presentables, cumpliendo con detalles que los caracterizan; el maldito psicópata que hace de las suyas es realmente imponente y da en su mayoría de escenas mucha incomodidad ante el peligro que supone. Las escenas sangrientas no son maquilladas y mantienen esa esencia explícita, potente y macabra que caracteriza al escritor.
Me ha gustado como se juega con la dualidad del ser y las consecuencias que trae para la mente del protagonista; el poder de la imaginación y creación dentro de la ficción. Ese tono oscuro de dos seres que comparten y forman un todo, específicamente una mitad y otra mitad. Pero, ¿dónde está la línea que divide a ambos personajes? ¿o en realidad ambos se complementan y son un todo? ¿o simplemente el uno es distinto al otro y no pueden coexistir? Me encanta ese jugueteo que te hace dudar.
Es una historia bastante lineal en la que te esperas muchas cosas que efectivamente al final suceden, donde pocas veces llega a sorprender y es por eso mismo que lamentablemente no llegó a más. Está muy bien, se deja leer y no escarba ni se pierde en muchos detalles que le quitan ritmo a la lectura como es costumbre en King. Pero, yo entiendo perfectamente que algunos le den una nota de 1 o 2 estrellas porque no innova ni entrega algo nuevo. Al terminar de leer solo me dejó en la más profunda indiferencia y para lectores que ya han incursionado bastante en el género (reitero), no sorprende en ningún momento.
July 26, 2024
The next book on my journey of reading all of SKs books in order was The Dark Half I hadn't really seen anything about this one so I didn't know what to expect. I think for a Stephen King book it felt mediocre. There is a mention of Cujo in this book so as always I am so glad I am reading this in order.
I found this one to be a little slow in pace, but it is very nicely written. Our main character was a author which Stephen King writes so well. There are some quite brutal moments and some of them are portrayed through dark humour which I really enjoyed. It is quite simplistic there aren't a lot of different characters or complex plot lines.
This isn't one of my favourite King books but I think it is worth a read. I do think this would have been better as a short story, I think it would have packed a much bigger punch if it was short and snappy rather that drawn out like this one. The last few pages were really great though.
I found this one to be a little slow in pace, but it is very nicely written. Our main character was a author which Stephen King writes so well. There are some quite brutal moments and some of them are portrayed through dark humour which I really enjoyed. It is quite simplistic there aren't a lot of different characters or complex plot lines.
This isn't one of my favourite King books but I think it is worth a read. I do think this would have been better as a short story, I think it would have packed a much bigger punch if it was short and snappy rather that drawn out like this one. The last few pages were really great though.
December 4, 2013
Short read and my first Stephen King book. I used to regard King as a pop-writer. I had a neighbor who couldn't get enough of him about 20 years ago. I just rolled my eyes at her. Now I'm her. LOL.
This book is a great gate-way drug to King. It was left in my apt. laundry room in the giveaway pile. I picked it up whilst waiting for my laundry to finish and stayed in the laundry room for the next hour. Character development from page 1. I have to admit ... now I have a bit of a problem. Is there a support group for this?
This book is a great gate-way drug to King. It was left in my apt. laundry room in the giveaway pile. I picked it up whilst waiting for my laundry to finish and stayed in the laundry room for the next hour. Character development from page 1. I have to admit ... now I have a bit of a problem. Is there a support group for this?
January 26, 2019
This book was just SO damn good! I haven’t enjoyed a King book so much in a long time. In fact, I think it may just have cracked into my top 10 King books, that’s how good it was! It’s clear this is a reference to King writing as Bachman and that makes it all the more scary and captivating. You can’t help but be drawn in and wonder which half will win the ultimate battle! And the imagery in this book is just phenomenal, I felt like I was watching a terrifyingly creepy and detailed movie come to life in my head.
June 19, 2021
“Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.”
Not as gripping as his other books and I didn't think this one had much going on.
I did finish it though after a second attempt and made it my 58th Stephen King read.
I think this is the only book of his that I've read that I won't return to for a re-read.
It was good to see the return of Sheriff Alan Pangborn though and it did have it's moments.
I would recommend The Dark Half if you have read a bunch of King’s better work and are looking for more.
I'll definitely be watching the adaptation to see how that is.
Not as gripping as his other books and I didn't think this one had much going on.
I did finish it though after a second attempt and made it my 58th Stephen King read.
I think this is the only book of his that I've read that I won't return to for a re-read.
It was good to see the return of Sheriff Alan Pangborn though and it did have it's moments.
I would recommend The Dark Half if you have read a bunch of King’s better work and are looking for more.
I'll definitely be watching the adaptation to see how that is.
February 5, 2017
Goodreads Book-Buddy Buddy Read with Goodreads Book Buddies Chelsea and Kelly .
Thad Beaumont is a writer who wrote under a pen name known as George Stark who wrote terrifying thrillers and was a very bad man. Not wanting to write those types of books anymore, Thad buries George Stark and decides to write his own work. What happens when the pseudonym comes to life as its own entity and decides to go on a murder spree to take revenge and take over Thad's life? All Thad knows is that The Sparrows are flying again and all hell is about to break loose so he will do whatever it takes to keep his family safe from this madman. If you want to read more, I recommend checking this book out for yourself.
This was a pretty good read that I did as a goodreads book buddy buddy read with two of my goodreads book buddy friends Chelsea and Kelly. Though I had seen the film a while back, this was my first time reading this book. I am no stranger to the Master of the Macabre Stephen King as I first checked out his books when I discovered Cycle of the Werewolf which one of my favorite horror films "Silver Bullet" is based on. Entranced, I decided to read a few Stephen King books a year and from the few books I have read of his, I have enjoyed them. This book was a wild and spine-tingling ride. King pulls you into his world and doesn't stop until you reach the end. If you liked Stephen King's books or if this is your first foray into King's maniacal world, I recommend checking out this book or any of his old work first before venturing on to his newer stuff because you will enjoy it. This book is available at your local library to check out as well as on amazon and wherever books are sold.
Note to Chelsea and Kelly: Thank you for participating with me in my first goodreads book buddy buddy read. This was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed this book. If you would like to do this again with another book, please let me know by private message. Thanks again and happy reading!
Thad Beaumont is a writer who wrote under a pen name known as George Stark who wrote terrifying thrillers and was a very bad man. Not wanting to write those types of books anymore, Thad buries George Stark and decides to write his own work. What happens when the pseudonym comes to life as its own entity and decides to go on a murder spree to take revenge and take over Thad's life? All Thad knows is that The Sparrows are flying again and all hell is about to break loose so he will do whatever it takes to keep his family safe from this madman. If you want to read more, I recommend checking this book out for yourself.
This was a pretty good read that I did as a goodreads book buddy buddy read with two of my goodreads book buddy friends Chelsea and Kelly. Though I had seen the film a while back, this was my first time reading this book. I am no stranger to the Master of the Macabre Stephen King as I first checked out his books when I discovered Cycle of the Werewolf which one of my favorite horror films "Silver Bullet" is based on. Entranced, I decided to read a few Stephen King books a year and from the few books I have read of his, I have enjoyed them. This book was a wild and spine-tingling ride. King pulls you into his world and doesn't stop until you reach the end. If you liked Stephen King's books or if this is your first foray into King's maniacal world, I recommend checking out this book or any of his old work first before venturing on to his newer stuff because you will enjoy it. This book is available at your local library to check out as well as on amazon and wherever books are sold.
Note to Chelsea and Kelly: Thank you for participating with me in my first goodreads book buddy buddy read. This was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed this book. If you would like to do this again with another book, please let me know by private message. Thanks again and happy reading!
January 7, 2019
When the story was made into a TV series, Gary Busey, should have played the role of George Stark. 🐯👍
July 3, 2021
That was fun.
A writer decides to bury his pen name after being outed. But his alter ego has no intentions of staying in the land of the dead and comes back with a vengeance.
I had to laugh a little when I saw King dedicating this book to “the late Richard Bachman”. But maybe there are some autobiographical parts in here as well. I certainly hope not, but Stephen King has his own dark half, for sure. Maybe all of us have.
As far as SK novels go this one is pretty straightforward. There isn’t much of the brilliant characterization that makes many of his works special. But there isn’t much of the bloat either, with which King tends to struggle.
The first part of the book reads like a crime-thriller. And thrilling it is. I was drawn straight in and very excited about everything that was happening. The second part, when the supernatural gets more pronounced, only drags a little bit here and there. But not so much that it became boring for me, which is something that occasionally happens when I’m reading King. Then in the third part we get some wonderful body horror. Sometimes a little gross, but fun. In my reading group some said that they didn’t like the ending. But I found it satisfying and one of King’s better ones.
I’d say this book is maybe a little underrated. But then again, it’s all very subjective anyway. I enjoyed it.
Buddy read with Nataliya and The Stephen King Readers.
Up next in my quest to read all the stories in the Castle Rock Cycle: The Sun Dog
A writer decides to bury his pen name after being outed. But his alter ego has no intentions of staying in the land of the dead and comes back with a vengeance.
I had to laugh a little when I saw King dedicating this book to “the late Richard Bachman”. But maybe there are some autobiographical parts in here as well. I certainly hope not, but Stephen King has his own dark half, for sure. Maybe all of us have.
As far as SK novels go this one is pretty straightforward. There isn’t much of the brilliant characterization that makes many of his works special. But there isn’t much of the bloat either, with which King tends to struggle.
The first part of the book reads like a crime-thriller. And thrilling it is. I was drawn straight in and very excited about everything that was happening. The second part, when the supernatural gets more pronounced, only drags a little bit here and there. But not so much that it became boring for me, which is something that occasionally happens when I’m reading King. Then in the third part we get some wonderful body horror. Sometimes a little gross, but fun. In my reading group some said that they didn’t like the ending. But I found it satisfying and one of King’s better ones.
I’d say this book is maybe a little underrated. But then again, it’s all very subjective anyway. I enjoyed it.
Buddy read with Nataliya and The Stephen King Readers.
Up next in my quest to read all the stories in the Castle Rock Cycle: The Sun Dog
May 26, 2021
George Stark was born in 1975 and died in 1988.
He wasn't a very nice guy. At least that's what is written on his gravestone.
Good or evil, whatever he was, he is dead and buried now.
The problem is, he never was alive in the first place. He is just a pseudonym; just a figment of an author's imagination.
And now he is back; undead, nastier than ever and very very angry.
January 10, 2017
My first King of 2017 and it certainly did not disappoint! Thaddeus Beaumont (what a great name) is a writer of average success; George Stark is a writer of wondrous success; but Thad and George are the same person. And what happens when your pseudonym that you've tried to lay to rest somehow claws his way up from the grave and goes on a murderous rampage? King's here to tell you!
.
Based (hopefully loosely) on his own experience of writing as Richard Bachman, King once again delivers a great read centred around a writer and the art of writing, and I loved the idea that all writers have another person, a dark half, inside them...
.
In my opinion some of the most startling and vivid imagery of the Kings I've read so far feature in this book, such as the rapid decomposition of George Stark as he rots away, and the image of millions of sparrows gathering for their sinister purpose. I don't think I'll ever look at a sparrow the same way again.
.
I also loved the characters, especially Liz and Alan Pangborn! Excited to see more of Alan in Needful Things!
.
4.5 stars!
.
Based (hopefully loosely) on his own experience of writing as Richard Bachman, King once again delivers a great read centred around a writer and the art of writing, and I loved the idea that all writers have another person, a dark half, inside them...
.
In my opinion some of the most startling and vivid imagery of the Kings I've read so far feature in this book, such as the rapid decomposition of George Stark as he rots away, and the image of millions of sparrows gathering for their sinister purpose. I don't think I'll ever look at a sparrow the same way again.
.
I also loved the characters, especially Liz and Alan Pangborn! Excited to see more of Alan in Needful Things!
.
4.5 stars!
February 23, 2021
Warning: gore and existential crises.
I read the Dark Half in my teen years and was utterly enthralled by the premise. A young boy who is believed to have a tumour, has his brain operated on. They find teeth and an eyeball in his brain. - a parasitic twin of sorts.
The main character, whose name I have now forgotten (and it doesn't matter, the premise applies to all of us) later receives a visit from his Dark Half - a physical manifestation of his parasitic twin.
Looking back, I think I understand the book better. We all have a manifestation of a Dark Half, and it's parasitic - it eats at us when not controlled. The protagonist and antagonist are the same person.
It's all about fighting your demons, but is presented in such a unique way. The protagonist's relationship with his wife always stood out to me because it was so realistic. I clearly remember them reading a tabloid magazine for fun and making fun of celebrities and people's obsessions with them, which is which is pretty ironic, if ya think about it.
I think every King fan should read this. It's a wonderful and underrated book, despite its flaws - just like the protagonist.
Courtesy of Jen's nostalgic reviews
I read the Dark Half in my teen years and was utterly enthralled by the premise. A young boy who is believed to have a tumour, has his brain operated on. They find teeth and an eyeball in his brain. - a parasitic twin of sorts.
The main character, whose name I have now forgotten (and it doesn't matter, the premise applies to all of us) later receives a visit from his Dark Half - a physical manifestation of his parasitic twin.
Looking back, I think I understand the book better. We all have a manifestation of a Dark Half, and it's parasitic - it eats at us when not controlled. The protagonist and antagonist are the same person.
It's all about fighting your demons, but is presented in such a unique way. The protagonist's relationship with his wife always stood out to me because it was so realistic. I clearly remember them reading a tabloid magazine for fun and making fun of celebrities and people's obsessions with them, which is which is pretty ironic, if ya think about it.
I think every King fan should read this. It's a wonderful and underrated book, despite its flaws - just like the protagonist.
Courtesy of Jen's nostalgic reviews
February 26, 2024
I hope my alter-ego ghost twin isn’t as evil or disgusting as George. He’s one of the most vile, gag-worthy villains ever. I’m pretty sure I’ll never get the picture of him out of my head. (Throws up a little in mouth)
That said, this was a pretty average book to me. It felt a like it was written by a man going through a significant transitional period in his life (which it was), meekly trying to find a new rhythm, feeling his way through a new, unacclimated reality. It fell short in inspiration and lacked that magical feel that has embodied King up to this point in his publishing history.
I appreciate the metaphor in this book, but I didn’t feel the power of the internal identity wrestling come through on the pages.
That said, this was a pretty average book to me. It felt a like it was written by a man going through a significant transitional period in his life (which it was), meekly trying to find a new rhythm, feeling his way through a new, unacclimated reality. It fell short in inspiration and lacked that magical feel that has embodied King up to this point in his publishing history.
I appreciate the metaphor in this book, but I didn’t feel the power of the internal identity wrestling come through on the pages.
October 4, 2016
I Promised you a review :)
First of all with any Stephen King book the reader must understand that they will be freaking traumatised to some extent and you won’t be able to put down his book until the end. So it’s the best conundrum or maybe the worst. The book itself has the classic King vibe to it, a malevolent haunting story which features a protagonist who is a writer (similar to The Shining, Misery etc. both which I highly recommend) and boy was it a ride…
Thad (the protagonist) was a struggling writer after he shifts gears and decides that he will use a new pseudonym (George Stack)… BOOM! Sales and life pick up, the new books are best sellers and a lot grittier and kind of disturbing but the public eats it up. After two years he kind of tries to bury George Stack and go back to his own stuff but what he doesn’t know is the coffin won’t close.
The sparrows are flying again...
I have to say that King has this ability to sort of make the reader question… Is this actually real?? Or Can this happen??
And that is true horror in my eyes. I love scaring myself shitless, it’s the thrill but King manages to elevate my fears to a whole other level. How people tend to give themselves ultra-egos and welcome another persona to appear cool or a better version may appear fun but after reading this I got so freaked about that whole concept…
I can only imagine what the author himself felt after this idea got into his train of thought since he himself writes under the pseudonym (Richard Bachman) ( btw if you have a recommendation for a Bachman book feel free to share with me thank you ). It was a ride this book with one of the most gruesome scenes (Obviously it's Stephen King) and would highly recommend it.
Thank you for reading :)
Kenyan Library Blog
“...he was, after all, a novelist...and a novelist was simply a fellow who got paid to tell lies. The bigger the lies, the better the pay.”
First of all with any Stephen King book the reader must understand that they will be freaking traumatised to some extent and you won’t be able to put down his book until the end. So it’s the best conundrum or maybe the worst. The book itself has the classic King vibe to it, a malevolent haunting story which features a protagonist who is a writer (similar to The Shining, Misery etc. both which I highly recommend) and boy was it a ride…
Thad (the protagonist) was a struggling writer after he shifts gears and decides that he will use a new pseudonym (George Stack)… BOOM! Sales and life pick up, the new books are best sellers and a lot grittier and kind of disturbing but the public eats it up. After two years he kind of tries to bury George Stack and go back to his own stuff but what he doesn’t know is the coffin won’t close.
The sparrows are flying again...
I have to say that King has this ability to sort of make the reader question… Is this actually real?? Or Can this happen??
And that is true horror in my eyes. I love scaring myself shitless, it’s the thrill but King manages to elevate my fears to a whole other level. How people tend to give themselves ultra-egos and welcome another persona to appear cool or a better version may appear fun but after reading this I got so freaked about that whole concept…
“But writers INVITE ghosts, maybe; along with actors and
artists, they are the only totally accepted mediums of our society. They make worlds that never
were, populate them with people who never existed, and then invite us to join them in their
fantasies. And we do it, don't we? Yes. We PAY to do it.”
I can only imagine what the author himself felt after this idea got into his train of thought since he himself writes under the pseudonym (Richard Bachman) ( btw if you have a recommendation for a Bachman book feel free to share with me thank you ). It was a ride this book with one of the most gruesome scenes (Obviously it's Stephen King) and would highly recommend it.
Thank you for reading :)
Kenyan Library Blog
January 3, 2016
King was hitting on all cylinders in this high toned son of a bitch. Still one of my faves.
March 18, 2015
Thad Beaumont is a writer, not a very successful one it has to be said, not until he started to write under the Pseudonym George Stark, a definitive change in direction to something altogether darker and that's what brings the money in. Now it's time to out the Stark and via people magazine, the Pseudonym is finally laid to rest, fake grave and all.
The only problem, George Stark isn't quite ready to rest in peace.
As with my other early King reviews I'll talk about what I liked and disliked about The Dark Half, so there may well be spoilers if you've not read this but I think the vast majority of you devoured this a long time ago.
The best thing about this book is the murderous journey of the 'high toned son of a bitch' George Stark, he's the presence you keep hoping to return to even though you can sort of guess where it's all going. His rampage, unbelievable to most of the authorities, remember the fingerprints but gripping to the reader contained some of my favourite parts of the book.
Just a dream.
'I’m not done with you, cock-knocker, George Stark said softly from behind him. His voice was no longer smiling. His voice was as cold as Castle Lake in November. Remember that. You don’t want to fuck with me, because when you fuck with me….'
One of my favourite parts of the book was at the apartment of
Frederick Clawson, the guy who was planning the big reveal about George Stark. The terror elicited from the journey of Dodie Eberhart, from the front door to the scene of the crime and the click of the door shutting, the realization that the killer had been behind her, was absolutely phenomenal. Superb writing, I have to say.
'Dodie Eberhart raised her voice to its maximum decibel level, windows cracked, the eardrums of small children ruptured, and dogs fell dead.'
And that's before she even gets to the murder scene.
The whole sparrow thing was brilliantly told and bought about the perfect ending, there's a mythology around the sparrows of course carrying the souls of the dead and this brings another creepy element to the story, even though I hate, hate and yes hate the word Psychopomp. Can't help but say it with an intense feeling of distaste, that's just me though. The whole sparrows almost parting to walk through thing is chilling on its own.
Alan Pangborn, the sheriff of Castle Rock is the glue that holds this story together even if his revelation gained from the eventual phone call to the retired surgeon who operated on young Thad was a touch, well unrevelationary (is that made up, sounded right to me). Stark is the firework that holds the attention and Thad is the failed party popper, Mr reliable and decidedly plain.
So my main gripe with this story was the main character Thad Beaumont, I just didn't feel him and I've said it before with Jake Epping from 11/22/63 and Johnny Smith from the Dead Zone. The main difference between these three king novels though is the bad guy, George Stark is leaps and bounds ahead of Lee Harvey Oswald and Greg Stillson as a dread inducing entity. Danger and malevolence seep from the pores of George Stark, a seemingly unstoppable supernatural force on a mission to save himself.
Honestly though this is a brilliant story idea, very well executed but in my eyes lacking just a little with the characterization, I think it will interesting to see where the switch comes, which novel is the turning point that shows the brilliant characterization of things like Joyland and his more recent stuff with the straight up fantastic story telling. The difference in style from his new to older stuff is still apparent though at this point and I definitely prefer the style of his new stuff, although many won’t agree.
And this passage, fucking spiders.
‘Stark sliced upward, splitting the crotch of Eddings’s beige trooper uniform, splitting his scrotal sac, drawing the razor up and out in a long, buttery stroke. Eddings’s balls, suddenly untethered from each other, swung back against his inner thighs like heavy knots on the end of an unravelling sash-cord. Blood stained his pants around the zipper. For a moment he felt as if someone had jammed a handful of ice cream into his groin . . . and then the pain struck, hot and full of ragged teeth. He screamed.’
Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...
The only problem, George Stark isn't quite ready to rest in peace.
As with my other early King reviews I'll talk about what I liked and disliked about The Dark Half, so there may well be spoilers if you've not read this but I think the vast majority of you devoured this a long time ago.
The best thing about this book is the murderous journey of the 'high toned son of a bitch' George Stark, he's the presence you keep hoping to return to even though you can sort of guess where it's all going. His rampage, unbelievable to most of the authorities, remember the fingerprints but gripping to the reader contained some of my favourite parts of the book.
Just a dream.
'I’m not done with you, cock-knocker, George Stark said softly from behind him. His voice was no longer smiling. His voice was as cold as Castle Lake in November. Remember that. You don’t want to fuck with me, because when you fuck with me….'
One of my favourite parts of the book was at the apartment of
Frederick Clawson, the guy who was planning the big reveal about George Stark. The terror elicited from the journey of Dodie Eberhart, from the front door to the scene of the crime and the click of the door shutting, the realization that the killer had been behind her, was absolutely phenomenal. Superb writing, I have to say.
'Dodie Eberhart raised her voice to its maximum decibel level, windows cracked, the eardrums of small children ruptured, and dogs fell dead.'
And that's before she even gets to the murder scene.
The whole sparrow thing was brilliantly told and bought about the perfect ending, there's a mythology around the sparrows of course carrying the souls of the dead and this brings another creepy element to the story, even though I hate, hate and yes hate the word Psychopomp. Can't help but say it with an intense feeling of distaste, that's just me though. The whole sparrows almost parting to walk through thing is chilling on its own.
Alan Pangborn, the sheriff of Castle Rock is the glue that holds this story together even if his revelation gained from the eventual phone call to the retired surgeon who operated on young Thad was a touch, well unrevelationary (is that made up, sounded right to me). Stark is the firework that holds the attention and Thad is the failed party popper, Mr reliable and decidedly plain.
So my main gripe with this story was the main character Thad Beaumont, I just didn't feel him and I've said it before with Jake Epping from 11/22/63 and Johnny Smith from the Dead Zone. The main difference between these three king novels though is the bad guy, George Stark is leaps and bounds ahead of Lee Harvey Oswald and Greg Stillson as a dread inducing entity. Danger and malevolence seep from the pores of George Stark, a seemingly unstoppable supernatural force on a mission to save himself.
Honestly though this is a brilliant story idea, very well executed but in my eyes lacking just a little with the characterization, I think it will interesting to see where the switch comes, which novel is the turning point that shows the brilliant characterization of things like Joyland and his more recent stuff with the straight up fantastic story telling. The difference in style from his new to older stuff is still apparent though at this point and I definitely prefer the style of his new stuff, although many won’t agree.
And this passage, fucking spiders.
‘Stark sliced upward, splitting the crotch of Eddings’s beige trooper uniform, splitting his scrotal sac, drawing the razor up and out in a long, buttery stroke. Eddings’s balls, suddenly untethered from each other, swung back against his inner thighs like heavy knots on the end of an unravelling sash-cord. Blood stained his pants around the zipper. For a moment he felt as if someone had jammed a handful of ice cream into his groin . . . and then the pain struck, hot and full of ragged teeth. He screamed.’
Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...
September 9, 2019
4.5 Stars.
I just don't know how Stephen King does it!
I read the synopsis for The Dark Half and I had an idea of how this story would unfold.
I was wrong about everything.
This book took so many unexpected turns that I just had to stop thinking about what might come next.
I always love it when Uncle Stevie bases a book off of something from his real life.
Carrie was inspired by 2 girls he went to school with.
The Shinning was written about a scary haunted hotel after he stayed at a scary haunted hotel.
Misery was written out of frustration at his fans and what type of books they expected him to write.
And The Dark Half was written after he was outed as Richard Bachman.
In the mid-eighties Stephen King decided to write different types of novels under a Pen Name. These books were different then the novels written under his real name. As Bachman he wrote 5(?) novels that didn't do that well financially but that was never what it was about for him anyway. Eventually he was outed and decided to kill Richard Bachman off.
The Dark Half is about what would happen if that Pen Name decided to come to life and let's just say that other half was not too pleased be killed off.
I really loved this book. I know its not considered one his best but I'd put it in my top 10. The Dark Half was scary, exciting, and unpredictable.
God! I love Stephen King!
I just don't know how Stephen King does it!
I read the synopsis for The Dark Half and I had an idea of how this story would unfold.
I was wrong about everything.
This book took so many unexpected turns that I just had to stop thinking about what might come next.
I always love it when Uncle Stevie bases a book off of something from his real life.
Carrie was inspired by 2 girls he went to school with.
The Shinning was written about a scary haunted hotel after he stayed at a scary haunted hotel.
Misery was written out of frustration at his fans and what type of books they expected him to write.
And The Dark Half was written after he was outed as Richard Bachman.
In the mid-eighties Stephen King decided to write different types of novels under a Pen Name. These books were different then the novels written under his real name. As Bachman he wrote 5(?) novels that didn't do that well financially but that was never what it was about for him anyway. Eventually he was outed and decided to kill Richard Bachman off.
The Dark Half is about what would happen if that Pen Name decided to come to life and let's just say that other half was not too pleased be killed off.
I really loved this book. I know its not considered one his best but I'd put it in my top 10. The Dark Half was scary, exciting, and unpredictable.
God! I love Stephen King!
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