For someone as well established as Stephen King in the world of written horror, his books have never resonated with me. I have yet to read a good short story of his (I believe I've only read the compilation Everything's Eventual), while I found his full length novels to be over long and not too exciting (I appreciate I gave Needful Things a high score, that was mainly due to the second half finally bringing things together). With his 1989 release, The Dark Half however, I was hooked from virtually the very first page, and from start to finish I really struggled to put this one down.
Thad Beaumont is an author who, during a dark period of writer's block in his life, decided to release a violent crime novel under a pseudonym which he named 'George Stark'. He was surprised to see a huge reaction to this novel, and it was swiftly followed by two more successful releases under the same fake name. Being blackmailed about his secret identity being revealed, Thad and his wife Liz decide to go public with the knowledge, culminating in a magazine article in which posing by a fake headstone he 'buries' George Stark once and for all. This is where the horror begins, literally, as Thad's invented persona somehow comes to life, digs himself out of the fake grave and embarks on a bloody rampage, hunting down and brutally murdering everyone who he sees as having a part in the Stark persona being retired.
I don't know how The Dark Half was received at the time, but it feels to me like it was ahead of its time for several reasons. I knew that King wrote under a persona himself (Richard Bachman), while I haven't read any of those books, they are said to be darker than what King usually puts out. It seems that in real life his secret pen name was at risk of being revealed to the world, and it was that which inspired him to write this novel. The book felt meta to me, Thad's output as Stark was very violent, and that is what occurs within the story. Stark is a madman who is styled on the protagonist from his breakout book (Alexis Machine), a hulking blonde haired man who kills with a straight razor. The Dark Half doesn't spare the detail when it describes how Stark kills, it leads to some very violent scenes that talk about skin hanging off as flaps and slit throats in graphic details. This antagonist is a fantastic creation, the supernatural aspect of him being a manifestation of Thad was handled wonderfully. You get the impression he really is Thad's dark half, a version of him that has always been hidden away inside of him. By having his violent acts described in such detail it almost felt like this was the type of novel that the character George Stark may have written if he had been so inclined.
I was surprised with how invested I got in what in summary sounds like a lost Twilight Zone episode. The chapters have noticeably descriptive titles to them, and the addition of occasional 'excerpts' from the George Stark novels was the cherry on top of this. Around the midway point the ultimate goal of Stark is revealed, taking the story on a more personal path. With much of the story taking place in Castle Rock (the setting of Needful Things), I was delighted to see the protagonist of that novel, sheriff Alan Pangborn, having a substantial role here as a key side character. This was the first novel of King's I had read that provided me with the feel of his metaverse of interlinked stories. Again, this felt modern in light of what Marvel and DC have been doing in the movie space over the past decade.
At just over 400 pages long this told its story in a clear and focussed manner. There were no bloated tangents, everything here felt required to carry the story on. With Stark you have an intense and scary antagonist, and with Thad you have a somewhat unlikely protagonist. The whole part dedicated to sparrows comes together for a very memorable finale, maybe finishes a little bit abruptly (King is often said to not really be able to finish his stories very well), but it did not disappoint. Reading The Dark Half, I was left wondering just how many other gems of King's I have waiting to be read in my reading piles, maybe he isn't as overrated as I have long figured him to be.
SCORE:
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