The Dark Half

The book The Dark Half is a suspenseful horror novel written by Stephen King and published in 1989. Stephen King wrote the novel under his pseudonym: Richard Bachman. Stephen King has written countless tales, some of which include The Shining, It, The Stand, and The Dark Tower series. Stephen has been well known to write darker stories, which turn out quite well.

The story takes place in Maine during the same time period to which the book was written. Thad Beaumont, a famous author, has finally given up the use of his pseudonym, George Stark, for good. However once he gives up the ghost a real-life embodiment of George comes back, and he’s out for blood wanting to kill those he deemed responsible of his “death”. As for the story’s theme: never assume your acts don’t have repercussions, even the tiniest change could make a big difference to others. This is fitting since Thad choice to come out with the truth about his alter ego ended up majorly affecting his life.

The conflicts Thad faced were unique…but not amusing. He suffered from frequent headaches and stress pertaining to George coming for his family. However, I felt Thad’s character to be dull, with little in his past or present that I enjoyed to an extent. He felt like just a basic guy, not much more than that. On the other hand, the character of George Stark was quite the opposite, crazy and with nothing to loose he was quite an antagonist. His sadistic maniac nature was one that I’ve never read of. I would say his character definitely wasn’t basic. The other smaller characters had something to offer but nothing that you would remember for a while. This made it difficult for me to relate with the story’s prime as well as sub actors.

Though I can’t say the story was a bad one, I equally cannot say it was a good one. Honestly, I was expecting a bit more from Stephen King. The novel’s ending was surprising, but in my opinion it was just short of likeable. Many parts of the body would drag on when they really didn’t need to. Stephen King is known to do this but not usually the degree this book faced. Not much gripped me to keep wanting too read the next page and sometimes felt like a chore, not a luxury. I would give this novel a 2.5/5. It wasn’t at all the best story I’ve read by him, but hey it was critically acclaimed when it came out so maybe it’s just me.

Book Review by Josef S.