The Dark Half – Stephen King
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [adapted from the dustjacket] 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 no longer needs George Stark, and in fact has a good reason to lay Stark to rest. Then the murders start.
Expectation: A King classic from his golden era.
Reality: A little long and convoluted, there’s still enough to keep you interested, but this isn’t one of the author’s best works.
Recommended For: Fans of meta-horror.
Why I Read It: My brother bought the hardcover upon its publication in 1989, and I’ve moved most of my adult life with it in tow but never cracked the spine. It was time.
My Take:
In the pantheon of King novels, this one is closer to the bottom.
The plot centers on a lauded, but not commercially successful writer, killing off the pseudonym under which he writes best sellers, complete with the ultimate pomp and circumstance of the late-1980s — a People magazine photoshoot and story.
This being a King novel, however, there’s more at play than simply retiring a pen name.
It turns out our author, Thad, absorbed a twin while in utero, and there’s a psychological connection between him and the pseudonym, George Stark, that allows the latter to manifest as a real person. Writing is Stark’s lifeline, and he won’t go to the grave without a blood-soaked fight against those that wished him dead.
I found myself more interested in what this book meant to the author — published at the time when he was publicly retiring his own pseudonym, Richard Bachman — than the story itself which, in true King fashion, ran longer than needed.
He showed an amalgamation of influences, including “The Birds,” “Frankenstein, “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and even his own “Pet Sematary,” which made the story feel familiar but not original.
With about 100-pages shaved off, I would’ve liked this much more. He started to lose me with all the psychological, medical, natural and supernatural explanations of what was happening. I don’t recall him ever trying to sell an idea as much as he does here, and it bogged the story down and left too many plots open.
It’s a shame, because the cat and mouse game between Thad and Stark was fun as it unfolded – especially the slasher film gore of Stark’s murder spree. I can say with certainty, though, I’ll never look at sparrows the same way again.
The audiobook was narrated by Grover Gardner, who gave a somewhat reserved performance — especially of Stark — considering how over the top the character became. Still, I think this is one I would’ve DNF’d had it not been for the audiobook.
Even for being one of King’s lesser works, you could argue that “The Dark Half” has had outsized cultural influence. Did it help reinvigorate the meta-horror genre, which saw a resurgence in the mid-1990s and into the 2000s? Both “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” and “Malignant” borrowed heavily from it.
If you like those films — or meta-horror in general — you’ll probably enjoy this one more than most Constant Readers.
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: April 3 – April 8, 2022
Multi-tasking: Good to go. I mostly listened while cooking and exercising, which allowed me to tune out easily when King elaborated for too long in a few sections.
