Review – Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Deciding to finish this collection, I read the last two stories back to back. If the title doesn’t give you enough of a clue, these stories are dark, gripping and unapologetic, making for a great set of novellas.

Fair Extension, the shortest of the four collected here, is a mean spirited tale of jealousy and hidden feelings. Suffering late stage cancer, Dan Streeter who seemingly is a morally upstanding husband and father meets a stranger on a quiet road at the edge of town. That man offers him a deal, an extension on his life. He thinks the man is insane, especially when it’s revealed that for the deal to be complete, Streeter must choose someone he hates to transfer his pain upon.

It’s this point that’s so important and so hard to swallow. Choosing his best friend against whom he’s harboured all manner of ill will since childhood, reveals something awful. That friend relied on Streeter to help him through school, stole Streeter’s girlfriend who he married and ended up coasting into a massively successful business. The deep seated resentment Streeter feels pours out, much to the strangers glee. Weeks later, the man’s cancer is gone but his friend’s life begins to deteriorate in truly terrible ways, classically narrated in King’s inimitable style.

Less complex than other stories it still retains that central kernel; a pivotal moment that changes everything and the consequences thereof. But, the darkness here is of much different quality and is more brutal for it.

The last story, A Good Marriage, is truly intense and deeply unsettling. An unassuming and pleasant girl, Darcy, meets a young man and together they build a life full of marriage’s little quirks and compromises but also joys and love. A nice house, two beautiful children – now grown – and a routine that includes Bob, her husband, going on frequent trips to trade for rare coins, his passion. An accountant, a little soft in the middle, he’s a man of careful routine.

It’s whilst he’s away on one of those trips that Darcy makes a discovery. A bondage magazine hidden amongst old catalogues in a box kept in the garage. A box that was left out. A box that Darcy tripped over looking for batteries. That first uncovering peels back the veneer on Darcy’s quiet but happy life. It’s the consequences, once again, that have such profound ramifications; the implications of which pierce through the story and make it so harsh. Realising her husband, the person she loves so deeply and has shared her whole adult life with, is something completely other is brutally portrayed.

A fascinating look into the notion that you never truly know another, that there’s always another side to the looking glass, A Good Marriage is a terrifying moral dilemma and a visceral tale. Yet, once again, like Big Driver, though the evil is vanquished the required action leaves it’s mark; another irrevocable change.

Dark, personal stories cleverly crafted and reaching into the depths of human psyches, Full Dark, No Stars is an immensely captivating collection.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – Big Driver by Stephen King

The second story in the Full Dark, No Stars collection and the grittiest I’ve read from King in a while. A wonderfully written character but an awful scenario combine into a gripping, and dark, tale of revenge.

Whilst I’m not a fan of books that reference films as a way to signpost ideas, what King has produced in Big Driver is a meta fiction worthy of praise. Taking the collective consciousness around horror stories and, rather than using it as a crutch, using it as a framework, he displays an insightful connection between reality and fiction and that liminal space where imagination rests. What unfolds is a fascinating look into the mind of someone forced to endure and solve a terrible situation.

A cosy mystery writer, Tess subsidises her income with speaking events. Offered a short notice gig, not far from home, that meets her criteria, she accepts. A particular but pleasant woman, Tess does everything with honesty from her meet and greets to making sure her cat, Fritzy, isn’t left alone too long. When her host offers to show her a shortcut home, she readily accepts, a fact upon which everything turns.

The backroad she travels is quiet and the debris in the road causes her to suffer a flat tyre. It’s here that Tess’ imagination begins to wander and when one of the biggest men she’s ever seen arrives to help her, she’s suddenly gripped by a fear she derides herself for feeling, worrying her overactive mind has snagged on a horror movie theme. It’s not unfounded.

Tess survives. What King then does with the story is intriguing. A tale of a woman’s perspective including shame and guilt but also privacy and self-preservation, there’s a cold logic about Tess’ point of view that is both maddeningly and sadly real. It’s also one of an unravelling and that’s to be expected; the incident is a changing point with out the option to return. Tess displays a strength and character that’s immense and it’s less the revenge and more about how she goes about it that is so compelling.

Not an easy read but a gripping work of fiction, Big Driver is all about character and, yet, whilst the collection is titled Full Dark, No Stars there is some light at the end of this one despite its source.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – 1922 by Stephen King

Once more looking toward reading more recent Stephen King stories, I picked up this collection of novellas Full Dark, No Stars secondhand. Opening with 1922 it set the tone with a dark, insidious story that had me gripped from the outset.

Written by Wilf, as a confessional eight years after the fact, the story is a first person and very personal insight into an extremely grim series of events. After his wife inherits a large plot of land, the couple argue about whether to add it to their small farm or, as Arlette would prefer, selling it all and moving to the city. Determined to remain a country man, he recruits his teenage son to his cause hoping to sway the conversation in his favour. But months of disagreement turns, becoming bitter and hateful as both seek to get their own way. For Wilf, his determination curdles into something murderous, adamant that he’ll keep his family farm and refuse to let developers pollute the land around him.

Setting himself on a path, he manages to convince his boy to help him; made easier by his wife’s behaviour. The pair commit to the killing but it’s a vile affair; the reality of it more brutal than either could imagine. The son, distraught and disturbed changes from a bright, hopeful young man. Wilf, realising the poison he has poured into the well, does all he can to look to the future. But, as 1922 plays out, it’s the worst year the spells the beginning of the end.

A cleverly constructed first person narrative, it’s a window into self- conviction and an act of appalling consequences. Greed or stubbornness or a desire to just be free set his hand but Wilf’s plan is a descent into darkness steered by the memory or ghost of the woman he killed. Spiralling away from the vision he had, the murder is a catalyst of destruction taking everything away from him. But whilst the horror of the killing, the guilt and lies weigh heavy, it’s the thing he thought buried which truly haunts him.

Wonderfully woven and told with such a first person presence, 1922 is a forceful and captivating novella. Once again putting King’s character work on display, it’s a story that contains that dark seed that makes his work so compelling.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton