The Dark Half by Stephen King

Stephen King is a fantastic writer. Even great novelist, however, can produce boring stories. "The Dark Half," I was disappointed to discover, is one of those stories. This book recounts the tale of Thad Beaumont, a writer who pens several blockbuster horror books under the pseudonym George Stark. But when Beaumont decides to kill off his alter ego, and stop writing under his pen name, a series of strange murders start to occur. To his horror, Beaumont soon discovers that Stark has become real, and is threatening to kill him and his family if he doesn't start writing again under the Stark name.

It would unfair to call this book poorly written (King is too skilled of a wordsmith to write dribble). But what this book does suffer from is pages and pages of unnecessary scenes and narrative. Two-thirds into the book I became bored with the story, as I found the development incredibly slow. As well, some of the scenes descended into typical Friday the 13th slash-and-burn pulp, rather than interesting horror. By the end of the book my reaction was simply "blah".

I have read enough of King to know that he is a brilliant writer. But if I had to recommend one of his books, this one would not be it.

2 out of 5 stars