Stephen King’s ‘Full Dark, No Stars’ intense, brutal
“Full Dark, No Stars” is an anthology of four novellas that are reminiscent of Stephen King’s earlier writing during the ’70s and ’80s in their darkness, intensity, harshness and utter brutality. They should have a warning sign at the beginning of each story that says: "Read at your own risk!”
The first in the anthology is “1922,” which is the sad and horrible story of Wilfred James, a farmer in Nebraska during the year of, you guessed it, 1922.
Wilfred kills his wife, Arlette, over a section of land that belongs to her and that she wanted to sell to a hog butchering company. To make matters even worse, Wilfred coerces his son into helping him murder the little lady by cutting her throat and then tossing her body down an empty well shaft.
After the dirty deed is done, it isn’t long before both men find themselves dealing with the consequences of their actions. Arlette may be dead, but the dead in a Stephen King story have a way of coming back to life to torment those who murdered them.
The second novella, “The Big Driver,” deals with a successful mystery writer named Tess, who takes a shortcut home after a book signing and has a flat tire.
The real nightmare begins for Tess when a giant of a man comes along, not to help her, but to rape and murder her as he’s done with several other women during the years. That she survives the ordeal is a miracle. Tess, however, now wants to hunt the man down and extract her own revenge. I wouldn’t want to be the big driver!
The third tale, “Fair Extension,” deals with Dave Streeter, who works for one of the local banks in Derry, Maine, and is dying from cancer.
One day, Dave stops his car when he spots a small booth selling “Extensions” of every kind: hair extensions, penis extensions, loan extensions and even life extensions. The salesman is Mr. George Elvid, a short pudgy man with very sharp teeth and a foul scent. Mr. Elvid offers to sell Dave an extension on his life at the cost of 15 percent of his gross salary, plus the name of someone he hates so the illness can be transferred.
Will good old Dave take the offer? If so, who will he give up to save his own skin? You’ll find out when you read the story about best friends.
The fourth and final novella is “A Good Marriage,” and if this doesn’t have the married women out there thinking long and hard, then the maestro hasn’t done his job.
Imagine being married to a loving husband for 20 years. He’s a great guy who treats you the way a man should, and he’s a wonderful father to the kids. What happens when you find out he’s actually a serial killer and has been since you married him? That’s the question King plays around with here. This is the type of story that will have women viewing their husbands in a different light.
The four novellas in “Full Dark, No Stars” are going to disturb a lot of readers. You won’t be able to come away from this unshaken and without a sense of having lost something precious. This is profound stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Though written as horror fiction and entertainment, there are some lessons to be learned here — lessons that may keep you alive when push comes to shove.
Wayne C. Rogers is the author of the horror novellas "The Encounter" and "The Tunnels," both of which can be purchased at Amazon's Kindle Store for 99 cents each.
