The Dark Half

by: Stephen King
"I'm back... I'm back from the dead and you don't seem glad to see me at all, you ungrateful son of a bitch."
After thirteen years of international bestseller stardom with his works of violent crime fiction, author George Stark is officially declared dead--revealed by a national magazine to have been killed at the hands of the man who created him: the once well-regarded but now obscure writer Thad Beaumont. Thad's even gone so far as to stage a mock burial of his wildly successful pseudonym, complete with tombstone and the epitaph "Not a Very Nice Guy.
 Although on the surface it seems that Thad can finally concentrate on his own novels, there's a certain unease at the prospect of leaving George Stark behind. But that's nothing compared to the horrors about to descend upon Thad's new life. There are the vicious, out-of-control nightmares, for starters. And how is he able to explain the fact that everyone connected to George Stark's untimely demise is now meeting a brutal end of their own in a pattern of homicidal savagery...and why each blood-soaked crime scene has Thad's fingerprints all over it? Thad Beaumont may have once believed that George Stark was running out of things to say, but he's going to find out just how wrong he is... {cover copy}
I think, honestly, this might be my favorite King novel yet {behind The Eyes of the Dragon, always}. Okay, maybe just my favorite of the ones I've read lately {listened to. Thank goodness for Audible}. Maybe it was the birds. That wouldn't surprise me. But really, I just enjoyed the crap out of this. It was such a creepy cool concept and it really kept me on my toes wondering how it had happened and how it was going to come to its conclusion. And it was not disappointing in the least. Also yey for birds! Also, the first name of the bad guy is my first name and that's always fun to see because it's rare to see my name.

People's lives--their real lives, as opposed to their simple physical existences--begin at different times. {first line}
"The world was filled with sparrows, waiting for the command to fly."

"I like myself enough for everybody ."

"Scared. Yes, of course  you are... Only the ones just starting out--the kids--aren't scared. The years go by and the words on the page don't get any darker... but the white space sure does get whiter."

• time • {last word}