Review: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

I’ve never been much for reading horror stories. Always prone to nightmares, I have always stayed away from scary movies, campfire tales and Stephen King. In fact, my first exposure to King wasn’t one of his bone-chilling thrillers, but rather his book On Writing. This was where I fell in love with the way that he writes. He isn’t overly fussy with his words. His characters have depth without being overcomplicated. They are people, real people. I dig his writing so much, that since reading On Writing I have subjected myself to quite a few sleepless nights and whacked-out dreams because I won’t put down his books even though they scare the crap out of me.

When I picked up Full Dark, No Stars, I knew I would like the writing. The book is comprised of four short stories topped off with a message from King on where he got the inspiration for each story. The tales are gruesome, vivid and just plain freaky in some places. There are graphic descriptions in some places, but the truly unnerving parts are where he let your imagination run wild. The characters in these stories are normal people in some twisted situations and he paints a picture, four actually, of what people are capable of when life takes a turn for the worst.

My favorite part of the book was King's postscript. It's not often that a writer comes right out and tells you where their inspiration originated. The knowledge of how these stories came to be helped me understand them on a deeper level and enjoy them even more.

I don’t recommend reading this late at night, but I do recommend reading it.