Full Dark, No Stars: Something twisted is lurking

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

In Full Dark, No Stars, the latest short story collection from Stephen King, our heroes explore the boundaries between victim and predator, often exchanging roles as they navigate their way through the twisted passages of King’s mind. These characters are often out for no one but themselves, and they will use every resource — even burlap sacks and GPS — in their quest to get what they want.

Of the four stories, “Big Driver” stands out as Tess, a mystery novelist, is brutally raped and sets out for revenge. Tess fears that she will make headlines, becoming forever the writer that was raped, and she worries that people will see her pretty face and say she was asking for it. Just as she decides not to go public, Tess begins to take comfort in her pistol. And of course King knows exactly where to take a story from there.

Full Dark, No Stars offers everything that readers expect from a Stephen King story. There are references to Americana — the kind that King twists as his protagonists descend into madness. And King always offers a clear metaphor to explain simply how his murderers come to justify their actions. As Wilf says, we all have a “conniving man” inside of us, whispering. That may or may not be true for us, the readers, but it is true for the characters in these stories.

Perhaps most impressively, King has the ability to make America seem like an utterly disturbing place. Beneath its veneer of wholesome middle-class lifestyle, something twisted is lurking. Each of these protagonists comes to a point where they can see “over there on the turnpike, people who had never been raped or stuffed in pipes were going places.” Just like Darcy in “Good Marriage,” we think we know everything we need to know about the people around us. In Full Dark, No Stars, there is always something unthinkable. And it’s waiting.

These are dark stories, though King explains in his afterword that there’s a “world upstairs” as well. Stephen King has always had a talent for writing long novels and short stories. With Under The Dome, he showed he could still handle long novels. Full Dark, No Stars shows that King can still pack a lot of story into a novella.