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The Dark Half

by Stephen King

A pseudonym with a deadly afterlife

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Awards & Recognition

  • Author recognition

    #1 New York Times bestselling author

    The metadata describes Stephen King as a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A pseudonym with a deadly afterlife

George Stark, the violent-crime authorial persona of Thad Beaumont, is publicly declared dead after Thad stages a mock burial. The announcement seems to clear space for Thad’s own novels, but the separation proves anything but simple: nightmares intensify, people connected to Stark’s supposed death are killed, and the crime scenes point back to Thad. The setup brings questions of authorship and identity into a horror plot where a literary invention appears to exert a brutal presence beyond the page. The central tension lies in the gap between Thad’s effort to put Stark behind him and the mounting evidence that the pseudonym has not been laid to rest.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in horror built around a writer and his pseudonym.
  • Readers drawn to stories about divided identity and the boundary between creator and creation.

Themes

Authorship and identityPseudonyms and self-inventionHorror and violence

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

The classic tale of terror about a writer haunted by his own murderous pseudonym, from #1 New York Times bestselling author and master storyteller Stephen King.

After thirteen years of international bestseller stardom with his works of violent crime fiction, 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 his alter ego behind.

But that's nothing compared to the horror 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...
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Customer reviews

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AlbakiReads
Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.