I simply couldn't put it down.

This book is truly action-packed, especially when compared to other SK books. In those other works, you often find yourself spending the first 40% of your reading time immersed in the detailed description of towns and people who seemingly have no direct relation to the main story.

However, this particular book grabs your attention right from the start and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The fast-paced action and engaging plot make it a real page-turner.

You don't have to wade through long, drawn-out descriptions that don't contribute to the overall narrative. Instead, you're immediately thrust into the heart of the story, with every chapter filled with excitement and anticipation.

It's a refreshing departure from the norm, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a thrilling read.

I have to say that I don't have a favorable opinion of Stephen King, and this particular book serves as a prime example of why. At best, he can be regarded as a hack writer.

Although numerous people view him as a master of horror, there is truly nothing that elicits horror within these pages. What King does seem to excel at is the portrayal of gore! Thanks to his meticulous attention to detail and the compulsion to describe every single bloody act right down to the tiniest audible pop, he manages to paint a vivid picture for the reader. However, this does not translate into a sense of fear.

Here's a crucial clue that he needs to take on board. If he truly desires to make me experience terror, he should focus on painting the overall landscape and place just a few strategic images within it. Then, by leaving the rest to the reader's imagination, I can assure you that I will scare myself by conjuring up things that King could never have even dreamed of.

In conclusion, while King may have his fans, his style of writing fails to truly terrify me.

This REALLY is one hell of a crazy-ass read. It all kicks off with an eleven-year-old boy named Thad who suffers from excruciating headaches. These headaches eventually lead to surgery, which yields some truly bizarre results and gives rise to the freakish sparrow phenomenon afterwards.

Thad started writing weird stories at a young age, and as he grew up, he decided to use a pen name for a while. Sound familiar? Well, it should.

Anyway, the time came to bury the alias, George Stark, with full honors. That means a proper grave, a headstone, and even some publicity.

As the story unfolds, a grown-up Thad, now married with twins and writing under his own name, begins to experience those awful headaches again, along with frightening dreams. Injurious things start to happen, grotesque murders begin to occur, and most ominously of all, "The sparrows are flying again."

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, although I thought it was a bit drawn out at times. I was actually torn between giving it three or four stars for a good while. But that extra dose of KING weirdness with the scads of creepy birds late in the story, and the final warning, nudged my rating up.

(Some gore and super ickiness in this one, folks.)

Okay, now that I've slept on this for a couple of days, I've come to the conclusion that this is a nearly perfect horror novel. I give it 4.5 stars, which I've rounded up.

I say nearly because there were a couple of moments that really didn't age well. However, most of it still holds up unbelievably well. The more SK books I read, the more my theory that he is often at his best when writing about writers seems to be true.

The Dark Half was written after Uncle Stevie's pseudonym, Richard Bachman, was exposed. Some people might write this book off as an act of spite, but I think there's a lot more to it.

On the surface, it's a story about a writer whose pseudonym comes to life after he symbolically kills him off, complete with a photoshoot of a fake funeral published in People magazine. The pseudonym, George Stark, then starts killing everyone he holds responsible for his "death." It's a wild ride as we watch and wait for Stark to complete his mission while terrorizing his alter ego, Thad Beaumont, and Thad's wife and baby twins from afar. There are some truly creepy and alternately cool and gruesome moments in this book, making it one of the most imaginative I've read from SK. It really feels like he tapped into something and let himself go with this one.

But the deeper themes are what really draw me in. The first half of the novel is fascinating as Thad is initially blamed for everything. The tension between the authorities having absolute proof that he's the murderer (think fingerprints) and absolute proof that he couldn't have done it (ironclad alibi) is masterfully played. Because Pangborn is a good guy with good instincts, he gets involved in a way he normally wouldn't, and a strange relationship develops between him, Thad, and Thad's wife, Liz. The shifting dynamics between these characters remain interesting throughout the book.

And then there's the writer stuff. It's clear that SK was working through something about what it means to be a writer and the places writers can go in pursuit of their creations. This is why I don't think this book was written purely out of spite. It feels too personal for that.

As a sidenote, I switched between the paperback copy and the audiobook because I couldn't bear to be away from the story. Both were great experiences. I really liked the audio narrator, and I'm surprised he hasn't done more of King's books. [4.5 stars]