Full Dark, No Stars
Stephen King

"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger..." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922", the first in this pitch black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.
In "Big Driver", a cozy mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face to face with another stranger: the one inside herself.
"Fair Extension", the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer, but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.
When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitely ends "A Good Marriage".

Much like King's other compilations of his short stories/novellas this book does not disappoint. Normally I'd pick a favorite and a least favorite, and while I do have a favorite here, I do not have a least favorite.

My personal favorite novella from this is "Fair Extension". It's a clever little tale about a man willing to make a deal with the devil in order to get rid of his fatal cancer and get a fair extension on his life. The cost? Fifteen percent of his income every year and the fact that the cosmos must be balanced - he must choose someone to pass this on to. The fact that the person he hates the most just so happens to be his best friend from childhood seems to amuse the man he makes the deal with to no end. Does he get what he wants? Absolutely. Strings attached? Well, you'll just have to read it to find out.

There is no least favorite among these stories. 1922, Big Driver, and A Good Marriage all equally come in second place for me. They're all fantastic tales that deal with various subjects. 1922 deals with a man and his son having to live with the murder of the man's wife. Big Driver deals with a woman having to decide what to do when her life is turned upside down on a small back road. A Good Marriage deals with what a wife must do when she finds out that her husband is really a serial killer - and has been one since before they ever even met.

All of these stories are worth reading and even though the book is fairly large, it's one you won't want to put down. I would highly recommend this, and not just to the King fans out there.

My rating: Four and a half out of five snails.