Line #57 Literature/FullDarkNoStars


1	[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fulldark_7309.jpg]]
2
3	''Full Dark, No Stars'' is a collection of novellas written by Creator/StephenKing that all deal with the themes of vengeance and retribution.
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5	As of 2020, three of them have been adapted into tv movies: ''Film/NineteenTwentyTwo'' (in 2017, starring Creator/ThomasJane); ''Film/BigDriver'' (in 2014, starring Maria Bello), and ''A Good Marriage'' (2014, starring Joan Allen and Creator/AnthonyLaPaglia).
6	----
7	!The novellas in chronological order:
8
9	!!1922
10
11	A man convinces his son to help him in murdering his wife after she proposes moving off the family homestead.
12
13	* AbusiveParents: Arlette might have lived longer if she hadn't been so cruel to her son. And of course, manipulating your son into acting as your accomplice in killing his mother is hardly good parenting either.
14	* AntiVillain: Henry and possibly Wilfred by the end.
15	* ApocalypticLog: The entire story is the written confession of its protagonist.
16	* DarkerAndEdgier: Probably one of King's bleakest works. It starts off grim and only gets worse (King even discusses this in his afterword, rather ruefully noting that all the stories in the collection are incredibly bleak).
17	* DiabolusExMachina: Everything that can go wrong does.
18	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Henry doesn't want to leave the farm anyway, and Wilfred does everything he can to increase his fear. The thing that frightens Henry the most? If they move to Omaha, he might end up going to high school with "black niggers".
19	** The sheriff has no interest in investigating Arlette's disappearance, and is frustrated that his job requires him to make even a token effort. He believes that matters between husband and wife are no one else's business, and twenty years before, the law had agreed. Back then, if a husband said his wife had run off, that was the end of it.
20	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Wilfred thinks he has the plan to murder his wife and dispose of her all thought out, but when things start to go wrong he realizes how many factors he didn't take into account and how half-assed his plan actually was.
21	* DisposingOfABody: Arlette is dumped in a well.
22	* DramaticIrony: [[spoiler:Wilfred talks his son into helping him kill Arlette because she wants to sell the farm to a livestock company and move to Omaha. By the end of the story, Wilfred has been [[AllForNothing forced to sell the farm to the livestock company]] and move to Omaha.]]
23	* DrivenToSuicide:
24	** [[spoiler:Henry kills himself after Shannon dies.]]
25	** [[spoiler:The manuscript Wilfred writes concludes as he is attacked by the rats that have followed him and proceed to bite and tear at his body before he can finish himself off. When the police investigate his room later on, they find Wilfred dead of apparently self-inflicted bite wounds, suggesting a ThroughTheEyesOfMadness account.]]
26	* FinaglesLaw
27	* FromBadToWorse: Oh yes.
28	* GlasgowGrin: Wilfred accidentally gives this to his wife when he kills her.
29	* TheGreatDepression: Wilfred states that for the farmers it started in 1923.
30	* InsaneTrollLogic / ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Wilfred uses this to explain how murdering someone is an act of good. To elaborate, they're murdering the wife because, in his eyes, she's a terrible person and a sinner. Thus, by killing her before she can redeem herself, it gets her into Heaven automatically because she was never given the chance.
31	* OutlawCouple: [[spoiler: Henry and Shannon become this.]]
32	* PyrrhicVictory: Wilfred manipulates Henry into helping him murder Arlette so that he can keep his land from being sold. He gets to keep the land, but it comes at a heavy cost when Henry knocks up Shannon and runs off, [[spoiler:eventually resulting in both their deaths]]. Soon, nature seems to throw onto his misfortune, with a rat that attacks one of his cows, his livestock gradually being killed by the bad weather, and Wilfred losing one hand to amputation to prevent gangrene from a savage rat bite. In the end, he even questions if it was really worth it.
33	* SelfMadeOrphan: Henry was on the way to becoming this.
34	* SlapSlapKiss: No matter how bitterly they fight, Wilfred and Arlette never stop having sex with each other, though it becomes more like "the rutting of animals" as the bitterness grows.
35	* SwarmOfRats: And how.
36	* ShootTheShaggyDog
37	* ShoutOut: To Creator/HPLovecraft's "Literature/TheRatsInTheWalls".
38	* TeenPregnancy:
39	** Wilfred's son gets the neighbor's daughter pregnant. It doesn't go well. For anyone.
40	** Arlette implies that Henry himself (and thus her unhappy marriage to Wilfred) is the result of this.
41	* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Henry and Shannon.]]
42	* TraumaCongaLine
43	* UnreliableNarrator: Perhaps, given some hints that portions of the narrative could be ThroughTheEyesOfMadness.
44	* VillainProtagonist
45
46	!!Big Driver
47
48	After being horribly violated and left for dead, crime novelist Tess uses her detective skills to plot her revenge.
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50	* AnimateInanimateObject: Tess imagines many of her appliances helping her and giving her advice. She also imagines her cat talking to her.
51	* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Betsy Neal's stepfather would hold a butterknife to her face while raping her. The knife slipped.]]
52	* HatesBeingTouched: Betsy Neal, likely due to [[spoiler: her past sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.]]
53	* MostWritersAreWriters: Par for the course with a Stephen King story.
54	* MurderByMistake
55	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Tess initially has one of these after accidentally killing her rapist's brother and believing him to be innocent. [[spoiler: It turns out he was in on it with his brother, so she stops feeling guilty.]]
56	* RapeAndRevenge: The entire plot of the story. Tess is brutally raped and left for dead, [[spoiler: and murders those responsible, including the rapist's mother and brother.]]
57	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tess goes on one.
58	* ScaryLibrarian: [[spoiler: Ramona Norville, who deliberately sent Tess off the beaten path so she would get raped and murdered by her son.]]
59	* TookALevelInBadass: Tess
60
61	!!Fair Extension
62
63	Cancer patient Dave Streeter makes a DealWithTheDevil to exchange his misery with his friend's good luck.
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65	* AffablyEvil: George Elvid is generally quite friendly, but he displays flashes of anger and impatience when Dave annoys him.
66	* AssholeVictim: Played with. Dave sees Tom Goodhugh as one (he stole Dave's girlfriend, got rich off an idea that Dave helped implement, etc), but the reader never actually sees Tom acting like an asshole. Dave is something of an UnreliableNarrator, and tends to spin all of Tom's courtesy and friendliness as smarmy douchebaggery.
67	* TheBadGuyWins: Dave Streeter enjoys watching the horrible things that happen to Tom Goodhugh's family, delighting in Tom's suffering while telling him it will get better. Meanwhile, Dave becomes more and more prosperous and happy. At the end of the story, looking at Venus, he makes a wish - for more.
68	* ComedicSociopathy: Of the darkest sort.
69	* DisproportionateRetribution: Tom Goodhugh steals Dave Streeter's girlfriend and gets rich off of an idea that Dave helped him implement...and Dave decides to get revenge by more or less making a DealWithTheDevil to cause a massive TraumaCongaLine in Tom's life while Dave's life improves immensely and takes great pleasure in his best friend's suffering.
70	* DrivenToSuicide: Almost. After his life goes to shit, Tom tells Dave that if he could kill himself and make it look like an accident, he would. Dave, delighting in Tom's suffering, tells him it will get better. (It won't.)
71	* EquivalentExchange: Dave Streeter's life finally turns around at the expense of his friend's.
72	* GreenEyedMonster: The ''actual'' reason for Dave Streeter's hatred toward Tom Goodhugh.
73	* HappilyMarried: Although Dave is angry about losing Norma to Tom Goodhugh, he nonetheless is genuinely in love with his wife, Janet. At the end of the story, he states their marriage is as "strong as an oak door."
74	* KarmaHoudini: Dave Streeter is cured of his cancer and lives a happy life. He ends the story wishing for more.
75	* LouisCypher: George Elvid. Dave realizes this early on.
76	* TraumaCongaLine: Tom Goodhugh's life after Dave's deal.
77	* VillainProtagonist: By the end of the story Streeter has become one.
78	* WithFriendsLikeThese: Dave acts like Tom is this but it becomes clear that the roles are reversed early on, especially since Dave thinks that Tom ''deserves'' losing family members and his fortune.
79
80	!!A Good Marriage
81
82	A middle-aged wife discovers that her husband is hiding a dark secret.
83
84	* AloneWithThePsycho: Played with. Darcy spends time alone with Bob after discovering his secret, and he only acts gentle to her. But this is even creepier, and Darcy spends a lot of time wondering if he'd murder her if she acted against him.
85	* AxesAtSchool: Bob planned a school shooting when he was younger with his friend Brian Delahanty, several decades before Columbine.
86	* BeneathTheMask: The one of the major points of the story is how loved ones can hide secrets. [[spoiler: The fury on Bob's face strips the mask away further, showing that he never loved Darcy.]]
87	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Bob is a doting husband and a pillar of the community. He's also the serial killer known as Beadie.
88	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Bob is dead, ending his murder spree for good. Holt Ramsey becomes convinced of Darcy's innocence and agrees to leave her alone, and Darcy seems mostly at peace with killing Bob and being a widow. However, the families of Beadie's victims will never get the full closure of knowing that their loved one's murderer is dead; Bob's children and friends mourn him as a loving father and respected member of the community, and will never know the truth; and Darcy will always wonder if she could have stopped him sooner.]]
89	* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: A major reason Darcy is reluctant to go to the police: everyone would presume she knew about the murders.
90	* CrazyPrepared: Bob is prepared to the point of paranoia, which is why he lasted decades without being caught. He always places his box of trophies in exactly the same place, and uses a sliver of almost invisible tape to see if its been opened.
91	* CriminalMindGames: Beadie sends taunting messages to the police, which Bob deliberately misspells to hide his intelligence.
92	* DarkSecret: First Bob's - then Darcy's in the end, which Holt Ramsey figures out.
93	* DeadTVRemoteGag: When Darcy's looking for batteries for hers, she finds a lot more than she intended...
94	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Darcy avenges Beadie's victims and finds a sense of closure when Holt Ramsey assures her she did the right thing.]]
95	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Bob is a vicious serial killer, but he was nothing but nice to his wife and children. [[spoiler: The look in his eye before Darcy pushes him implies that even this love is faked though.]]
96	* FauxAffablyEvil: Bob is rather charming and a pillar of the community but is secretly a revolting SerialKiller who enjoys killing people.
97	* GollumMadeMeDoIt: Bob states that Brian Delahanty infected him with misogynistic and violent ideas, and that Brian's voice drives him to kill. Darcy believes this is simply a self-justification.
98	* JustifiedCriminal: [[spoiler: Both in-universe with Ramsey and the story itself seems to agree that Darcy was right to kill Bob, both to protect herself, and to stop his evil for good.]]
99	* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Bob dies a horrific death, smothered after having his neck, arms and back broken.]]
100	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler: Darcy gets Bob drunk, then pushes him down the stairs so it looks like a drunken fall. After ringing for an ambulance as a delay would look suspicious, she smothers him.]]
101	* ManBitesMan: Bob enjoys biting his victims.
102	* NightmareFetishist: Darcy discovers that her husband has a collection of extremely dark sadomasochistic magazines. And then it gets worse.
103	* PsychopathicManchild: When Darcy discovers Bob's secret, he often acts like a teenager with severe personality issues.
104	* RetiredBadass: 74 year old Holt Ramsey has a reputation for solving difficult crimes with his hunches, is the one cop who came close to catching Beadie, [[spoiler: and visits Darcy to confirm his suspicions.]] He retires to Florida to enjoy his last few months after the story.
105	* RetiredMonster: Downplayed; Bob was a normal, loving husband, but he kept trophies from his days as Beadie, was still sending taunting letters to the authorities about his crimes, and his true, evil nature was always simmering just below the surface the whole time. When Darcy discovers his secret, he begins to backslide into his original personality.
106	* TheReveal: Aside from Darcy's discovery that Bob is Beadie, two later moments greatly undermine most of what Bob says to Darcy in his confession: [[spoiler: his look of hate after she tries to kill him, and Holt revealing that BD bit off his boy victim's penis.]]
107	* SerialKiller: Bob Anderson, a.k.a Beadie.
108	* SignificantMonogram: Bob's serial killer alias 'Beadie' was derived from his childhood friend Brian Delahanty's initials. Bob believes that Brian 'infected' him.
109	* SmugSnake: Bob believed that he was so careful and smart that the police were nowhere near catching him, but Holt Ramsey's hunch might have led to an arrest eventually.
110	* StrawMisogynist: How Bob justifies his crime to himself. He has a delusion that many women he meet are sluts (he uses the term "snoot") who are trying to tempt him, when in fact they are doing normal things or even acting creeped out, such as waitress Stacey Moore. He then believes that they are sexually teasing him, so in his view they deserve to die. He claims that his former accomplice Delahanty "infected" him with his violent, misogynist ideas, but Darcy thinks Bob is just trying to avoid responsibility for his own actions.
111	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: King was in part inspired by the BTK killer, particularly after the killer's wife received backlash for claiming to have no knowledge of her husband's crimes.
112	* WouldHurtAChild: While Bob usually just killed women, he also at one point killed one of their children. He later tells his wife that it was an accident, saying that he had to do it once the child witnessed him murdering his mother. Although that's put into doubt when it's revealed that [[spoiler: he had bitten off the boy's penis]].
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114	!!Under the Weather.
115	This is an additional short story included in some editions of the book, after the Afterword [[note]]later collected in ''Literature/TheBazaarOfBadDreams''[[/note]]. A man named Brad Franklin goes through his day while his wife Ellen stays in bed because she has bronchitis. Or so we are led to believe.
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117	* FiveStagesOfGrief: [[spoiler:Brad is firmly in Stage 1, Denial, and it doesn’t look like he will get out of it soon.]]
118	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a flashback we learn that, while they were on a plane to The Bahamas, Brad thought for a moment that Ellen had died while in fact she was just sleeping. When he told her about this later, he promised he would [[spoiler: never accept her death, but just use his imagination to keep her alive. By the end of the story, we find out that Ellen has died and Brad is doing exactly what he promised.]]
119	* LawOfInverseFertility: Ellen learned some years ago that she cannot conceive a child, which is one of the darkest pages in her and Brad's marriage.
120	* OfCorpseHesAlive: Brad is keeping everybody in the dark about what happened to [[spoiler:Ellen, and is most of all fooling himself]].
121	* SelectiveObliviousness: Brad just can’t accept that [[spoiler:his wife has died at least a week prior to the start of the story. He keeps her corpse in their apartment, and goes out of his way to convince himself that she is just sleeping a lot because she has a bout of bronchitis, and that the foul smell everybody complains about (and which he pretends not to notice) must be from a dead rat in the neighboring apartment]]

Context Literature / FullDarkNoStars