"A Good Marriage" (Full Dark, No Stars)

Now I have never been married, so I'm not an expert in that area. However, I dearly hope something like what happened in this story never actually happens to me.

Title: A Good Marriage

Book: Full Dark, No Stars

Author: Stephen King

Released: 2010

Rating: 5/5

Basic Plot: Darcy finds out that her husband is a serial killer.

The Decision
Now, a lot of us are faced with hard choices in our time. But finding out that your husband is a serial killer isn't one of them. Darcy is a kind hearted woman that has to figure out how to deal with her husband being a serial killer. At first she wants to turn him in but then decides the publicity would be too big and hard to deal with. It seems, then, that she won't turn him in. At that part I was angry because I wanted to see justice delivered to her husband. Later, she kills him and makes it look like an accident. This works in that he can't kill anyone else (him being dead) and doesn't give her (or her children) any publicity. That decision works out great for her family and for future victims. The investigator at the end points out that the victims knowing BD was dead wouldn't really help matters. I agree somewhat.

Bob Anderson/BD
For a little bit it appears like Bob has a split personality and names it BD. However, as I read the story, it appeared as though Bob was lying about BD so that he could get away with an insanity plea if captured. The fact is that Bob is very precise and seemed to lie about not remembering when he raped and murdered the women. Bob also lied about one of the waitresses coming onto him and not "giving" him anything, he was the one to come onto her and she didn't like it. The fact that he lies a lot makes me believe that he was lying about BD being another personality of his.


Reflections
I think it was very interesting what the story did with reflections. Darcy talks about there being two worlds: the "real" world and the world in the mirror. When she finds out that Bob is BD she says she's now the Dark Darcy (aka the Darcy from the other world). And, at the end, she feels normal again.


Final Thoughts
I loved this story and how Darcy acted. Plus, she thought things out. She was planning on killing him for awhile but never had a chance to. Darcy wanted the relationship to work and dealt with less sex, less sexual touches, and the time he spent away. I respect Darcy and what she did. I don't know how I would have reacted in such a situation.