I recently finished listening to the audiobook version of Stephen King’s Duma Key. I really liked it, more so than a lot of his other books. Thinking about why I like it so much, one of the things I noticed was that there are no human villains in the book. Yes, there are a few that do some evil things while under the influence of the supernatural villain, but none that are that way on their own. Of King’s books that I have read, there is always at least one human who is evil even when not being possessed. Henry Bowers from It, Lloyd Henreid from The Stand, Jim Rennie from Under the Dome, and so on. I found the lack of a human villain refreshing. Are there any others where King doesn’t have a human villain?
I don’t recall any human villains in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Cujo?
I was thinking this. But it’s been a long time since I read the book so I checked on wikipedia. And I had forgotten that the boy’s father was abusing his wife and son (and became Cujo’s first victim).
Christine’s another possibility, depending on how you interpret it. The villain in the book was a car. But the reason the car was evil was because it was possessed by the ghost of its former owner. So you can argue that this was a human villain, albeit a dead human who was inhabiting a car.
In 11/22/63, the villain seems to be the timeline itself? Not sure.
Sadie’s ex husband is a villain in 11/22/63
Fair point.
I feel Lee Oswald was a human villain in that one. There was also Frank Dunning and Johnny Clayton.
I seem to recall that Arnie became something of an asshole at a certain point, so he was sort of a villain. The wiki article for Arnie suggests that he is a “secondary villain” of the story, and I’m inclined to agree.
Ok, but the thing he was really struggling against was the timeline, as personified as that homeless guy, right? It has been a while since I read it.
I read it just a few months ago, so it’s relatively fresh on my mind.
I agree that the timeline was the main antagonist that Jake had to overcome. Or maybe the timeline qualifies more as an obstacle. The timeline was never portrayed as having a personality or a will of its own.
I thought it was personified in that homeless guy who looked progressively worse, who said something like “You’re not supposed to be here” or something. Anyway, I think we’ve done that book to death in this thread!
No, the homeless guy (and the other guy who replaced him after the homeless guy died) were victims of the timeline not personifications of it. They were two people who had the misfortune of being the closest person to the portal when the timeline needed a body so it could speak to Al or Jake.
The way I recall it is that LeBay was definitely a human villain, and all of Arnie’s bad traits were really his.
Thinking of short stories, Nightshift and Skeleton Crew have stories without a human villain.
I think a majority of the stories in Night Shift had a non-human villain. Going down the list, we have:
- Vampire (which I don’t count as “human”)
- Mutant rats
- Captain Trips (same virus as The Stand)
- Aliens
- Demon-possessed industrial laundry machine
- Literal Boogeyman monster
- A fungus-based creature that took over a human body, but the fungus is the villain
- Living G.I. Joe toys
- Homicidal trucks come to life
- Human ghosts, so first real human villain
- Human serial killer
- Human crime boss
- Villains include a human who worships the Greek god Pan
- Humans running a brutal agency
- Human black magic practitioner
- Human children
- No villain in this story
- Another human serial killer
- More vampires
- Human killing his mom
From my count, 12 of the 20 stories have a non-human villain. And to me, The Last Rung on the Ladder has no villain at all, as it’s not a typical King story, but rather just a sad story about two people who grow apart and one of them commits suicide.
Is there a human villain in Pet Semetary?
What counts as humans? The aliens that take over Haven in The Tommyknockers aren’t human, but use the meat puppets to do their shenanigans. Is a werewolf a human? While Jack is a despicable asshole, is it not the Overlook that is the true villain?
To clarify, by a human I mean a bog standard, ordinary person. Those that are possessed, transmogrified, undead, etc., need not apply, unless they were already evil before they became possessed, transmogrified, became undead, etc. Jack is an edge case, but in my view he was enough of a despicable asshole in his base state that The Shining doesn’t qualify.
The Jaunt doesn’t have a villain, human or otherwise.