The Regulators

The Regulators and Desperation were published simultaneously on September 24, 1996—Desperation under King's name, The Regulators under the Richard Bachman pseudonym. They share the same character names (the Carver family, Johnny Marinville, Steve Ames) but exist in entirely different worlds with different plots. King intended them as mirror-image companion novels rather than a sequel pair.

Seth is an autistic boy who is possessed by Tak—the ancient evil entity also central to Desperation. Seth cannot speak on his own but channels television programs, especially a Western called 'The Regulators,' through Tak. The suburban street Seth lives on becomes a warped landscape of TV Western imagery as Tak's influence grows.

The novel is written partly in epistolary form—newspaper clippings, journal entries, and letters are interspersed with the narrative. As a Bachman book, it also carries a different authorial register than a King novel: slightly flatter, more brutal, less interested in redemption.

King has said The Regulators felt like Bachman's territory—darker, more nihilistic, less interested in the moral weight of its events. The companion novel Desperation has more redemptive and spiritual content. Publishing them simultaneously under two names was a playful acknowledgment that the same events can be told in very different tones.