CHARACTER
Lisey's Storyby Stephen King

Andrew "Sparky" Landon

Andrew “Sparky” Landon

Quick Facts

Father of Scott Landon and Paul Landon; appears only in memory and flashback. Nicknamed “Sparky” by coworkers at U.S. Gypsum. Key relationships: his two sons—one he tries to harden for survival, one he cannot save. First seen through Scott’s earliest, most traumatic recollections of “blood-bools” and the family “bad-gunky.”

Who They Are

Bold, terrifying, and tragically bound to his lineage, Andrew “Sparky” Landon is both the monster of Scott’s childhood and the warped mentor who equips him to survive. He believes the Landon men harbor an inherited madness—the “bad-gunky”—that can be managed only through ritual pain, vigilant suspicion, and rules. Sparky’s worldview fuses desperate love with brutality: he wounds to protect, kills to spare, and teaches to make sure at least one son outlives the curse. In him, the novel braids together the violences of Madness, Sanity, and Family Curses, the scars of Childhood Trauma and Its Lasting Impact, and the disturbing power source behind art—the Theme: Creativity and Its Dark Source.

Personality & Traits

Sparky’s personality reads like a storm front: charged, lethal, and occasionally shot through with a dazzling, awful clarity. He is not merely cruel; he is methodical, convinced that ritual harm staves off a worse catastrophe. His tenderness is real but contorted by fear and delusion, making love indistinguishable from violence.

  • Violent ritualist with a “logic”: He stages “blood-bools” to “let out” the bad-gunky, using one son’s pain to coerce the other—the bench incident with a pocketknife crystallizes this perverse pedagogy.
  • Mentally unstable and paranoid: He sees Nazis in his workplace and talks to “Bad-Gunky Folks,” veering from sudden rages to eerie, child-soothing calm in minutes.
  • Pragmatically brutal “protector”: He euthanizes Paul when the “real bad-gunky” consumes him, framing murder as mercy to prevent a more monstrous end—and to keep Scott alive.
  • Intelligent, articulate, and idiosyncratic: He home-schools his boys into prodigies and coins a harsh, sticky slang—“sweetmother,” “smuckin,” “gluefoot motherfucker”—that Scott will later recycle and refine in his art.
  • Capable of twisted love: He praises Scott’s courage, doles out “prizes” after blood-bools, and ultimately begs his son to end his life—gestures that turn care into a lifelong wound.
  • Visually volatile presence: The “fluff of whitening hair,” “Halloween grin,” crooked teeth, and eyes that “roll roll roll” make his episodes feel like a horror mask slipping on over a tired, whisker-framed man.

Character Journey

Because Sparky exists only in recollection, his arc unfolds as revelation rather than change: first as an unambiguous abuser, then as a tragic combatant in a losing war against inherited madness. Each memory Lisey receives from Scott complicates the picture—beneath the slurs and knives is a father trying to craft a survival manual from pain. The arc culminates in two terminal acts: the killing of Paul, which confirms the curse’s stakes, and Sparky’s own plea for death, which transfers the burden to Scott while also, in his mind, sparing him. What remains is a paradox: he bequeaths trauma and tools in one gesture, making him the architect of Scott’s injury and the tutor of his endurance.

Key Relationships

  • Scott Landon: Sparky is both torturer and teacher. He traumatizes Scott through blood-bools and terror while also instructing him in the family’s rules, the vocabulary of the curse, and the existence of Boo’ya Moon—knowledge Scott later reframes into creative fuel and survival tactics. Their bond is a lock whose key is pain: every lesson costs blood, and every act of “love” disfigures it.
  • Paul Landon: Paul is the elder brother and frequent leverage—Sparky cuts Paul to move Scott, chains Paul to protect Scott, and finally kills Paul to preserve what’s left of the family. The death brands the curse onto Scott’s psyche: madness is not metaphor but a predator that sometimes requires unthinkable choices.

Defining Moments

Sparky’s legacy is a sequence of scenes where love and violence become indistinguishable, each moment tightening the cord around Scott’s future.

  • The Bench Incident

    • What happens: Sparky forces a three-year-old Scott to jump from a high bench by repeatedly cutting Paul with a pocketknife.
    • Why it matters: Introduces the “blood-bool” as training-through-trauma—Sparky weaponizes brotherly love, teaching Scott that courage is purchased with someone else’s pain.

  • The Murder of Paul

    • What happens: After Paul descends into the “real bad-gunky,” Sparky chains him in the cellar and ultimately shoots him with a deer rifle, calling it euthanasia.
    • Why it matters: Establishes Sparky’s ethic of “necessary evil” and cements the curse as terminal; Scott witnesses that survival in this family may demand monstrous acts.

  • The Man from U.S. Gypsum

    • What happens: Paranoid and armed, Sparky prepares to kill a visiting coworker; only ten-year-old Scott’s quick lies avert disaster.
    • Why it matters: Shows the family’s isolation and how far gone Sparky is—on the brink of public violence—while positioning Scott as the accidental adult managing his father’s delusions.

  • Sparky’s Death

    • What happens: After a pickaxe rampage, Sparky leaves a note asking Scott to kill him and bury him with Paul. Scott complies, striking his sleeping father.
    • Why it matters: The ultimate “lesson” Sparky leaves is a choice: commit an atrocity to prevent a worse one. Scott’s compliance fuses love, agency, and trauma into a single irreversible act.

Essential Quotes

“Jump, you little bastard, you sweetmother chickenkike, jump right now!” This line distills Sparky’s pedagogy: cruelty framed as urgent necessity. The slur-laced command forces Scott to equate courage with obedience under threat, turning bravery into a conditioned response to pain.

“You don’t know, so shut up! I aint having him get a-loose! He might not kill us before it was over if that happen, but I’d most certainly have to kill him. I know what I’m doin!” Sparky insists on his authority and expertise, revealing a worldview where violence is the only competent response to madness. The sentence lays out his calculus: prevention, containment, and if necessary, lethal intervention.

“You’ve made him better a lot of times . . . and why do you want to come over all cow’s eyes that way? You think I didn’t know? Jayzus, for a smart boy ain’t you dumb!” Here, Sparky acknowledges Scott’s interventions with Paul, collapsing secrecy between them. The taunt both praises and belittles, pulling Scott deeper into complicity while denying him moral high ground.

“You may be dumb, Scooter, but you’re brave. You’re my brave boy. I’m not gonna let it hurt you.” This is Sparky at his most seductive: tenderness braided with control. By naming Scott “brave,” he rewards compliance, recoding abuse as protection and making future harm feel like care.

KILL ME THEN PUT ME WITH PAUL PLEASE The final note reframes Sparky’s life as a petition for release. It validates his awareness of the harm he poses and transfers the curse’s grim duty to Scott, who must perform an act of love that will haunt him forever.