Later by Stephen King

Horror. Mystery. Young Adult. 

Rating: 2/5

Pages: 248

Started: 5 January 2024

Finished: 6 January 2024

Summary:

    Ghosts can't lie, and James Conklin has been speaking to them for as long as he can remember. Forced to navigate dealings with a particularly vengeful spirit and the blackmail of his mother's ex-girlfriend on top of life as a teenage boy to an overworked single parent, James must decide what he's willing to gamble and which risks are worth taking. 

Thoughts:

    What did I just read. 

    Stephen King has a talent for writing from the perspective of young boys in a way that feels authentic, which definitely came through well in this book. But it's hard to imagine how this could be a book written and published in 2021. The only modernity was James having a phone and his mother having a girlfriend; absolutely nothing propelled this story into moral or political modernity. Perhaps it was the point, but the timelessness of the story removed the possibility of social commentary. Since James wasn't particularly compelling or sympathetic, and because the horror element of the story wasn't overly strong, it made it very difficult to care about this book.     

    If the end had felt important I might have a different perspective on the book as a whole, but it didn't, and the story just left me confused on why I was supposed to care in the first place. This wasn't helped by the absolute shock (not really a plot twist?) of who James' real father was. Again, it was unclear what the point of the incest was, and why anyone should care beyond mild horror and discomfort. 

    This book shook my faith in Stephen King; when I inevitably read another one of his books, I think I will make sure it is an older and far more thoroughly reviewed novel that is fully horror rather than another odd and partially anachronistic mystery.