Book Review: Later by Stephen King
My second Stephen King book, Later has a nice blend of mystery, crime, and the occult.
booksbookNotesbooksreviewfictionLater is a Stephen King book that is part of the Hard Case Crime series, along The Colorado Kid and Joyland. It's a coming-of-age mystery with ghosts, so what's not to love?
The writing is great, with a good pacing for a book like that: not too rushed to give us time to feel the vibes (it's a ghost story mystery after all), but also not too slow to drive people of, or either too long that we feel like it's dragging. Just perfect pacing and length.
Jamie being the one telling us his story since the beginning made for a very pleasant reading experience. Like we should grab a cup of coffee (or glass of whiskey) and listen to him talk about his like.
It's also great to follow Jamie as he gets older and try to learn how to live with his ability. How his perceptions about it, about being able to see ghosts change over time, as he gets more mature, and things get more complicated.
By coincidence, that this is my second King book, and it also features a kid as the main character. What I have to say so far is that he does a great job at writing young characters, and their interactions with adults.
Highly recommended!
Some nice quotes:
So yeah, I see dead people. As far as I can remember, I always have. But it’s not like in that movie with Bruce Willis.
Smart people know a lot, and maybe that makes them think they know everything.
He taught me a lot. But before the teaching, he listened.
Later
Stephen King (2021)
The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine - as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.
My second Stephen King book, Later has a nice blend of mystery, crime, and the occult. #books #bookNotes #books #review #fiction