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A review by chloseencounter
The Outsider by Stephen King
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I’m going to try and keep this as concise as possible but I have a lot of feelings about this book, mostly disappointment, especially after it was recommended to me by multiple people. I can tell by the reviews that this book was very polarizing, you either love it or hate it and unfortunately I really hated it.
The first half of this book was pretty strong but too long, the same things could’ve been accomplished in half the time or less, this book should’ve been 300 pages. Also while I enjoy the supernatural elements, they should’ve been introduced into the story way earlier instead of over 20% of the way in, it felt very abrupt.
The cast was way too large and a lot of the characters where similar and spoke the same way, I have never had trouble keeping track of characters in media before but I found myself multiple times thinking “wait, which character was this again?”
I actually really like Holly Gibney as a character but her addition over halfway into the story was unneeded. Ralph’s wife could’ve accomplished the same role (she could’ve started her own investigation after Ralph doubted her) or they could’ve put Holly in much earlier in the book and took out other useless characters instead of making this ever growing cast even larger. It felt strange to put a character in a story over the 50% mark just to come in and put all the puzzle pieces together effortlessly for our main characters. I honestly only think King only put her in this story because he is so clearly in love with her. The way he writes women (especially “unattractive” and/or fat women) has always been off putting but the way he describes Holly over and over is like… “She was thin and fragile but adorable, she was smarter than most people but she didn’t know it. She is eccentric and quirky, not at all like other girls. She could solve every problem but couldn’t take a compliment because she was so insecure. She was strong but only found her true self for a man who she has continued living her whole life for. Did I mention she was thin and also takes lexapro?”, I don’t understand why Holly can’t be a badass and confident lady instead of this insecure women who only finds her strength due to Bill Hodges, King couldn’t even let her curse. It’s almost comical and made me wonder if Bill Hodges is a self insert for him.
Minor complaint but still wanted to say, I really don’t mind talking about poop or even poop humor but I didn’t think we needed multiple paragraphs describing Jack’s diarrhea.
Lastly, the last half of this book was painfully slow. I felt as if it was wrapping up at a little over 300 pages in but it just kept going. By the time I reached about 100 pages left I was reading out of pure spite. I had to know if the ending made this awful book worth it and surprise…it didn’t. If you get over halfway done with this book and you’re bored, DNF, it’s absolutely not worth it at all.
I actually really like King and he has written some of my favorite books however I also recognize the flaws in his writing in which he’s never improved upon and I feel like they all came out full force in this story. If it was maybe paired down to half the length and he cut out all the unneeded stuff, it could’ve been better. An interesting premise absolutely demolished, it’s really unfortunate.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
The first half of this book was pretty strong but too long, the same things could’ve been accomplished in half the time or less, this book should’ve been 300 pages. Also while I enjoy the supernatural elements, they should’ve been introduced into the story way earlier instead of over 20% of the way in, it felt very abrupt.
The cast was way too large and a lot of the characters where similar and spoke the same way, I have never had trouble keeping track of characters in media before but I found myself multiple times thinking “wait, which character was this again?”
I actually really like Holly Gibney as a character but her addition over halfway into the story was unneeded. Ralph’s wife could’ve accomplished the same role (she could’ve started her own investigation after Ralph doubted her) or they could’ve put Holly in much earlier in the book and took out other useless characters instead of making this ever growing cast even larger. It felt strange to put a character in a story over the 50% mark just to come in and put all the puzzle pieces together effortlessly for our main characters. I honestly only think King only put her in this story because he is so clearly in love with her. The way he writes women (especially “unattractive” and/or fat women) has always been off putting but the way he describes Holly over and over is like… “She was thin and fragile but adorable, she was smarter than most people but she didn’t know it. She is eccentric and quirky, not at all like other girls. She could solve every problem but couldn’t take a compliment because she was so insecure. She was strong but only found her true self for a man who she has continued living her whole life for. Did I mention she was thin and also takes lexapro?”, I don’t understand why Holly can’t be a badass and confident lady instead of this insecure women who only finds her strength due to Bill Hodges, King couldn’t even let her curse. It’s almost comical and made me wonder if Bill Hodges is a self insert for him.
Minor complaint but still wanted to say, I really don’t mind talking about poop or even poop humor but I didn’t think we needed multiple paragraphs describing Jack’s diarrhea.
Lastly, the last half of this book was painfully slow. I felt as if it was wrapping up at a little over 300 pages in but it just kept going. By the time I reached about 100 pages left I was reading out of pure spite. I had to know if the ending made this awful book worth it and surprise…it didn’t. If you get over halfway done with this book and you’re bored, DNF, it’s absolutely not worth it at all.
I actually really like King and he has written some of my favorite books however I also recognize the flaws in his writing in which he’s never improved upon and I feel like they all came out full force in this story. If it was maybe paired down to half the length and he cut out all the unneeded stuff, it could’ve been better. An interesting premise absolutely demolished, it’s really unfortunate.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.