A review by rinku
Später by Stephen King

adventurous funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

 Later was my first book of Stephen King and this was an exiting experience for me. I’ll definitely read more of his books in the future since this one already gave me a good taste of his style. 

Even though I haven’t read a King book before, I still kinda know the drill of his stories and I had the feeling that this plot is quite typical for him with focusing on children and their supernatural abilities. This time, Jamie’s in the focus who can see the ghosts of dead people. But this fact does not play as big a part of the story as one would expect. There are many other topics picked upon, like literary agents and them trying to make as much money as possible with their clients even after their death – I’m pretty sure King knows a lot about this business. The story gets f-ed up quickly and the ending, even though I was not completely happy with it, was really shocking as well. 

I also enjoyed how real-life events were included into the book, like the financial crisis or the American health system. We also have some lesbian representation which surprised me. Sadly, there was some sexism and especially objectification of women – probably one of my biggest critiques – which annoyed me. 

It’s obvious that King knows his craft well: The flow of the story was so good, the writing style and its slightly cynic undertone was enjoyable to read, and the characters were great. I was surprised though that I didn’t find this book creepy, despite the fact I’m creeped out quite easily. It was more unsettling at some parts but that was it. 

All in all, Later was a nice and especially short introduction to the work of King that is unsettling, but not too creepy. 

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