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A review by ladybugwrites
The Outsider by Stephen King
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This one is hard to put words to. I just finished it, like about two minutes ago, and I don't actually know what to think, but I do want to get my immediate thoughts out because I think those are the most accurate for how I feel about books (usually).
This is a book that starts strong. The first, say 100-150 pages are a strong crime novel I very much enjoyed reading. The real horror in this books is most certainly the murder and how ot happened, as in, the description itself is the horror and it gives me nightmares thinking about it. (A very good description of something I never actually wanted to read, tbh).
After those, 150 pages, it was slow going. Until the 300-350 mark, very little happened. It felt a lot like repeating what had already been established (there's one huge thing in those pages that couldn't be cut, but a lot of it still did feel redundant). I think you can cut maybe 150 pages from this book and youd get the same book, but it'd be slightly better bc you wouldn't hear everything 30000 times. I'm sorry, but that seriously annoyed me how much time things took, how much description went into the tiniest things completely unnecessarily. There was just, too much unnecessary details.
Now, the horror technically is there lurking from the start, but it doesn’t really get anywhere until we're at the 350 mark, which is way too fucking slow even though I know this is common with King's books. The worst part about it, even these pages are dragged out and I keep waiting for it to be over, and, it's not really that scary. It was kind of anticlimactic, in the end, which I was honestly expecting. So, at least he met my expectations, I guess. It was creepy, and I do somewhat regret finishing a horror novel at 4am and the next thing I should do is turn of my light and go to sleep, but, it wasn’t really scary. The elements themselves are horrible, and the maybe, 3rd to last scene was probably the creepiest, but it lacked the horror I expect from King. It lacked the creepy, disgusting, and uncomfortable feeling I got when I reaf The Shining, and honestly, that's a little disappointing.
All in all, I think it's well written, it just, left more to be desired and could've been shorter. But, at least I can cross of another Stephen King book of the list, and it wasn't bad, it was just... okay. I think it says a lot that the crime part of the horror novel wad the best, especially when it's a King book.
This is a book that starts strong. The first, say 100-150 pages are a strong crime novel I very much enjoyed reading. The real horror in this books is most certainly the murder and how ot happened, as in, the description itself is the horror and it gives me nightmares thinking about it. (A very good description of something I never actually wanted to read, tbh).
After those, 150 pages, it was slow going. Until the 300-350 mark, very little happened. It felt a lot like repeating what had already been established (there's one huge thing in those pages that couldn't be cut, but a lot of it still did feel redundant). I think you can cut maybe 150 pages from this book and youd get the same book, but it'd be slightly better bc you wouldn't hear everything 30000 times. I'm sorry, but that seriously annoyed me how much time things took, how much description went into the tiniest things completely unnecessarily. There was just, too much unnecessary details.
Now, the horror technically is there lurking from the start, but it doesn’t really get anywhere until we're at the 350 mark, which is way too fucking slow even though I know this is common with King's books. The worst part about it, even these pages are dragged out and I keep waiting for it to be over, and, it's not really that scary. It was kind of anticlimactic, in the end, which I was honestly expecting. So, at least he met my expectations, I guess. It was creepy, and I do somewhat regret finishing a horror novel at 4am and the next thing I should do is turn of my light and go to sleep, but, it wasn’t really scary. The elements themselves are horrible, and the maybe, 3rd to last scene was probably the creepiest, but it lacked the horror I expect from King. It lacked the creepy, disgusting, and uncomfortable feeling I got when I reaf The Shining, and honestly, that's a little disappointing.
All in all, I think it's well written, it just, left more to be desired and could've been shorter. But, at least I can cross of another Stephen King book of the list, and it wasn't bad, it was just... okay. I think it says a lot that the crime part of the horror novel wad the best, especially when it's a King book.