Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner Publishing, 2018, 576 pages
I feel that I need to give a little personal background before I get into the book review so you know where I’m coming from concerning Stephen King. I’ve never gotten into Stephen King. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I never thought the movie and TV adaptations of his books were as scary as everyone feels they were. Maybe it’s because I typically don’t follow the crowd. But, I finally succumbed in 2004 when I borrowed Different Seasons from a co-worker just so I could read The Body, which the movie Stand By Me is based on. Although the writing and story overall were fantastic, I was completely put off by the language and assumed the rest of his writing was similar, so I stayed away.
So far, my book reviews for Nonahood News have been of older books. I thought my fans (if there are any other than my supportive, although perhaps biased, wife) would like to know my thoughts on a more recent book, so I bought The Outsider on pre-release and thought I’d have a go at something current and popular.
The Outsider takes place in a small town in Oklahoma where a horrific murder of a young boy has taken place. If you have a weak stomach, I would caution against reading this book. I’m somewhat upset that I have this image in my head now. The police make a very public arrest of their suspect, Terry Maitland, who they are convinced is the killer because they feel they have more than enough proof to make this a closed case immediately. Many eyewitnesses put Maitland at the scene. The problem is that Maitland was in the next city over at a book signing and convention, where he was on a local cable broadcast. So, he clearly has a solid alibi. Do the police have the right man? If not, who is the real killer? How can Maitland be seen by so many people at the scene yet also be on TV with three co-workers in the next town over at the same exact time?
That’s the first half of the book. It’s a sad tale of love, loss, anger, confusion, and revenge and isn’t really scary at all. The police are trying to prove that Maitland committed the murder, and Maitland’s attorney is trying to prove his innocence while the victim’s family is coping with their loss in their own way.
The second half is a supernatural tale that could have easily been an X-Files episode. Once I realized that I didn’t see it as a Stephen King book any longer, I just kept imagining Mulder and Scully hot on the trail of this mysterious creature and how are they going to catch it and get out alive.
The language was readable, but the character descriptions and their backstories were lacking. There are many characters, but because they are introduced so quickly, I never really had a good image in my mind of who’s who. I’m used to reading fantasy and science fiction stories in which the authors go into great detail about the worlds and characters they’ve created. J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan, Dan Brown, Brandon Sanderson, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy: these authors and others do a fantastic job of creating rich worlds filled with characters that are memorable and interesting. I just didn’t get that with this book. I felt like I was just going through the paces. My main interest was finding out how Maitland could have been in two places at the same time. Who was the real killer? Once the killer was figured out halfway through, and who it really was, I lost interest. I didn’t care if they caught it or not.
To be honest, I didn’t even finish this book. Boredom set in because it got too expositional, spending page after page of backstory of events leading up to this point in the story. I really didn’t care about kids trapped in a cave and what happened to them. That may sound bad, but I had just lost interest. It was also odd to have one book feel like two separate stories without much connecting them. Maybe I missed something.
And now you’re thinking, “What kind of book review is this? He didn’t even finish the book.” I tried something new and wanted to give honest feedback on my experience. Not everyone is a King fan, but I’m sure there are a lot of fans out there – and you may be one of them – who loved this book. The 34,000-plus Goodreads reviews giving it 4 stars out of 5 and the 10 part mini-series based on this book coming soon are proof that I’m not “in” with the cool kids. And I’m okay with that.