11/16/2023 0 Comments Later by stephen king reviewsKing seems to be a man of great ideas but he lacks the ability - these days, at least - to keep the momentum going. The last King I read prior to Later was The Institute, which I also felt didn’t live up to its strong premise or compelling beginning. The Secrets of Roanoke could be an award-winning spin-off series that I’d happily read. If King were to have written a version of Later which happened to be the story I feel like I was sold on the jacket, I might have finished the novel with a much greater opinion of it. My dissatisfaction with Later really lies in the fact that the premise of the novel I was sold was simply a narrative device to serve a crime plot I didn’t care so much about–I won’t go into too much detail as I don’t want to spoil the plot for those of you who will read it. The laissez-faire way Jamie responds to his mother’s burgeoning relationship with policewoman Liz is well-written, as is his reaction to the breakdown of that relationship. What a great idea for an author to die and for a struggling single mother editor would rope-in her son, who happens to be able to speak to dead people who can only respond with the truth, to help her finish their novel to reverse their downward trending fortunes. I warmed to King’s teenage protagonist, Jamie, quickly, and was intrigued by Later’s The-Sixth-Sense-but-make-it-literary premise. Later is a great example of the average King novel: compelling premise, great characterization, easy-to-read prose, fizzles out in the middle, feels like a bit of a slog to finish, ends up feeling underwhelming.
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