You can feel King reaching for some Big Questions in his most recent novel, “Later.” Told from the perspective of Jamie Conklin, the narrative shuttles between the immediacy of now and the hindsight of “later” to tell a kind of coming-of-age-as-mystery story, an exploration of innocence and what’s on the other side of childhood. In the end, I enjoy books like that.In his craft memoir, “On Writing,” Stephen King describes a moment in his process when he asks himself the “Big Questions.” The biggest of which are: “Is this story coherent? And if it is, what will turn coherence into a song?” To me, it was more gore than scare and more fun than deep. In the end, this is a worthwhile entry into King's body of work. I was glad when Jamie glossed over this point. I was never invested in the mystery of Jamie's father because Jamie never seemed to care and I loved the relationship he had with his mother. Lastly, the twist ending fell totally flat for me. Fan note, the Ritual of Chud and the TV show John Law are mentioned, indicating that potentially Holly Gibney and the characters from It exist in the same universe as Later. I really loved how the book set out the rules for how Jamie sees the dead but I was disappointed to see those rules broken for what felt like a shoehorned tie-in to It. The Thumper storyline ends quite abruptly which is good for pacing but felt like a missed opportunity.

While I overall enjoyed the novel and would recommend it, there were a few other things I would have liked to see. This allowed the book to keep me engaged from cover to cover but likely also made it sacrifice some of the depth I enjoy in other King novels The other elements I liked were the pacing and the small cast of characters. Another comment that had me laughing out loud was (again paraphrasing), 'No kid ever dreamed of growing up to be a college dean.' So true, yet as adults, we so much respect for college deans. He had a few nuggets of wisdom that will stick with me, namely, and I am paraphrasing, 'One of the worst things about being a kid is learning how to shut up.' This comment is stated so plainly but is so charged with meaning.

He was funny and sincere like so many of King's child protagonists. When I reflect on this book, I had fun reading it. However, this premise is given a King spin and the flavor of a Hard Case Crime novel.

The premise of the novel is familiar, a kid can see the ghosts of the recently deceased. Stephen King's latest Hard Case Crime novel, Later, narratively succeeds in almost every way but lacks some of the depth to make it a true King classic.

Stephen king later review