NOVEL REVIEW: The Outsider (2018) By Stephen King

Recently, I've been on a Stephen King reading spree, and while I'm currently reading Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (Something that I will be reviewing), the last book I read was King's 2018 work, The Outsider. The Outsider is the most recent book by King and general plot wise, it's actually VERY similar to IT, because the main antagonist is a creature very similar to It. I will attempt to keep this review spoiler-free, but I will be mentioning some of the major plot points. However, I did read the book with a lot of the plot revealed, and it didn't take away from the experience by any amount. However, if you do not want to be spoiled, I suggest you skip to the last paragraph, which is just my overall thoughts. Without further ado, here is the plot: 

In a fictional town of Flint City, Oklahoma, English teacher and Little League Baseball coach Terry Maitland is arrested by Det. Ralph Anderson for the horrendous rape, murder, and mutilation of 11-year old Frank Peterson. Despite multiple eyewitnesses and DNA evidence against him, Maitland continues to protest his innocence because he has an ironclad alibi placing him at another city miles away at the time of crime, and he is even caught speaking on a news video. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Det. Anderson finds Maitland's case suspicious enough and launches an investigation into it, Hiring Private Eye Holly Gibney (From Mr. Merecedes & the Bill Hodges Series) to investigate. Slowly, Det. Anderson and Holly begin to uncover a malevolent creature of supernatural origins from ancient Mexican legend known as El Cuco, which seems to be the cause of all this. Holly and Det. Anderson, along with few other determined individuals, set out to hunt down the monster, the cause of all this trouble...

I really enjoyed this novel overall because of how much it reminded of IT, just generally in terms of the main antagonist. El Cuco was very well built up and I liked that King used a real-life folklore as the inspiration for his villain. All of the characters were very well developed, and throughout the course of the novel, I genuinely began to care about the fate of some of the characters and became very much invested in others. The plot was full of suspense and it worked well as a thriller-mystery novel. I'm not sure if this was meant to be horror or not, but other then the rather graphic descriptions of the crimes, the book wasn't particularly scary to me, but the suspenseful way King wrote the novel was still very interesting. I also really loved that King brought in Holly Gibney, and how her introduction into the story wasn't forced and it really felt natural and normal. The book was very, VERY good, except for one MAJOR complaint: the ending was very disappointing. The book did an amazing job building up the suspense all the way up to the climax, but the final confrontation with the antagonist was very anticlimactic. The antagonist (AKA the outsider) is set up as this deadly, cunning, mastermind, but doesn't really do much other then just talk a lot. I liked the idea of the characters having to follow the antagonist's trail, so having the outsider not appear directly much was, I think, a very good choice. However, when the outsider DID show up, it was very disappointing. It doesn't do much, and although it left a bloody trail behind, it actually doesn't do much throughout the actual novel. All of its actions took place BEFORE the events of the novel took place so the readers don't actually get much of the outsider the entire book. What we DO get of the outsider however, is still reasonably good. Like I said, the confrontation between the outsider and the protagonists were rather disappointing, but apart from all that the outsider is written very well as this terrifying, vile creature, which I really liked, and I hope to see more characters like the outsider in future King novels.

In conclusion, The Outsider is a very well-written Stephen King Thriller-Mystery with very compelling characters and an engrossing plot. Despite the major flaw I discussed earlier that I found with this book, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and I found this to be one of the most interesting Stephen King novels I read. The characters were again, very likable, and even in terms of the antagonists, they were so well-written that you were constantly invested in their actions, and I don't think there was a single character in the entire novel I found boring. Even the most minor of side characters who were in it for only a couple of pages managed to be very distinct in my mind thanks to King's fantastic writing, and I like that all of the major characters do get some sort of closure. While being very similar to IT and Mr. Mercedes, The Outsider wasn't as overly descriptive as IT, being only 560 pages, and had a fairly simple but still interesting plot like Mr. Mercedes. Although I am by no means an expert on King (considering I haven't read most of his works), I found this novel to be one the best that I've read so far. Normally, a novel this good would warrant either a 5/5 or a 4.5/5, but unfortunately, the flaw I discussed earlier did throw me off of the book quite a bit. So my final score for The Outsider will be 4/5, but don't let that stop you from reading the book. It's still an amazing novel and it's always amazing to see that Stephen King is pumping out masterpieces at his age!

So I guess that was my second post... This will be more or less the general length of future film and movie reviews. Be on the lookout for my next review, which will be coming shortly in the company of Count Orlock! I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!

Your Most Faithful Blogger, 

The Connoisseur