Book Review: 'The Outsider'

Honestly, this book is one of the best Stephen King's I've read in a long time. I started reading his novels around three years ago when I picked up Revival, which was the only book they had in the small bookshop I visited, the End Of Watch trilogy followed, then Carrie, etc.

This book is a murder-mystery, a 'did-he' do it sort of scenario. But there is a twist, the person who was convicted of a gruesome murder of an 11-year-old boy was present in two places at the same time, with DNA tying him to the crime scene but video-footage of him being in another place miles away.

Is a supernatural force or being responsible for this? This is the question that crosses the minds of the investigators when a beloved and alive character from End Of Watch is called to the scene and deeper down the rabbit hole they go when they discover that a similar case happened in another city not far away.

Now that I've given a borderline synopsis without trying to expose any more information about the book, I'm going to write about why I liked the book and how different it is compared to his other recent work.

This is the first solo work of Stephen King since the last of the End Of Watch trilogy, so that alone tells a lot. Frankly, it is a lot more interesting and absorbing than Sleeping Beauties (at least, as far as I've read), and this just proves that the best work that Stephen King produces is when it is only his name on the cover. This is a book that makes you want to keep reading, something I didn't feel the urge to do with Sleeping Beauties.

The book is also filled with sneaky known opinions of Stephen King, especially one being about Stanley Kubrick, who directed The Shining, based on the well-known novel by Stephen King, it is general knowledge that Stephen King disliked the movie.

The book was given a 4.5 instead of a 5, which was something that I debated with myself before writing the article. I can't help but compare this book to The Stand, which in my opinion is one of the best and 5/5 book, and I can't help but think of that book as a template.

One thing that I think would've made the book perfect was a little bit of a back-story to The Outsider or a chapter that was in the perspective of the outsider, the way there was in The Stand. That way, the reader would be able to get an understanding of The Outsider and what exploits it had done before the story in hand happened. This was something that the fans were given a glance nearing the end of the novel.

So, in conclusion, the book is a near-perfectly written piece of work. If you think that Stephen King was in some kind of slump, needing help from other writers to finish off his work, then this novel is surely going to change your mind.

If you haven't read anything by Stephen King and want to give his books a try, then this book would set you on the right path and into a journey and into the mind of one of the best modern fiction writer of the past four decades.

The book also proves that the original and breathtaking imagination that has kept him on top for forty years keeps on going and is going strong, with a brand new novella set in the famous Castle Rock coming soon in October.

4.5/5

The Outsider