Review: The Outsider

Trigger alert: child abuse and murder; sodomy of a child

Listening to The Outsider read by Bill Paton is a real treat. This guy knows how to make a book sing.

I couldn’t help but notice how this novel has polarised opinions. I must confess to being a huge fan of Mr King, but I concede that his later books are in serious need of an editor who’s not afraid to speak their mind! There is a lot of unnecessary repetition that could easily have been cut to make this book shorter and more coherent.

I was totally invested in this story and had no problem with the supernatural element. For goodness sake, what are folk expecting from Stephen King? Supernatural is his raison d’être! However, I’ve dropped my rating by a star for the awful and graphic nature of the crime committed on a child. I felt it was unnecessarily heinous and the sexually violent references make the book hard to recommend to many people.

So, this review is a bit of a mixed bag! If you can get past the trigger warning, I found this story engrossing, and the characters engaging.

• Review
• Stephen King