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A review by atullio
The Outsider by Stephen King
4.0
To be honest, this is the VERY FIRST King book I have read. My oldest brother has been a long time King fan and my mom has read some of his books as well. I actually asked her which of his books I should attempt to read first, as we have very similar reading habits. All she told me was, "NOT PET CEMETERY!!" as that one gave her nightmares and I'm a big chicken.
It definitely took me long enough to finish this book, though. Almost a good three months! I wasn't reading the book the whole time, but the point still stands. The first half of the book was sloooooow going for me. The summary of this novel seemed to be similar to books that I already read in the thriller category, so I decided to give it a try. At first I was going to give this book a lower rating because I just couldn't get into it. It did grow on me later on in the book, somewhere after the 50% mark. However, just reading through typed up interviews was yawn inducing for me. It picked up when more things started to happen, but then the "straws for eyes" description started to freak me out and I left off right around the 50% mark, OOPS. Reading during the daylight hours while at work is what made me finish this book in the last two days, which I'm glad I did.
I wouldn't say the book itself wasn't especially CREEPY, I was just creeped out by the description of the outsider's eyes for some reason, especially when it was said by a child. The acts the outsider committed were horrifying, yes. But as the characters in the book pointed out, these are acts that are ALSO committed by regular, every day humans... or so we assume.
I loved that King used children stories and myths to form his outsider, his mythical creature of this story. Some stories, like one that was told in the book, where the creature is not ALWAYS the bad guy, but used as a lesson learning device to make siblings nicer to each other... instead of, you know, a mystical being who rapes and eats people.
.....That's a big leap, now that it's RIGHT THERE. I feel like that's very King-like, though.
Overall, it was a good story. I didn't absolutely LOVE IT, but I didn't hate it either. I don't think I will be reading it again. I honestly don't know if I'll be reading a King book again, either. I guess time will tell.
It definitely took me long enough to finish this book, though. Almost a good three months! I wasn't reading the book the whole time, but the point still stands. The first half of the book was sloooooow going for me. The summary of this novel seemed to be similar to books that I already read in the thriller category, so I decided to give it a try. At first I was going to give this book a lower rating because I just couldn't get into it. It did grow on me later on in the book, somewhere after the 50% mark. However, just reading through typed up interviews was yawn inducing for me. It picked up when more things started to happen, but then the "straws for eyes" description started to freak me out and I left off right around the 50% mark, OOPS. Reading during the daylight hours while at work is what made me finish this book in the last two days, which I'm glad I did.
I wouldn't say the book itself wasn't especially CREEPY, I was just creeped out by the description of the outsider's eyes for some reason, especially when it was said by a child. The acts the outsider committed were horrifying, yes. But as the characters in the book pointed out, these are acts that are ALSO committed by regular, every day humans... or so we assume.
I loved that King used children stories and myths to form his outsider, his mythical creature of this story. Some stories, like one that was told in the book, where the creature is not ALWAYS the bad guy, but used as a lesson learning device to make siblings nicer to each other... instead of, you know, a mystical being who rapes and eats people.
.....That's a big leap, now that it's RIGHT THERE. I feel like that's very King-like, though.
Overall, it was a good story. I didn't absolutely LOVE IT, but I didn't hate it either. I don't think I will be reading it again. I honestly don't know if I'll be reading a King book again, either. I guess time will tell.