A review by bethboo
The Outsider by Stephen King

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book wasn't bad. I found myself interested and excited to see what happened next. The outsider (main antagonist) was very interesting, but I found myself wishing that he was scarier, because I felt like the main interaction was a little lack luster. It was interesting and written well and a little oddly paced, but worked for the book. 
As always, though, I have many complaints to air. 
  1. I keep expecting Stephen King's books to be scary, because they're classified as horror, but this one was a glorified cop show.
  2. It seems that this was a crossover with another one of his books, because he was mentioning names and events I have no clue about. It would have been fine if it was on the side, but with Holly becoming a main character, this crossover became center stage and it was annoying bc I don't know anything about it.
  3. I get that the beginning crime needed to be heinous, to set the scene, but I feel like the graphic description and the choice to SA a small child with a tree branch was unneeded. Child murder within itself, or even with the hint of SA, would cause enough outrage, but it was nasty. Just my opinion, if that matters. 
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