rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2019-06-19 03:52 pm
rachelmanija) wrote2019-06-19 03:52 pm
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The Outsider, by Stephen King
A heinous child murder rocks a small town, especially when incontrovertible evidence, both DNA and eyewitness, makes it inarguable that the murderer is Terry Maitland, a well-liked football coach who's never done anything wrong ever. Except then more incontrovertible evidence, both fingerprint and eyewitness, proves that he could not have committed the crime as he was far away when it occurred. What in the world is going on?
Much like the preceding Mr. Mercedes novels, this book was extremely readable and had some great bits, but was frustratingly uneven and less than the sum of its parts. It sets up an intriguing dilemma and takes so long over the question of "are some things just inherently unknowable" that you expect it to be about that, but it isn't really.
It's actually about a supernatural doppelgänger. Which is kind of the only possible answer if there's going to be any answer at all, other than "previously unknown identical twin," which I'm surprised didn't have some characters pursuing because it would be the only possible real-life explanation.
Terry is too much of a saint, IMO. It kind of worked as a red herring because you expect there to be more to him, a la A Good Marriage, but then... there isn't.
It's an oddly weighted book as for a doppelgänger story, it takes forever to get to that. It's got some interesting stuff on belief and disbelief, and an extreme amount of mystery-style detecting, but that all goes away once it's clearly a doppelgänger. And then the final confrontation with it is enjoyable but a bit anticlimactic after the extreme creepiness of earlier bits like where it reaches its hand from behind the shower curtain AIEEEEE! I also wanted to revel more in the mechanics of the shapeshifting and the worms (AIEEEEE!) but we didn't get as much of that as I wanted.
But like I said, the book is very, very readable. I started listening to it on audio read by Will Patton, but had to stop when Holly Gibney showed up, because his take on her style of speaking was so incredibly annoying. I then continued in print form and ended up staying up till 3:00 AM to finish.
Also, the heroine was very refreshing. She's a gray-haired, middle-aged woman on the spectrum with severe social anxiety who takes Lexapro, and she's badass and great. The books she appears in aren't my favorites, but I love that she exists.
The Outsider
Much like the preceding Mr. Mercedes novels, this book was extremely readable and had some great bits, but was frustratingly uneven and less than the sum of its parts. It sets up an intriguing dilemma and takes so long over the question of "are some things just inherently unknowable" that you expect it to be about that, but it isn't really.
It's actually about a supernatural doppelgänger. Which is kind of the only possible answer if there's going to be any answer at all, other than "previously unknown identical twin," which I'm surprised didn't have some characters pursuing because it would be the only possible real-life explanation.
Terry is too much of a saint, IMO. It kind of worked as a red herring because you expect there to be more to him, a la A Good Marriage, but then... there isn't.
It's an oddly weighted book as for a doppelgänger story, it takes forever to get to that. It's got some interesting stuff on belief and disbelief, and an extreme amount of mystery-style detecting, but that all goes away once it's clearly a doppelgänger. And then the final confrontation with it is enjoyable but a bit anticlimactic after the extreme creepiness of earlier bits like where it reaches its hand from behind the shower curtain AIEEEEE! I also wanted to revel more in the mechanics of the shapeshifting and the worms (AIEEEEE!) but we didn't get as much of that as I wanted.
But like I said, the book is very, very readable. I started listening to it on audio read by Will Patton, but had to stop when Holly Gibney showed up, because his take on her style of speaking was so incredibly annoying. I then continued in print form and ended up staying up till 3:00 AM to finish.
Also, the heroine was very refreshing. She's a gray-haired, middle-aged woman on the spectrum with severe social anxiety who takes Lexapro, and she's badass and great. The books she appears in aren't my favorites, but I love that she exists.
The Outsider
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