Between the two, Joyland was a definite step up for my enjoyment so my hope was that this trend would continue and I would find even more to enjoy in Later. 

 

I will spare you the suspense and declare right up front that I thought this book was pretty great, far and away superior to the previous books in this series. Finally, I got a story that had a level of greatness and punch to it, on the same level as the vibe I get from the cover. Plus, this story had much more of a supernatural tilt to it and of the three Hard Case books I would say that this comes the closest to what people would probably identify as being the “Stephen King style”.

 

While avoiding too many details about the plot specifically, I thought that King definitely employed various touchstones and references that got my brain turning around all of those classic titles of his that I loved so much. He got me thinking about IT and The Shining. And bringing all those legendary titles to mind can only be a good thing as far as I’m concerned

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 I’m not going to go so far as to stake a claim that this is as good as Stephen King's older books. But I think that the vibe of Later is quite a bit more of a throwback to his classic style than his more recent books. People who may be getting a little tired of the whole crime angle that his work seems to be taking might find more to enjoy in this. Certainly the various nods and Easter egg references to his classic books should be enough to at least put somewhat of a grin on the face of the more hardened, crusty fans like myself. 

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In one way, this book reminds me a bit of Gwendy’s Button Box in that in a short amount of narrative space it manages to cover a fairly large stretch of time without feeling like the story itself is being pulled too thin. He does a good job establishing the narrative voice and gives the book a good amount of breadth to it despite only being a few hundred pages. 

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And of course, the characters. Always the characters. This is where King’s talent comes through the loudest and this is no exception. Despite being so far removed from titles like Carrie, Firestarter or The Shining, King demonstrates that he still has a firm grip on his ability to craft young characters with supernatural abilities.  And while stories told retrospectively in the first person often lack a certain amount of dramatic punch, King still manages to infuse this narrative with quite a bit of impact. 

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I like the relationship between the main character and his mother. While some would probably characterize the relationship has not necessarily abusive but maybe negligent, I thought it was a pragmatic view at how complicated and difficult a thing single-parent life can be. You can clearly see that this woman cares a great deal for her son and the bond between them was clear on the page. I also like how King didn’t necessarily bend over backwards to try and give the family a massive amount of backstory. I’m sure that plenty of readers would want that but I thought he did a good enough job establishing the reality of the family without bogging down the story with a lot of unnecessary detail.

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After all, this is the guy who supposedly is being paid by the word right? Or at least that’s the jab that many like to throw in his direction. so I would think that a little brevity would be applauded by that crowd.

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I also like the character of the cop who ends up in a relationship with the main characters mother. She’s complicated, not necessarily completely good and not completely evil, either. It’s a grayed-out area between the two that I think is pulled off quite effectively. And King uses this character incredibly well to create drama and tension in the story as well as for our main character. She serves as a great trigger for a lot of crucial plot points and helps keep the book steered on track towards a tragic ending where other writers might be tempted to go off on various flights of fancy.

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If I had any critical notes it would probably be that the ending is ... well, the ending is just kind of there. There are some great, dark moments throughout the book that effectively builds up to a satisfying conclusion but at the very end, you’re also kind of left with a feeling like another story is being set up but not sure what exactly, wondering if something was left out by mistake. Like you just read the first in a three part story arc and now that we’ve established the universe, let’s get to the real story. 

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And who knows, maybe this will prove to be a stepping stone into a larger narrative universe. Certainly, Holly Gibney has proven to have staying power through a lot of his books. Maybe recurring characters will be more of a thing for him now. Not just occasional appearances but continuing to have narratives centered around them for many books to come. 

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And it could also be that this is just the way the story ends and hey, sometimes endings aren’t the cleanest in the world. Many a critic would proclaim their problems with his endings and King himself has said that the narrative journey is more important than the destination.

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Then again, maybe this is just the story he wanted to tell and that’s how endings work. You just end it. 

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I don’t know which of those or true or if either of them are true. All I know is that the path for me leading up to that ending point was pretty great. And for all of those who bemoan Stephen King for filling the book with as many words as is possible, I thought that this book was surprisingly economical with the language and effective with the use of a small amount of space. 

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I think this absolutely stays in line with the other books he has published with Hard Case - not intended to be a challenging endeavor, but a fun one. This is a comfortable, easy read and I thought for the most part it fired on all cylinders. With the other two books, I felt like King was trying to mold his style into the format of the imprint, and it didn’t seem to work as well. With Later, I felt more like the format of the imprint was molding to make room for Stephen King. 

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Give this one a try. It’s a book that took me back somewhat to the days of Stephen King branded horror and I was definitely happy to make a return trip, even if it was just for a quick drive-by.