The story starts with the discovery of a child’s mutilated corpse, so if you’re unable to read about children in peril, you might want to skip this one. In typical King style, there are several characters through which the narrative is revealed, and the first and most important of these is Ralph Anderson, a police detective in the fictional small town of Flint City, Oklahoma. The Outsider takes a creepy, unsettling concept–a murderous doppleganger–and turns it into a truly chilling story. I want to read more of his work, and probably will. So, here I am, listening to The Outsider, looking for the secret ingredient that makes Stephen King’s writing an international phenomenon.Īnd I have to hand it to him: this novel was very good. To become a master, one must study the masters, and if anyone can be considered a modern master of the genre, it’s definitely Stephen King. Once I started reading with the purpose of improving my own fiction, however, it quickly became clear that I simply couldn’t avoid reading Stephen King if I wanted to make it in the horror genre.
Not reading what everyone else is reading was a small act of rebellion.
Plus I’m a bit of a contrarian, deep down. That’s pretty shocking, considering I’m a horror writer, but I guess I always felt like King was making plenty of money, and had plenty of readers, and didn’t need my help. Now it’s time for me to make a confession: before The Outsider, I’d read only a few Stephen King books, and only one novel. The narrator’s voice was a little slow for me, so I had to speed up the recording to help keep my attention, but once I made this small adjustment, I was enthralled. I finally gave in and listened to the audiobook.
I picked up The Outsiderbecause I kept seeing the menacing cover at the library, in bookstore windows, and on my Libby app, like it was stalking me.
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