Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Outsider

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Outsider by Stephen King

223 reviews

tjt78's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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tillyjay's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

I honestly struggled to get past the first 60% of this book. The story is very slow and personally I found it rather boring. However, there was a turning point where I became interested which way the story would go. I think if you enjoy slow paced(but quick endings), supernatural books, then this is for you.

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anniehowe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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jadams89's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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egyoder's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This whole review is a spoiler! General sentiment: good writing, underwhelming plot.

I really enjoy Stephen King's storytelling and character building, but overall found this pretty disappointing. It's really two separate books. The first half of the book is an excellent build-up to a great detective story, with a great premise and a lot of mystery. The second half is a monster story.

Separately, I would enjoy both of these books. I love a good thriller where there's a perfectly natural explanation for everything, and have enjoyed King's supernatural villains. However, when half the book is like "there were tons of witnesses to the crime! but he has a perfect alibi! how could this be??" and the second half is like "it was a monster that can take on people's faces," the mystery ends up falling flat (because this is the most obvious explanation next to secret evil twin) and the monster story isn't much good either because it comes out of nowhere.

I also found this book rather formulaic. The monster was just a bit too Pennywise. Jack's whole thing was just a bit too Trashcan Man. This book is set in 2018 but still reads like it's set in the 80s--but with references to iPads and Donald Trump, which feel jarring instead of realistic. AND they should market this as a follow-up to the Mr. Mercedes series... I had no idea, and felt a bit thrown off.

I still do like King's writing a lot, and I enjoyed most of this book, but found it more of a letdown than I'd hoped.

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thecosylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I was excited to read this with it being a spin-off of the Mr Mercedes trilogy. It started off slow, but being used to King’s writing style I knew it was going to be worth the wait. The mixture of mystery and horror certainly kept me reading and the idea of never being able to know everything there is about the world. In the words of Bill Hodges, ‘The universe is never ending’.
Be prepared for graphic descriptions and the crossover of realism with myth & legend.

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