THE OUTSIDER by Stephen King a Crime/Horror Crossover

With his new novel, The Outsider, Stephen King has written a hybrid tale that begins in the Crime genre and then crosses over to finish wholly within the Horror genre. It's a dizzying switch for readers to make and the result may not be satisfying for some.

The novel opens with an impossible crime enigma. Flint City kids baseball coach Terry Maitland is arrested for the perverse murder of an eleven year-old boy. Fingerprint and DNA evidence from Maitland is conclusive that he is the killer. Eyewitness statements add confirmation it was him. There's just one problem. Maitland was with a group of fellow teachers at a conference seventy miles away at the same time the boy was murdered. Video camera footage at the conference confirms Maitland's alibi. He couldn't have been the killer. He couldn't be in two places at once. Or could he?

This is the compelling crime puzzle that King sets up. But to provide an answer, the novel has to shift radically into the supernatural realm of things such as doppelgangers and shape-shifters. It's a theme King has explored before in his work, notably in the novel, The Dark Half.

For readers looking for a straight Crime fiction story, The Outsider may be a disappointment with its sudden outright supernatural turn. For fans of the Horror fiction thrillers that Stephen King is best known for, the book may be just what they're looking for.

Stephen King's REVIVAL a Tale of Dark Healing Forces

Revival by Stephen King is almost an homage to the classic Horror genre authors who dared test the boundaries of true darkness --- writers like Poe, H.R. James, Blackwood, and Lovecraft.

But most especially, Revival is a modern echo of the Arthur Machen classic, The Great God Pan, about a woman who undergoes a brain surgery experiment and then dies after glimpsing the monstrous shadow world of evil she is suddenly able to see.

The King novel revolves around another obsessive experimenter with the healing force of electrical shock therapy --- the one-time minister Charles Jacobs. The story is narrated by Jamie Morton, who was a child the first time he encountered Jacobs. Over the decades, the two of them reconnect intermittently. Jacobs becomes a carny show healer, whose fame grows as he appears to evoke miraculous cures with his secret electrical therapy inventions.

But the cures Jacobs provides may have horrifying after-effects for his subjects. As he ages in later years, Jacobs persists in his research nevertheless, pushing ever closer toward the ultimate boundary of revival from death itself.

Revival is one of the darkest novels in all of Stephen King's Horror fiction. It's closest precursor would be the grotesque Pet Sematary. The novel builds slowly to a truly hideous climax and the blackest of visions about human mortality. Even seasoned Horror fiction readers may close the last pages of this tale with an involuntary shudder.

Best Horror Novels of 2013

This year saw the release of two outstanding Horror novels, one by a long famous name in the genre and the other by a younger writer who may be the famous author's heir, in more ways than one.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill - An epic struggle of Good vs. Evil, filled with dark, disturbing imagery and original characters who stay in your mind. Nosferatu is the German word for vampire. The vampire here is the inhuman fiend Charlie Manx, who abducts children, then feeds off their lives in order to keep himself young.

The hideous alternate world called Christmasland where Manx takes the captive children is a unique horror creation. Equally grotesque is the ancient Rolls Royce model called The Wraith, a car with its own malevolent powers, which is used to trap the trusting children inside it.

Beyond its scary story, the novel is also a profound metaphor for the real life crimes of abducted. abused, or exploited children worldwide.

NOS4A2 is a remarkable and unforgettable read for Horror fiction fans.


Doctor Sleep by Stephen King - A semi-sequel to The Shining, one of King's early and most popular supernatural Horror classics. Here the boy Danny Torrance is now an adult man, but he still possesses the paranormal psychic sense called the Shining.

Dan comes to the aid of a young girl named Abra, who has an even more powerful shining ability. Abra is the target of the True Knot, a ramshackle crew of psychic vampires, who feed off the vital essence of human psychics as they are tortured to death.

Stephen King has always excelled at the depiction of the existence of pure evil. His creation of the grisly, business-like malevolence of the True Knot is as chilling as any he has produced in his writing work.

Doctor Sleep is a compelling read and a new portrayal of a long time King interest in paranormal abilities. It also marks the author's return to the mainstream Horror genre, which his fans should be well pleased with.

DOCTOR SLEEP a New Stephen King Classic

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King marks the author's return to the supernatural Horror genre where many of his early classic novels appeared -- in a great run of titles from Carrie up through It.

Doctor Sleep is a quasi-sequel to one of those early classics, The Shining, and as such, does not disappoint. In this new novel, the boy Danny Torrance is now an adult man, but he still possesses the paranormal psychic sense called the Shining. He comes into contact with a young girl named Abra, who has an even more powerful Shining ability.

Danger arrives from the True Knot, a ramshackle crew of psychic vampires, who travel the country in an RV caravan, looking to feed off the vital essences of human psychic captives as they are painfully murdered by the True Knot. In their grisly search, they zero in on young Abra.

Stephen King has always excelled at depicting the existence of pure evil. His creation of the methodical malevolence of the True Knot is as chilling as any he has produced in his writing work. When Dan helps Abra to protect her against the attack of the True Knot, it evokes a favorite King theme: friends standing together against a force of evil.

Doctor Sleep is a compelling read and a new portrayal of a long-time King interest in paranormal abilities in novels such as Carrie, The Dead Zone, The Shining, and The Green Mile. Fans of the author's straight Horror fiction should be well pleased with this creepy, unsettling new work.

Highly recommended.

BEACH RATING:  4 Palm Trees

NOS4A2 By Joe Hill a New Horror Classic

Joe Hill has written a classic work of Fantasy and Horror with his new novel NOS4A2. The novel is an epic battle of Good vs. Evil, filled with dark, disturbing imagery and original characters who stay in your mind.

NOS4A2 is the license plate on an ancient Rolls Royce with the model name of The Wraith. Nosferatu is also the German word for vampire. The Wraith is driven by a diabolical, inhuman fiend named Charles Manx, who abducts children in the car, then feeds off their souls to keep himself young. Manx takes them to his hideous alternate world called Christmasland, which none of the undead children will ever leave.

Working to stop Manx is Vic McQueen, first as a young girl, then later as an adult woman. Trying to aid Vic is the touching figure of Maggie Leigh, a troubled, stammering girl librarian and offbeat psychic.

The conception of Christmasland is a nightmarish, original invention. So too are the garrulous, malevolent Charles Manx and his childish, sadistic henchman Bing Partridge. The most grotesque character of all is the car itself, NOS4A2, a unique horror creation in its own right.

NOS4A2 is a remarkable work of dark imagination. But the novel is also a profound metaphor for the real life crimes of child abduction, abuse, and exploitation worldwide.

It took Joe Hill two years to write this huge work. He put a lot into it and it shows. NOS4A2 is highly recommended.

BEACH RATING:  4 Palm Trees

WORLD WAR Z a Documentary Horror Novel

World War Z by Max Brooks is a horror novel about a worldwide plague that turns the infected into living dead predators. The novel is written in documentary fashion, from first hand personal reports, giving it a credible, immediate realism. If Michael Crichton ever wrote a science-based zombie novel, this would be it.

World War Z stands apart from other typical zombie tales in the way it explores scientific issues, government actions, and the military program to exterminate the infected hordes. Another difference is that these predators are fast moving, tenacious, and work together in cooperative masses to overrun everything. This is a big canvas portrayal of how the plague sweeps around the world, doing massive damage to human society. The novel recalls other pandemic thrillers like Contagion and 28 Days Later.

The movie version of World war Z is scheduled to be released this June and could be a summer box office hit. Read the chilling, addictive novel first to get a sneak preview.

BEACH RATING:  4 Palm Trees

The Stephen King Scorecard - Rating His Later Works

Three years ago, this blog did a post titled, "Stephen King in a Slump?" This was a rating of King's more recent work, finding some of it weak or worse. At that time, we reluctantly asked the question: Could Stephen King still write a really good horror or paranormal novel to match some of the great ones from his earlier career? Or was his best stuff behind him?

But then ...

Then Mr. King, in short order, uncorked two massive reads that can stand with the best of all his work: Under the Dome and 11/22/63. As a fan of King's writing and his amazing creative production over four decades, we offer kudos to him for finding his groove once again in such spectacular fashion.

Herewith, our updated scorecard for King's major works since 1998. (Note list does not include the Dark Tower series)

Pure Classics, no argument: Under the Dome, 11/22/63. These two are King writing at his red-line, hammer-down best. See this blog's past posts for full reviews of these novels.

Pretty Good Stuff: Bag of Bones, Everything's Eventual (collection), Mile 81 (Kindle book). Most of this material is mainstream supernatural horror, where King still shines. Entertaining, fun reads.

Just Okay: Just After Sunset, Full Dark, No Stars (both collections). No real knock-out stories here, but some interesting, offbeat angles.

Pretty Awful: Dreamcatcher, From a Buick 8, Cell, Duma Key. Please Mr. King, no more dumbness like killer cell phones, possession by evil aliens, or pirate ghost ships. Let's just pretend none of that ever happened.

All of which only shows that a writer who produces as much new material as Stephen King is bound to have some uneven work along the way. But given the contribution this author has made in his career over the decades, especially to the Horror fiction genre, we can readily forgive him that.

Stephen King Writes A Classic With UNDER THE DOME

Stephen King's new novel Under The Dome is his best book in years, worthy to rank with his early classics in the Seventies and Eighties.

The premise of "Dome" is diabolical: A small Maine town is trapped underneath an enormous, impregnable dome that suddenly appears from somewhere.

The origin of the Dome is a mystery. But the real heart of the novel is what happens to the townspeople when the Dome comes down on top of them.

The Dome crisis brings out the inner strength and the good in some people. It brings out the ugly and the really crazy bad in others.

The Good Group and the Bad Group are pitted against each other in a struggle for power and survival inside the Dome. This conflict in essential human nature is a familiar King theme. King fans will hear echoes from The Stand, one of his early greats.

"Dome" is a long read, a thousand pages plus. Amazingly, King keeps the pace in the red zone all the way, building to a violent, horrifying apocalyptic climax.

Under The Dome is a sociological horror novel and a chilling cautionary tale that shows how easily ordinary humans can turn into moral monsters. All it takes is the right trigger.

This monumental creative effort is a true epic. Way to go, Mr. King.

BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees