Stephen King’s New Release: Later
Later by Stephen King
“There are many drawbacks to being a kid; check it out. Zits, the agony of choosing the right clothes to wear to school so you don’t get laughed at, and the mystery of girls are only three of them.”
Later is a coming of age novel, told in memoir fashion, from the perspective of an 18-year-old boy named Jamie who can see and talk to ghosts who can’t lie to him. Jamie relives the best and worst of his childhood ghost adventures in this crime novel with little bits of gore and goth, but mostly just the pains of adolescence, single-mom drama, and overcoming demons.
Jamie, the main character is addicting, fun, and witty, and the artful interjection of second-person perspective made the story-telling real and intimate. The way that Goosebumps is scary but also fun made this book a joyride for me. The story made me feel nostalgic, a mixture of The Sandlot + The Lost Boys, but with a lot more swearing. There were only a couple of parts that were slightly more gothic when King gives a background of the dead man who lingers around to haunt Jamie: “There are horrors that no man can conceive of.”
What I liked the most was King’s writing style and his talent for writing with a tone and diction that changes properly as the story progresses from a six-year-old boy to an 18-year-old boy. For example, when Jamie is around 6 years old, he writes about his experience with his mom’s girlfriend:
“she’d buy me a matchbox car for my collection and play with me, she’d give me a hug and ruffle my hair, she’d tickle me until I screamed for her to stop or I’d pee myself.”
He also made me feel like this was a real person telling an actual story, for example:
“I don’t think a more gifted writer could describe what happened next, but I’ll try.”
Although the tone and narration were completely convincing as coming from a teenage boy, I could tell by the slang that it was definitely written by an older person, for example, “if you can dig it,” which I don’t think is common 2021 teenage slang.
This book also offers great growth potential from a mental health perspective. Jamie becomes haunted by a dead man who frequently “beckons” him, creeping around from time to time. With the help of an inspirational mentor, Jamie learns how he must take hold of his fears to defeat the creepy dead guy. His acts of courage really inspired me, and Jamie’s character growth makes this a great coming-of-age novel.
Finally, what really inspired me personally as someone who loves books, is the English Professor who is a literary professor of English and European literature, and Jamie’s mother’s career as a literary agent. I learned so much about the life and career of a literary agent, how royalties work and how the industry works that I was inspired to pursue a career as a literary agent one day if the opportunity allows.
There wasn’t a whole lot I didn’t like about this novel, other than I personally would have liked a little bit more mystery, a tad more gothic element, and more background on the origin of Jamie’s demon including why he wasn’t the typical ghost. There was a twist ending that really caught me by surprise regarding a family member, which was…..strange…..but I think overall it added King’s bit of weirdness and really makes this book his own.
