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Loading... The Outsider (2018)by Stephen King
  
Books Read in 2018 (18) Finished in 2020 (1) » 15 more Books Read in 2019 (1,916) Books Read in 2020 (2,319) Litsy Awards 2018 (13) Best Horror Books (212) Books Read (18) SCRIBD 2023 (34) READ in 2023 (133) ScaredyKIT 2018 (10) To Read (541) No current Talk conversations about this book.  cbwalsh | Sep 13, 2023 |  Compelling premise, but overlong and repetitive. Still liked it because hi it's Stephen King (  ) annikaleigh89 | Jul 26, 2023 | 😍😍😍 (  ) biancawhite | Jul 24, 2023 | the rumours are true...king is back and better than ever. delightful and deeply satisfying. i'd love to read more of these characters (well...one in paricular). ( ) riida | Jul 19, 2023 | Some parts dragged on, but overall I enjoyed the plot, the characters, the character development, and the mystery! This was my first book by Stephen King (I know, I know) and I'll definitely be reading more of his work. ( ) aubriebythepage | Jul 7, 2023 |
At nearly 600 pages, “The Outsider” isn’t exactly a streamlined thriller. Yet, it doesn’t feel bloated or self-indulgent. Anderson, Maitland and the supporting cast are so deftly drawn, their predicaments so fraught with menace, that the momentum of the narrative builds steadily and keeps the pages turning. In the background is the Outsider, a stranger in town, orchestrating tragedies seemingly on a whim. King cleverly keeps him at a distance for most of the book, letting his menace build by increments. By the time Anderson’s search for the truth leads to an abandoned mine in the desert, readers are unlikely to be able to put “The Outsider” aside for even a moment....Ultimately, “The Outsider” is about belief, the conscious choice to acknowledge that the universe is a stranger place than most people think it is. The Outsider is a wily opponent, who can survive because few are able to recognize him for what he is. They fail to protect themselves from his very real malice and destructiveness. What would it feel like to be so perfectly, completely implicated in the worst crime to ever befall a small town, and have perfectly, completely exonerating evidence you weren’t there? That’s the biggest question King explores in “The Outsider” as small-town cops and prosecutors are asked to believe the impossible — and find the impossible as well. Mob mentality, pedophilia, horrific violence — King never shies away from tough topics. As with most of King’s work, “The Outsider” is at its heart an exploration of good and evil; except this time, skepticism blurs the lines between the two. Terry Maitland is by all accounts a solid family man, a beloved Little League coach, and, quite suddenly, the main suspect in the horrific mutilation and murder of a young boy. The physical evidence and eyewitness testimony against him are incontrovertible, though completely at odds with his reputation as a husband and father who for years has been a pillar of his insular Flint City, Okla., community....No book is perfect, but Stephen King is reliably closer than most. He has always excelled at writing about real people tested by unreal situations, whether it’s told in the unbroken narrative of Dolores Claiborne or via the mental lockboxes of Doctor Sleep. With “The Outsider,” if you can accept that a contemporary man in his late 40s recalls quoting “Our Gang” with his kid brother instead of the Fonz or even Pee-wee Herman, you’re in for one hell of a ride. More than 50 novels published, and he’s still adding new influences to his work. I can think of a great many literary writers who are far lazier about their range of inspirations and interests. This expansiveness allows King to highlight the idea that whether we’re talking about Mexico or Maine, Oklahoma or Texas, people the world over tell certain stories for reasons that feel much the same: to understand the mysteries of our universe, the improbable and inexplicable.... Here’s to mutant rats in the basement and Mexican myths; here’s to the strange and to Stephen King. Still inspiring. There’s plenty of shadowy, wormy supernatural goings-on in Stephen King’s new novel The Outsider. Yet the most unsettling stuff — that which will leave you uncomfortable when you sit and devour this first-rate read — probes the monstrous side of human nature....How does a place deal when the very best of them does the very worst thing imaginable? How does that man’s family and the family of the deceased boy go on living? And what of the cops who are faced with what seems like an impossible situation? The author plumbs to the gloomy depths with his cast before letting off the gas and giving them — and the reader — some needed hope....In King’s hands, real darkness is just as pervasive as the supernatural. Belongs to SeriesHolly Gibney (4)
Fiction.
Horror.
Suspense.
Thriller.
HTML:Now an HBO limited series starring Ben Mendelsohn!?? Evil has many faces...maybe even yours in this #1 New York Times bestseller from master storyteller Stephen King. An eleven-year-old boy's violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City's most popular citizens??Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad. As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge, King's story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen Kin No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.91)
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While the plot of this story is inciting, The Outsider fell flat for me (though not nearly as flat as Needful Things... I'll never get the time I invested in that book back). I don't know what it is about his newer novels, but I feel as though they are not nearly as engaging or well written as his older works. (