Later

Later by Stephen King is a short novel by his standards, but it does not mean it is short on chills and thrills. While there is a supernatural element within the story -- because it is not a Stephen King novel without that -- the evil Jamie Conklin faces is all too human. Adding to the danger is Jamie's youth and inexperience. The result is a personal story in which a young kid learns firsthand that evil exists but also that it can dwell in someone you think of as a friend.

Jamie Conklin is a likable narrator, and his story is very compelling. How he tells his story is one of the best things about Later. His self-deprecating humor at his youthful foibles makes it easy to like him. You empathize with the horrors he faces at such a young show more age and with his reactions to those horrors. The wry note in his voice at confessing such things endears him even more. It does not take long for you to hope for a happy ending for Jamie and his mom, both of whom have dealt with a lot of shit in their lives and deserve a bit of long-term happiness.

I loved Seth Numrich as the narrator. His narration is very fluid and natural. In fact, his performance did not feel like a performance at all. Instead, it felt like Mr. Numrich was telling me his story. For me, it is the first time a narrator becomes the character telling the story. That he was Jamie Conklin, in my mind, enhanced my emotional connection to the books. It made what he was telling very real.

Later is one of those novels for which I had no expectations before starting. It quickly ensnared me, and I found myself compelled to listen to Jamie's macabre and twisted tale. The six hours of audiobook flew by. When it was finished, I wanted more. I was charmed by Jamie, and his story had me on tenterhooks. For those looking for a quick but intense and spooky story, Later by Stephen King is an excellent choice. show less

'Later' is pure reading pleasure from the first page. Stephen King is one of my favourite storytellers and my favourite stories of his are the ones that are tightly told, usually from the point of view of a child or someone looking back on childhood and where the horror element is real, scary but not overwhelming. 'Later' hits all those points and does it with the easy grace of a writer on the top of his form.

I was hooked from the opening paragraph of the first chapter:

I don't like to start with an apology - there's probably even a rule against it, like never ending a sentence with a preposition - but after reading over the thirty pages I've written so far, I feel like I have to. It's about a certain word I keep using. I learned a lot show more of four-letter words from an early age (as you will find out), but this is one with five letters. The word is later, as in 'Later on' and 'Later I found out' and 'It was only later that I realised'. I know it's repetitive, but I had no choice, because my story starts when I still believed in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy (although, even at six I had my doubts. I'm twenty-two now, which makes this later, right? I suppose that when I'm in my forties - always assuming I make it that far - I'll look back on what I thought I'd understood at twenty-two and realise there's a lot I didn't get at all. There's always a later, I know that now. At least until we die. Then I guess it's all before that.
I immediately liked Jamie. He thinks. He uses words carefully. He presents them modestly and with a touch of humour, aimed mainly at himself. It all says: like me, trust me, believe me. And I did.

The whole story is presented by Jamie in this straight to camera way and never once did it occur to me to think of him as an unreliable narrator.

Without holding anything back, the twenty-two-year-old Jamie does his best to share the experience of his younger self from the age of six to fifteen, with occasional clarification or addenda based on what he learned 'later'. He shared the small intimacies of his relationship with his mother, a literary agent raising Jamie alone. He tells us how her business works, how she lost all her money and how she coped with that. He shares his slowly dawning understanding of the nature of his mom's relationship with the female detective who stays over sometimes. It's all seems low-key, real and easy to believe. So when he uses the same low-key tone to describe how he is able to see and speak with the recently dead, that seems equally real and almost as easy to believe.

Speaking to the dead doesn't seem odd to Jamie, It's just something he's always been able to do. Sometimes it's scary and sometimes it's wonderful but, to him at least, it's not strange. As Jamie says:

You get used to marvellous things. You take them for granted. You can try not to, but you do. There’s too much wonder, that’s all. It’s everywhere.

Jamie warns us repeatedly that 'This is a horror story'. And it has some nasty things in it. One VERY nasty thing in particular. And, of course, it's populated with the recently dead, who look however they looked when they died, which is sometimes not very nice. But it didn't seem like a horror story to me. It seemed like the story of a boy with a unique ability, growing up into a teenager and discovering along the way that bad things happen to good people. At one point he describes the trials that befall him and his mother as 'Dickens with swearing'. He learns that sometimes he can help but that helping can come with a hefty price attached. Mostly he learns to look after himself and to help his mother and to try not to get killed or have his soul torn apart along the way.

The plot isn't a typical haunting or monster hunting plot. Mostly it's about desperate women trying to survive. One is his mother who needs to find a way to avoid impending bankruptcy and one is a police detective who has lost it and who makes things worse with every action she takes. Each of them looks to Jamie for support.

This is an easy book to read and a hard book to put down. It has great characters and a good plot and wonderful storytelling and would have been at the top to my Stephen King booklist along with 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' and 'Joyland' except for the last few chapters. The ending isn't bad. It's not one of those that destroy an otherwise good book, but it's a little out of step with the rest of the novel. It feels a bit 'tell-don't-show'. It gives some information about Jamie's parentage that I didn't think added much to the plot but was a little weird. And it feels like something tagged on after the real action of the book was over.

Even so, if you want a relaxing six or seven hours of entertainment, open up 'Later' and spend a day with Jamie Conklin. You won't regret it.

My enjoyment of 'Later' was boosted by listening to Seth Numrich narrate the audiobook version. He does a great job and the direct-to-camera style of storytelling is perfect for an audiobook. show less

You wouldn’t know it by some of his recent novels, but Stephen King is a master at writing short fiction. His short story and novella collections, NIGHT SHIFT and SKELETON CREW, contain more than one master work, and though those efforts are decades old now, he can still put out something like LATER, clocking in at just under 250 pages, that shows he yet has the knack for it this late in his illustrious career. LATER is marketed as one of his Hard Case pulp crime novels, the other two being THE COLORADO KID and JOYLAND. Because of its short length, LATER is a lean piece of work with a propulsive narrative, no extraneous subplots and characters, and with more than a touch of the supernatural.

As with most of his shorter fiction, King show more tells the story in the first person, this POV character being Jaime Conklin, a kid who can see dead people. Yes, I know that’s basically the MC of THE SIXTH SENSE, but this book is pure King. He gives no explanation for why Jamie can see the recently deceased, but there is a clear implication as to why which only becomes apparent at the end of the book. King also creates a few rules for the afterlife and communicating with the newly dead that bares great importance on the plot. Jamie, who discovers his peculiar talent early in life when a man who has just died in an auto accident waves at him, just rolls with it, but minds his mother’s warning not to reveal it to anyone else. King has always had a real talent for creating great sympathetic young characters, and Jamie is one of his best.

The book’s action takes place from the mid 2000s to the middle of the next decade, the years of the Great Recession. Jamie’s mother runs a literary agency that falls on hard times after the meltdown. When a particularly lucrative and reclusive romance author drops dead before finishing the final book in a series, Jamie’s frantic mother uses his talent to get the plot of the last book from the author’s ghost (the guy was one of those seat of the pants writers who never make notes or write outlines). But this subterfuge involves Jamie’s mother’s girlfriend, Liz, a policewoman who turns out to be a crooked cop. Some years go by before Liz forces Jamie to help find a bomb left by a psycho who has committed suicide. Though successful in averting disaster, Jamie’s actions saddle him with a ghost who does not leave like all the others, but one who follows him around in his daily life, and who may not really be a ghost at all, but something worse. And even worse for Jaime is Liz, who isn’t done with him yet when she gets in desperate straits and badly needs to find the stash of a dead drug kingpin.

For me, there was a lot to like here. LATER works as a crime thriller, a mystery novel, and an outright horror story. There are a few tropes that are used well, like the wise old senior who imparts some useful information to the protagonist. There is a twist at the end concerning Jamie’s parentage that some reviewers didn’t like, and which might have felt as if it came out of left field, but one which I looked at as the final piece in the puzzle. And I liked the parts of the story concerning Jamie’s mother’s profession, which surely drew on King’s long association with the professional side of the publishing business. Like most of King’s later books, there are a few callbacks to earlier works—the Ritual of Chud makes a return. All in all, LATER is King at his storytelling best, it didn’t make this Constant Reader forget THE SHINING or SALEM’S LOT, but it fits in well with later efforts like the Bill Hodges trilogy, DUMA KEY, and THE OUTSIDER. Bonus points to Paul Mann’s throwback paperback cover show less

Nothing like a new Stephen King novel to pull me out of a reading funk. This was a fast-paced horror story with elements of noir, & it was easily my favorite of King's Hard Case books. I loved the main character Jamie Conklin, & I think King is especially adept at writing children (or adults looking back at their childhood). He's smart but naive, & doing his best to deal with the unexpected ability to see & speak with the newly dead...who, it turns out, must always answer truthfully any question you ask them.

Unfortunately, his mother's girlfriend (who also happens to be a dirty cop) won't let it be that easy. She uses Jamie's gift for her own agenda, & unleashes an other-worldly horror while doing so. The presence of the dead throughout show more Jamie's life, presented as so mundane, is why I love King so much. It seems real when he writes it, & with no over-the-top melodrama. Just real shit.

Of course, the references to IT made me happy too. Anything that brings back the ritual of Chud (yep, cheesy as it is I get goosebumps reading about it) & the deadlights is worth the read to me. show less

I am a big Stephen King fan and am always eagerly awaiting his newest release. Later is the latest - and is just as good as I knew it would be!
Later is told completely from Jamie Conklin's point of view in a storytelling fashion. He takes us back to his childhood when he discovers that he sees things that no one else does. His single mother warns him to not tell anyone else, but she does let it slip to her girlfriend Liz. What does he see? Dead people. They can see Jamie as well and talk to him before they fade away. And...they cannot lie to him. The adults in his life see the potential in Jamie's gift. His mother's request is made to keep their small family afloat. But Liz.....well, she see other opportunities...

You just know there's show more going to be something evil amongst the dead Jamie sees and talks to. There is, and it's downright terrifying. Even more so as Jamie is just a child.

Jamie was such a fantastic lead and I loved his voice. He's an adult as he recounts his past and his voice is by turns is self deprecating, wry, frightened and more as he shares his past - and present - with the listener. King does 'young person facing incredible evil on their own' so very, very well. It's impossible to not get caught up in the tension of the plot. There's also some dark humor that I always appreciate.

I loved the cover image and the retro feel. And the title? The word later is used very effectively as foreshadowing by Jamie and is guaranteed to keep you staying up later than you should.

I have actually listened to the last few books and am now hooked on the audio versions of King's work. The narrator was Seth Numrich and he was such a great choice. His tone matched the mental image I had for an adult Jamie, but he also captured the fear, danger and uncertainty of young Jamie. The voice for Mom was spot on. And the thing's voice? Goosebumps, every time it spoke. The voice for Liz suited her actions and personality. Numrich captures the tone and tenor of King's plot so very, very well with his expressive narration. His speaking is clear, easy to understand and the pacing was just right. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I become so much more immersed in a tale when I listen to it show less

My years-long negative streak with Stephen King’s books seems to be definitely over: the last few books of his I read all turned out to be as engaging as the stories I used to enjoy, and Later is only the last example in my lineup of positive reads.

Even though it’s a shorter story when compared with King’s usual production, Later sports all the elements that I’ve come to expect from the Master of Horror: this novel might not be classified as his usual horror creation, since there are not many blood-chilling elements in it, and there is also a mystery/crime component added that changes a little the expected parameters, but in the end this proved to be an entertaining, page-turning read, and one I enjoyed very much.

Jamie Conklin show more sees dead people: not exactly ghosts as was the case for the young protagonist of Shyamalan’s movie alluded to here with a sort of tongue-in-cheek humor, but rather people newly departed and on their way to the Great Beyond. Jamie is able to see and hear them (although after a while their voice fades, as do they before disappearing forever) and to ask them questions to which the dead are compelled to reply truthfully. Jamie’s single mother runs a literary agency and she’s able to stay afloat - barely - thanks to the best selling author of a successful series: when the man suddenly dies just as he was outlining his last novel, the one where all the mysteries hinted at in previous books would be revealed, Tia Conklin needs Jamie to contact the deceased author to get all the information he can gather on the story, so she can ghost-write it and keep the company in business and financial health.

The trouble starts when Liz Dutton, Tia’s former girlfriend and a cop with too many problems and not enough scruples, decides to use Jamie’s talent to discover where a serial bomber, who just took his own life, did hide his latest explosive package: something ancient and evil rides on the shoulders of the man and starts haunting Jamie, forcing him to resort to a harrowing ritual to get rid of the creature. That is, until the boy needs the thing’s help against Liz when the dishonorably discharged ex-cop kidnaps Jamie for one last, heinous act…

Very few authors can successfully filter the problems and inconsistencies of the world through the eyes of a child as Stephen King does: unlike other protagonists of his stories, Jamie is not shunned, bullied or otherwise made to suffer by peers or adults, but he does witness his mother’s struggles to survive in an unsettled economy and through a difficult relationship, all the while dealing with a “gift” that sets him apart from other kids, forcing him to keep secrets, and ultimately places him in danger. Jamie’s voice, as he grows up over the years from childhood to young adulthood, feels true and natural and for this reason it’s easy to connect to him and see the world through his eyes: innate resilience helps him navigate through the difficulties posed by his peculiar talent, particularly in the instances where his innocence is threatened. This is another theme dear to King, the way in which the adult world (or the supernatural) can rob children of that innocence, exposing them too early to situations that require them to grow before their time: in Jamie’s case this is compounded by Liz’s relentless focus first and greed later, so that he’s forced to come into contact with the darker aspects of the human mind, which more often than not are far more frightening than actual supernatural horror.

Young Jamie is able to find some balance in this very unusual existence thanks to the certainty of his mother’s love - even though he’s quite aware of her flaws both as a parent and an adult - and the guidance of old Professor Burkett, the closest thing to a father figure he can depend on: the relationship between Burkett and Jamie, both in life and after the old man’s death, reminded me somehow of the dynamic explored in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, one of the short stories from King’s If It Bleeds collection. The somewhat cranky professor, like many of Stephen King’s memorable figures, is the one providing Jamie with a stable anchor and a perspective that helps the boy focus on the problems at hand rather than his fear, and offers a delightful dynamic between wide-eyed youth and grumpy old age that is one of the author’s trademarks.

There might be nothing new, narratively speaking, in this novel, but it does not matter much in the face of the story’s easy flow, which is carried by the constant curiosity engendered by Jamie hinting at other developments to be disclosed, indeed, later: the young protagonist keeps his audience captivated like serialized novels did in the latter part of the 19th Century, by promising further revelations yet to come. This choice led me to wonder weather Jamie might be considered an unreliable narrator - either embellishing or changing events to suit them to the overall flavor of his story: that’s a doubt that surfaced for me once a detail of Jamie’s origin is revealed, because he himself first offers an explanation for the chain of events, only to deny its accuracy in the next page.

This detail (I will not spoil it, but if you’ve read the book you know what I am referring to) does not affect the story in any way - and I’ve kept wondering what it should mean in the overall scheme of it - but rather offers an off-key note to the ending which, in my opinion, would have stood quite well on its own without this added… baggage. Still, Later feels like vintage King, indeed, and I would recommend it to his longtime fans - and not only them. show less

Jamie Conklin can see dead people. Yeah, kinda like that one kid in that one movie, with an interesting difference: ghosts must answer truthfully when questioned by Jamie. Raised by a single mom, Tia, a literary agent, Jamie is warned by his mother from an early age that others may try to take advantage of his secret ability. If only Jamie could also see the future.

I’ve always enjoyed King’s characters, but I’m particularly fond of the way he writes kids and young adults. It’s as if King remembers what it’s like to be a kid as if it were yesterday, which, and I try not to think about the reality of this, has not been the case for King for a hot minute. With Jamie as our narrator, I found the dialogue engaging and funny.

A show more line that caused me to laugh out loud and merit the stares of my fellow MetroLink riders: a character says that if a particular event happens, that character will “eat his hat.” When the event does indeed come to pass, Jamie, in what to me felt like a Shakespearean-style aside, says he wanted to ask the character “...if he wanted salt and pepper on his hat, but...nobody loves a smartass.”

Prepare to feel emotions for characters you likely won’t feel deserve said emotions, but such is the way of complex characters. Even the ghosts are, at least, not flat characters; Later’s ghosts all seem to have a particular emotion unique to themselves...but I won’t delve too far into that; I’ll let you discover that aspect for yourself, Dear Reader, as King frequently refers to his readers.

If you enjoyed Stephen King’s Colorado Kid or Joyland but wished they were a little more “IT” or “The Shining,” I highly recommend you check this book out sooner rather than...well, you know. show less