If you disassembled “Billy Summers” and left its pieces scattered like detritus for another author to reconstruct, the result would likely be a fairly conventional thriller. But that’s the magic of Stephen King, isn’t it? Literary tropes are his playthings, there to be manipulated and contorted into something exceptional. The titular Billy Summers is a … Continue reading Review: Billy Summers by Stephen King

This is the first time I’ve finished a Stephen King novel and thought, “Boy, that could’ve done with a couple hundred more pages.” Which isn’t to say the 240 here aren’t packed with incident, or that “Later” won’t end up being one of the best damn entertainments of the year. I just wish the core … Continue reading Review: Later by Stephen King

Lately Stephen King has seemed determined to thrill rather than chill, forsaking the spine-tingling spookiness of his seminal (and my favourite) books — hello, Pet Sematary; hi, It; good to see ya, Cujo! — in favour of telling exhilarating, completely absorbing, rollicking reads, replete with the kind of dazzling pyrotechnics and fantastic characters only he … Continue reading Review: The Institute by Stephen King

A brilliant addition to Stephen King's impressive body of work, The Outsider is meticulously plotted and impossibly compulsive. Don't pick up  The Outsider unless you have some time on your hands. Its first 200 pages are so high-octane and frenetic, you'll be hard-pressed to put it down until you've unravelled the novel's mystery and discerned who … Continue reading Review: The Outsider by Stephen King