“If you can see the dead, maybe don’t tell people”

Later is considered a horror story, which is usually not a genre I read. But, hey, it’s Steven King. And it was short enough to give it a go.

The premise is that Jamie Conklin has the ability to see and talk to dead people. Told from the perspective of Jamie Conklin, the narrative shuttles between the immediacy of now and the hindsight of “later” to tell a kind of coming-of-age-as-mystery story, an exploration of innocence and what’s on the other side of childhood.

In Later, as well as telling a good story, Stephen King lightly brushes and engages with wider concepts. He looks at childhood relationships, what clarifies right and wrong, if murder can be justifiable, and far more. Whilst the book does not revolve around these issues, it certainly brings in a humane, thought-provoking angle in including such issues from the perspective of a child.

The key to this snappy little novel that reads so quickly is the narrative voice of Jamie. It has that coming-of-age innocence laced with a bit of streetwise sarcasm that just works so well. Despite an ultimate battle between good and evil, this one you find to be horror-lite. It doesn't get to the point of being terrifying, but coasts around that border a little.