Because they might be even more inhuman than your parents told you The creep factor of The Outsider is big, because he sDon´t be too kind to strangers
Because they might be even more inhuman than your parents told you The creep factor of The Outsider is big, because he starts as a normal killer and escalates towards an old evil being in the Pennywise, big cosmic horror style. That´s what makes it different than the other, mostly crime thriller works King likes to write nowadays, because
The superior evil feels much more like his old, big monsters One can have different, subjective opinions about King´s writing periods, but I just like the old school, slowly escalating horror, with the paranormality level rising parallel to the plot complexity and speed, much more than the modern stuff. Because, if you
Take away the antagonist, you have a good thriller But no horror novel. That´s what I´m missing so much in most of the new King works, the combination of the protagonists and the Chekhovs, plots, and MacGuffins united into one big, great, haunting thing. The characters of The Outsider aren´t as integrated into the plot as the characters of King´s older works, but at least he
Again integrated some in universe fun But the idea of Ka from the Dark Tower series and Holly from the Bill Hodges Trilogy can´t compensate for the fact that King keeps experimenting with writing in a completely different tone than he used to over most of his career. Strangely, his novellas and short story collections keep living up to the old standards, but his newer novels are just so different, and thereby not that good, that I probably wouldn´t have continued reading them if I wouldn´t have already known his amazing, classic masterpieces. The
Old classics also were a perfect circle Following the time proofed storytelling rules. Here one has this frustrating feeling that King didn´t invest that much time, energy, and black lifeblood to get as much out of it as possible. Maybe he should collect the time it takes him to write 2 or 3 average novels to create one more big milestone to add to his amazing legacy, integrating all the in universe complexity Marvel style, and once again showing who is King God Emperor or horror.
Don´t make such a melodramatic show about it But seriously, when one takes a vampire and a person infected with rabies and coIt´s just freaking rabies
Don´t make such a melodramatic show about it But seriously, when one takes a vampire and a person infected with rabies and compares them, the similarities are stunning. Hates each liquid, not just holy water, can´t stand sunshine anymore, gets some mental issues, something with 40 days and death, I forgot the exact detail, just google it. Because of this still not done, urgently needed medical science experiments and studies, many people don´t
Appreciate and understand the far more sophisticated vampire While a person infected with rabies has just become an animal with a death expiration date, the vampire has the willpower and magic to turn the virus into an engine of immortality. By still not understood biochemical and quantum mechanisms, the vampire creates a symbiosis with the rabies virus that exchanges ordinary, or, for best results, virgin human blood for superhuman strength, shapeshifting, intuitively perfect dressing style, and intolerance against werewolves. Sadly no alternative vegan option for blood is available until now. Because of the
The xenophobia of humans against vampires They are forced to live hidden under us, most probably active in nightlife. Here, they are difficult to find, even in stereotypical outfits, because ridiculous human fashion trends like emo, poser skater/rapper, or hipster make it tricky to find out if someone is real or fake, deep in the flesh of your neck or dumb. Even in the original medieval Sir outfits, they are perfectly hidden and camouflaged in illegal, underground vampire live action role playing games, VLARPs, or any kinky paraphilia, blood drinking BDSM, stuff humans tend to be into. One could easily have more swallowed than one wished to be sucked out deep and long. Including one's soul. Bram Stoker couldn´t imagine
This sociocultural evolution of the first modern vampire descriptions he created By far not as cool and stylish as modern vampires, the original Dracula has become such a massive mega trope like Frankenstein that his stereotype was transformed into a higher archetype for antagonistic magical creatures. A naive lawyer protagonist gets a bit suspicious about Count Dracula's behavior, but doesn´t really care that much at first because it´s not in his backyard and he seemingly hasn´t that much skin in the game. It escalates quickly then, the mentioned rabies symptoms are combined with a fetishization of religious acts, objects, and words, the biggest dangers for classic vampires. In contrast,
For the modern vampire the biggest fears Are illegal, or secret military, underground vampire cloning, and experimentation facilities. A crazy scientist doesn´t need any fancy serum to Captain America the voluntary or involuntary human lab rat if the test subject is already naturally pimped and one just has to include some experimental nanotech and biotech (or the mentioned quantum/experimental physics to add some time travel, parallel universes, and uchronia to the blood sucking, Vampnazis, -Hippies, -Neoliberals (even more!) or stuff). Back to the original show, the
Dark comedy slapstick search for hints continues Until the obvious facts are, self irony style, revealed. Some explicit violence, sexy vampire ladies and aspiring wannabes, and a sightseeing tour accelerate the plasma (overuse of word blood in this review) engine until Van Helsing enters the scene and thereby creates another trope titan, the grim antihero fighter against evil magic creatures. No matter if it´s the original novel inspired by old tales and history, modern Blade or sparkle sparkle little star variants, or what will come in the future. Vampires just freaking rock and suck at the same time hard and enthusiastically.
The very rare case of a slow moving, nevertheless suspenseful soft horror novel mainly using characterization and worsening foreshadowing to thrill thThe very rare case of a slow moving, nevertheless suspenseful soft horror novel mainly using characterization and worsening foreshadowing to thrill the reader.
This one really stays in mind because of the end nobody would suspect and an accelerating thrill and feeling of discomfort I´ve hardly ever seen performed this way. It starts friendly, does a bit of creepy exposition, and gets more and more disturbing for the lead protagonist, culminating in a great wtf moment. Really, why can´t it always be such a (view spoiler)[peaceful end of letting the mother breed the antichrist instead of being cruel and taking the baby away from her. It´s especially staying in mind because, following the rules of Hollywood stereotypes, there has to be at least some gore, violence, or even a bad, depressing ending and not a kind of happy for parents and child, bad for the rest of the world, solution. (hide spoiler)]
The sexism is a bit exaggerated, even for the late 60s, but how it shows the oldfashioned thoughts and mindsets surrounding motherhood and feminity has the extra bonus of a bit of social cultural studies, although I suppose that Levin possibly integrates a bit of his own mindset here too. That´s of course highly subjective and I don´t know it, but it could be the explanation for the a bit over the top manly masculinity that is contrasted with and compensated by satanism and occultism but whatever, all the same 1st and 2nd millenium trash.
The today hilarious idea of a woman (view spoiler)[so obedient to her husband and authorities such as doctors that she doesn´t listen to the inner voice of logic or body signals and just stays in a meh, ok, do with me whatever pleases you mode, (hide spoiler)] could be today's black comedy material.(view spoiler)[It´s like an exaggerated, overlong horror movie stereotypical victim does nothing to prevent it´s downfall while all warning signs are accumulating gag. (hide spoiler)] But a very well written one.
It must be creepy to read this as a woman in general and especially as a mother, because it subverts the idea of pregnancy by dealing with the fear about the health of the unborn child (view spoiler)[used to manipulate the pregnant protagonist (hide spoiler)]. I imagine it longer, with more bam, blood, and gore, escalating to the end and followed by a worthy second part, not the seemingly bad if one believes the ratings, such as I tend to do, jay, collective intelligence.
An entertaining horror novel with exceptional frightening factor that sadly loses some potential and momentum towards the end.
The first half is some An entertaining horror novel with exceptional frightening factor that sadly loses some potential and momentum towards the end.
The first half is some of the best horror I´ve read, not much splatter or violence, just the extremely detailed description with some really scary scenes that fuel the readers´ paranoia in the darkness. There are some moments one might not forget so soon, if not even never, but suddenly there is a bit more action and story, which make the terror factor disappear.
This loss of credibility, tension, and style towards the end is because of Too many unnecessary details and debates Much of the momentum gets lost because of too much preparation, backstory, or sheer drivel. This could have been so much better with more haunting horror, characters going bonkers, and more directly story related horror. Some just incredible and ridiculous actings and motivations of the characters. One of the most epic, involuntarily funny moments: (view spoiler)[the evil vampire woman wants kinky group sex with a group of men who are so disgusted by this perversion that they kill her in self defense while she is trying to offensively seduce her. They´re like „No please not, don´t do this to me“ and close to tears (hide spoiler)] Just thinking about it makes me laugh like mad, as if there was another option, especially with the final slapstick killing one didn´t see coming. But at least something came.
Clever background plotline There is an ingenious red line throughout the novel that fuses characters, timelines, and settings together to let the reader back in awe when realizing it. And it would have been so much cooler with more and earlier inclusion of the big badass antagonist, who even isn´t really one because there is a dark background secret reason for the hauntings that make it seem quite legit. A bit exaggerated retaliation, but still understandable.
Because there isn´t really much out there in the horror genre, I still consider this one a solid 4 star, maybe even with a small plus, because it has its good moments and some of my arguments could be just subjective taste, maybe others enjoy the change in style towards the end and the character backstory overkill. However, have a good fright.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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