Skip to main content

Later by Stephen King



I’ve read a few of Stephen King's books – It, Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot, and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. Out of these, It and Pet Sematary really grabbed my attention. I’m not a huge fan of horror, but there’s something about King's writing that pulls you in, even if you’re not into scary stuff.

My friend and I recently decided to read Later, one of King’s shorter horror novels. I had no big expectations – I just wanted to see what the book was about. Later turned out to be a really easy and enjoyable read.

The story is narrated by a young boy who can see and talk to dead people. For some reason, he keeps reminding the reader that it’s a horror story. As I read, I thought, "Okay, but I don’t feel the horror yet." It was only towards the end that I felt the horror kick in. I was expecting something, not sure what but other than whatever was in the book, to happen. But I realized that what I was waiting for or thought was supposed to happen would happen later. I felt kind of played. But the book title is Later, so it makes sense, yeah?

Also, reading this book got me thinking about how different it is to experience horror through books versus movies. Movies often rely on jump scares and creepy visuals to scare you, but books can create a more psychological fear that builds over time.

Even though horror isn’t usually my thing, my journey with Stephen King’s books has been fun. But honestly, this is the type of book I’ll read while taking a break from other genres that I really, really enjoy and love. Rating 3/5.

Thanks to my friend Dibesh for the book image featured in this blog.

Happy reading!📖

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Books I read in 2024. I found my new favourite

I think 59 is a decent number; no speed-reading here, just enjoyment. Here's my list of 59 books I read in 2024. How many do we have in common? ;) A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara 😭 Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 😍 Yellowface, R F Kuang  Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev  Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez 😍 Post Office, Charles Bukowski  The Book Thief, Markus Zusak 😍 Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami🙂 Middlemarch, George Elliot  To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 😍 Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones🙂 A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles The Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger🙂 Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie  Later, Stephen King  Notes from the Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky  All Systems Red, Martha Wells  The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy  The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut  Piranesi, Susanna Clarke🙂 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain To the Lighthouse, Virginia Wo...

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

So I recently watched the 2017 Russian adaptation of Anna Karenina , an eight-part series by Mosfilm (one of the largest and oldest film studios in the Russian Federation and in Europe, according to Wikipedia). This one takes a unique narrative approach, presenting the story from Vronsky’s perspective.  Let me tell you—I was absolutely enthralled. From the acting to the costumes, the sets to the overall production quality, I liked almost everything about this adaptation, except for a few scenes and bits here and there. The performances felt authentic and moving, capturing the essence of the novel’s characters with remarkable fidelity. So satisfying was this adaptation that I’m not eager to seek out others. Somehow, I feel that no other version could match the artistry of this one. I’d like to explore more films and series by this studio, and I most certainly will. And I don't know why it's got such low ratings: 6.3/10 on IMDb and 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. It DESERVES much higher!...

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

  Opening Line:  "Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself." I read Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan , and there’s one thing I need to talk about: the chrono-synclastic infundibulum .  In the novel, the chrono-synclastic infundibulum is described as a region of space where different truths coexist simultaneously, and all perspectives are equally valid. It's a sort of cosmic zone where time, space, and reality bend in such a way that contradictory ideas can exist together without conflict. Within this region, the linear, singular perspective of time and reality breaks down, allowing for multiple realities to overlap. The character, Winston Niles Rumfoord, becomes permanently stuck in a chrono-synclastic infundibulum while on a space journey. As a result, he is no longer a solid being in one place or time but exists as a wave that can materialize on Earth, Mars, and Titan whenever these planets align with his wave trajectory. This gives Rumfoord ...