The Outsider series finale! I finished the book last night. My initial rating was 3 1/2 stars on Goodreads (equivalent to X on the Sexxy rating system). But I’ve since updated that rating to 4 stars (XX seizing rating). It was a really good read. Addictive page turner. Dialogue and plot weren’t great at times, but overall a damn good story. The reason I updated to a higher rating was b/c my wife asked how I liked the book and when I told her my thoughts on it it made me realize how much I liked it and why. In most SK books the villain, monster, naughty paranormal entity, etc you are given a description, tons of scenes & dialogue, and a sense of who/what they are. But in “The Outsider” the heavy is kept in shadows. Barley any scene time except for some ethereal emanations and/or referenced by the novels’ other characters. No knowledge of the killer is given to the reader. The readers are kept in the dark as the characters are. It’s fricken eerie.
If it’s a serial killer, or a monster, or supernatural entity, it’s there. You know it’s there b/c it’s been fleshed out and brought to life. Scary for sure. But with The Outsider, you don’t know anything about it. Speculation, myth, hints, whispers, nothing more. It’s suspenseful and creepy.
There is a being out there that can become anyone. Not in a Talented Mr. Ripely way, but actually become the individual; appearance, thoughts, DNA, fingerprints. It becomes a person when it scratches that individual. But it can also “mark” an individual and control them to do its bidding. Kind of like a Renfro (I think that’s the characters name) from Dracula. So this thing can virtually be anyone. And when it does complete its transformation, it does the most heinous and horrific acts to its victims, mainly kids. It leaves the innocent person’s fingerprints and DNA. Witnesses, reliable witnesses, people that know the accused personally testify they saw the accused. So the innocent person is jailed, tried and found guilty. Even if there’s contradicting evidence (witnesses placing the accused somewhere else during the crime). Often times, the innocent individual commits suicide or is killed in some seemingly random way. It mind-fucks the innocent individuals’ family into suicide or some other act that will get them killed. And The Outsider feeds off all that anger, suffering, sadness and violence
I def rec the book and the HBO adaption. HBO did a great job of staying true the novel and gave it a very eerie and creepy quality. Actors are all great in it.
XX rating
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