The Outsider by Stephen King is a brutal and suspenseful tale that centers around an unspeakable crime.

With various eye witnesses, fingerprints, and DNA matches, the case seems pretty cut and dry. However, the police soon begin to question their original convictions once they find that the suspect has a solid alibi. But surely the suspect couldn’t have been in two places at once…

This was the perfect book to read to begin my Spring Into Horror readathon!

When I first picked this one up, I thought it would take a week or so to read through based on the size of it. But when I started reading, I struggled to put it down! I cruised right through it in two days!

This is yet another book that you really need to read for yourself, so I will keep my review light to avoid spoiling it.

The very beginning of the story dove straight into the darkness as we read a transcript of a man who had stumbled upon the crime site. This scene honestly made me a bit nauseous with just how awful the crime was.

I’ll warn you here; if you cannot read about children who have been victims of sexual crimes, this is not one for you. This crime is brought up multiple times throughout the book.

The overall plot was wonderfully done; it was equally interesting and horrific. I really enjoyed the things that it made you think about, such as the whole innocent until proven guilty vs guilty until proven innocent, and suspending your beliefs and keeping an open mind when necessary.

This was a tale that made me quite jumpy! Two nights in a row, I went to bed and had to leave the door open so I could let in a bit of the light from the downstairs where my husband was still awake.

My Favorite Passages:
Strange, the things you noticed when your day – your life – suddenly went over a cliff you hadn’t even known was there.

Ralph’s thoughts were whirling around in his head like loose paper caught in a draft. He could not remember ever having been so completely blindsided.

He looked human, but was oddly hard to grasp, even so. It was like looking at a picture with your eyes slightly crossed. You knew what it was you were seeing, but everything was skewed and slightly out of true.

My Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book! While dark and brutal, there were also wonderful elements such as people banding together to fight the darkness.

If you love horror with a dash of the paranormal, I highly recommend this one to you!