The fact that “Later” does not deviate much from Stephen King’s standard repertoire in terms of style should not be a cause for concern on its own. Indeed, the prose in this novel is pretty flavorless - typical for King, some would say. It is hard to read the words as anything other than a display of self-awareness on King’s part. “The trudging, flavorless prose is typical … the rough equivalent of a heaping plate of food from an all-you-can-eat buffet in a dubious roadside restaurant,” King writes in a fictional, snarky New York Times review of Regis Thomas’ book-within a book. The premise is undeniably appealing, but “Later” fundamentally suffers from issues with both style and content. But the surprising depth of these explorations, wholly uncharacteristic for “the king of horror,” does not make up for the book’s deficiencies. The profound questions and overarching themes that King tries to tackle are the novel’s highpoint.

It is no coincidence that Jamie's first goal is to learn the details of an unfinished novel from Regis Thomas, a fictional bestselling author who died of a heart attack. Unexpectedly, they all serve as a tool for King to address questions about the meaning of literature, the relationship between creators and their editors, and finally what happens to a writer's legacy after their death. The young protagonist looks at the world through the lense of pop culture: blockbusters, Netflix shows, and gothic novels, with Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” at the forefront.

King falls flat in delivering anything worth reading, with a sluggish plot driven solely by an unconvincing narrator. Rather, he melds his skillful knack for horror writing with an old-fashioned noir aesthetic.

Despite his repetition of Jamie’s mantra about this being a horror story, King does not deliver the gut-wrenching scares he has in the past. He does not intend to use this knowledge, but the people closest to him take advantage of his abilities for personal gain. As a boy, Jamie discovers that he can talk to the ghosts of the recently deceased through this, he learns that the dead cannot tell lies. “This is a horror story,” Jamie Conklin, the protagonist and narrator of “Later,” repeats throughout Stephen King’s latest novel.

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