‘Later’ is a highly acclaimed audiobook, written by Stephen King. I’m a Constant Reader, but I’ve never gone the audiobook-route for King before, so this was a new experience for me. The book was narrated by Seth Numrich, an America actor of the stage and screen. I’ve taken the time to look into this, because he did a damn fine job, in my humble opinion.
Later is told through the voice of Jamie, a kid who sees dead people, and is telling us his tale through the world-weary voice of a young adult who’s been put through the ringer a couple of times. Numrich nails the part. Throughout this reasonably-snappy 6 hour novel, his delivery helped in creating a believable and sympathetic character in Jamie. He also deftly voiced Jamie’s mother and her Brooklyn ‘lady friend’ cop throughout. I’m certain I’ll never be able to hear the nickname ‘Champ’ without a sinister undertone ever again…
Jamie’s talent is discovered at a young age, and is suitably traumatising. The rules in the story seem to be that after a person dies, they ‘linger’ for a few days, up to a week, before fading out. The lingering dead are disinterested and cannot lie upon questioning. It’s not clear if many people share Jamie’s talent, and there’s some intrigue in the closing chapters which attempts to explain his ‘gift’.
The tension in the novel arises when, despite her talent and hard work, Jamie’s publisher-mother falls on hard times. She’s trying to care for a young child and keep a business afloat, when a Madoff-like figure destroys the family’s finances. To make matters worse, she and girlfriend seem to be an increasingly bad influence on each other, as Jamie starts to understand the smell of wine and the affect of a hangover from far too young an age. Things come to a head when his mother’s star author suddenly dies without having revealed the end of his long-awaited series (shades of George R R Martin). Jamie’s talent proves essential at saving the family business, and his mother’s dodgy cop girlfriend bears witness and gets an insight into Jamie’s gift that proves dangerous in the long term, as Jamie learns that not all the lingering dead are neutral… there is malevolence and evil in this world, just beyond what we can perceive.
Overall this was a great premise and an interesting story, but I wanted the ending to be scarier. The villain had real potential, but the ultimate show-down fell flat for me. I was left wanting a bit more horror in this horror story. Full credit to Numrich though – he delivered a great narration.
I’ll give this one 3 ball-gags out of 5.