Andrew Mayden

By Andrew Mayden

Stephen King’s latest book is a hard boiled crime thriller featuring a young boy who can see dead people, though as he says, it’s not like in that Bruce Willis movie.

This is a review of his concept and execution, not necessarily a critique of the story itself. So, only minor spoilers ahead.

One thing I realized was that King’s take on it was to say that the extraordinary can become quite ordinary given enough time. He even says so early in the book, “You get used to marvelous things,” Jamie writes, and that, “There’s too much wonder, that’s all. It’s everywhere.”

I get it. I appreciate that. I really do.

But it bothered me just how easily Jamie and his mom and her girlfriend took it for granted. Oh, sure, they doubted him at first, and their reactions were mostly believable. But I kept asking myself, why doesn’t he Google it? Even just once, just to see.

Jamie never showed even an ounce of curiosity if there were other people out there with the same ability. There might be. Who knows?

Later in the book Liz even asks him how many others have this ability. He says he has no idea. “It isn’t exactly the kind of thing you talk about. Like starting a conversation with ‘Hey, do you see dead people?’”

I get that, but still, no curiosity whatsoever kind of took me out of it.

Part of it what bothers me about this is knowing just how connected we are with our smart phones. I believe if a modern kid really had the ability to see and talk to dead people, no matter how ordinary it might be for him, he would still try to network and find others with the ability.

Seeing dead people, I buy it. Not using the internet, that’s a bridge too far.