The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mum urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King's classic novel It, Later is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.

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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 32 minutes
Author	Stephen King
Narrator	Seth Numrich
Audible.com.au Release Date	02 March 2021
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08KWDF9XY
Best Sellers Rank	51 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Supernatural Thrillers (Books) 1 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Police Procedural Mysteries

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
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3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Sally S

Gripping and part of the IT universe

Reviewed in Australia on 7 March 2021

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From the moment I picked this book up I was hooked. The story itself is shorter than most other novels but the pacing is excellent. The characters are fleshed out though there are no unnecessary pages of rambling; just a nice tight story from beginning to end. As the novel frequently reminds the reader 'this is a horror story'; however, it's not scary or gratuitous. The story is very easy to read with short chapters - this combined with the captivating plot made the book hard to put down. Without spoiling anything, there is something sinister in the story that connects this book to the IT universe in a subtle way. Whereas the story feels like it had an ending, it's clear the story isn't over. I hope to see more of the IT universe come to life like it has through Jamie, our young protagonist (and Narrator) in New York in this book, or perhaps another child somewhere else. An excellent book by Stephen King that I'd love to watch as a limited series at some point. Somehow King manages to remember exactly what it's like to be a child and a teen in the world of adults. It's completely accurate. I highly recommend 'Later'.

3 people found this helpful

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Richard James

Riveting, I honestly powered through this book

Reviewed in Australia on 26 March 2021

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This is a great mix of the supernatural and crime story. King never fails to amaze me, even his worst reviewed work draws me in to the end. A little surprise revisiting of one of his classics for constant readers to stumble across in here as well. 5 stars from me, will be reread many times I'm sure

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sandi

Best King book in years!

Reviewed in Australia on 31 March 2021

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Best King book I’ve read in years! Thanks Stevo. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. First person isn’t usually my favourite thing, but this on worked a treat. Storyline flows, the characters are believable.

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Arthur Bozikas OAM JP

Later is Excellent!

Reviewed in Australia on 25 March 2021

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What an excellent book, “Later”. Stephen’s memory of what it's like to be a child and a teen in the world of adults is uncanny. It's an astonishing story that I highly recommend. WOW, buy it now!

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Anna W.

Loved It!

Reviewed in Australia on 15 April 2021

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Enjoyed every minute and couldn't read it fast enough. It's story telling and character that makes this a fantastic read. A few creepy moments too.

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Donna Mc

Unexpected!!

Reviewed in Australia on 14 April 2021

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Being a long term SK fan, in my opinion he can do no wrong! Really enjoyed this, particularly like Jamie!!

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Lynn Mccarthy

Brilliant

Reviewed in Australia on 4 April 2021

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I love this author always a good read

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Valentina

Love it

Reviewed in Australia on 11 March 2021

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I read this book in a very short time and this because you can’t just stop reading it !! Just loved it

One person found this helpful

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Shane Brown

Equivalent of a straight-to-video movie.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2021

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I'm not sure why there is such a discussion about the length and format of the book, as it's not a regular King novel, and not intended to be one. This series of books are generally classic hardboiled crime of about 250 pages. In King's case, he is attempting to fit into that genre of old crime novels, and here he doesn't really succeed. Indeed, the problem with the book is not that it's too short, but that it isn't very good.

After Joyland, King's previous foray into this series and one of his best books ever, this is a huge let down. Yes, it's entertaining enough, but often it seems as if King is having more fun than we are - returning to the ritual of Chud and the deadlights of IT, calling a town Renfield after Stoker's Dracula, calling a lawyer Grisham after the author of legal thrillers. His little jokes and references here are hardly subtle.

The story itself is about a kid who can see dead people. Aged 22, he tells his story, starting from when he was six and basically ending when he was fifteen. Jamie is a relatively engaging narrator, but King normally writes about kids and teenagers so well, and this just seems a little lame. The story has no real structure, as it meanders from one episode to the next, and the ending is hardly climactic and is somewhat open-ended with regards to the deadlights etc as if King doesn't know how to wrap it up.

In many ways it reads as if a highly talented author was given a bet to see if he could write a novel in 48 hours, and this is the result. It's diverting in a way that a better-than-average straight-to-video horror movie might be, but there's no depth or soul here, which is strangely ironic given the lead's character's strange gift. And, for the record, the title "Later" and the reason for that title is downright silly.

3 people found this helpful

Mark West

King writing kids...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2021

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Son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin sees dead people, usually loitering for a few days where they died. They can also see him and have to tell the truth when he asks them a question. His literary agent mum Tia takes advantage of Jamie’s gift when her star client dies - Jamie dictates the man’s last novel - but when her dirty cop girlfriend Liz does the same, trying to get information from a dead serial bomber, it opens up doors that should have remained firmly closed.
I came to this knowing nothing about it, just trusting the combination of King and Hard Case Crime after the wondrous “Joyland”. This takes a while to get going (and the literary device of “later” gets wearing after a while) but as King paints such a vivid and loving relationship between mother and son, throwing in little dashes of horror along the way, it’s forgiveable. It’s nice, to be honest, to revel in his writing as he sets up the characters and follows their New York lives. The tone changes when Liz, now separated and dirtier than ever, enlists Jamie’s help and King handles this well, since the dead bomber now hangs around, haunting Jamie and bringing with him echoes of “IT”. The last act, featuring an increasingly desperate Liz, is stunningly well written and even though the clues have been laid throughout, you’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen. For my part, I felt slightly let down by the climax - there’s a lot of build up for something that’s resolved fairly briskly - and then King closes on a revelation that feels both unpleasant and unnecessary. Those quibbles aside, this is a good read - it’s King, telling stories - and while it’s not a patch on the truly excellent “Joyland”, it is well worth a read.

One person found this helpful

Adrian Dooley

King at his absolute best.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2021

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Well this was a great surprise. I’ve been a King fan since my early teens(I’m in my mid 50s now)and this brought back all the enjoyment of reading a King novel in my youth.

This is a coming of age/crime/supernatural/horror story and it’s King at his absolute best.

Told from the point of view of Jamie Conklin, now 22 years old, but it starts with him at 4 years of age.
Jamie lives in NY with his mother and no father. He has a gift. He sees dead people! Yes it sounds like The Sixth Sense and that is name checked in the second page of the book, but that’s where the similarities end.

Jamie only sees recently dead people and they see him. He can talk to them and here’s the kicker, they have to tell him the truth. As time passes he can hear them less and less until they finally fade away.

I went into this blind, bought it purely because of the author and I’d advise you to do the same if you can. It’s a short book at 250 pages and I was left wanting more, but in a good way. The book is a perfect form.

King just excels when narrating a book from the perspective of a young boy. We have seen it before and it’s always been among his strongest work. It’s mad to think a man in his 70s is writing this.

For me King had a sweet spot in the 80s, knocking it out of the park book after book and this book could easily belong there. He as written some great books recently as well no doubt, 11.22.63 is a masterpiece but this one just feels like old King, a book written when he was much younger and just surfaced now.

I was giddy reading this. Read it in a day and had a metaphorical smile the whole way through. An utterly brilliant read.

One person found this helpful

Extra

It read and felt more like a novella

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2021

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Jamie believes he was just a toddler the first time his unnatural ability reared its eerie head; in this, his story, he recounts the main situations his ability got him into in is youth. Another very good piece of suspenseful crime fiction from Mr King who appears to be determined to leave his mark in this genre!

With a plethora of reviews of this book around at the moment, I think I'll just comment on what I specifically liked, and it's nothing new. Seriously, in my half a lifetime of reading I don't think I've ever read a writer who captures the details of youth so well, from It to the amazing The Body, up to the recent Gwendy's Button Box he just captures young people and children so well, and yet again he does so in this book.

As a Constant Reader, there wasn't much new in this read, it read and felt more like a novella, but still immersed me in a King universe. The pretty deep connection to Stephen King's It, I did not see coming; the same could be said for this book's ending. Scraping into an 8 out of 12 for me, just barely; I probably need to read this again to enjoy it more, but not right now, maybe... later.

...And yes, I spent a few minutes trying to engineer this review to end with the word... later. :)

Jock Bell

One to miss

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 March 2021

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I'm a huge Stephen King fan and have read nearly everything he has published. I'm a bit concerned about some of his output over the last few years. He seems to publishing glorified short stories from a B list back catalog and it's very commercial. This is one of them unfortunately. It has the flavour of a good King novel but lacks the meat. It's basically a short story padded out into a short novel. The characters and the plot are thin, threadbare in places. The supernatural twists, the thing that makes a good King novel, are sadly lacking in this one. Christine, Mr Mercedes, Doctor Sleep are great reads- this is nowhere near his high standards.

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