Later - Stephen King

 Jamie Conklin is a kid who sees dead people.  Not exactly original but Stephen King uses the device to very different ends - and ends up going to a level beyond that of The Sixth Sense.

I really enjoy the King novels written especially for the Hard Case Crime imprint.   They are shorter, punchier and somehow fresher than much of what might be called his mainstream output.   To be clear: King is, in my opinion, the greatest horror novelist who ever lived.   He also happens to be a great novelist.   When the two combine, as they did in Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, they sit at the pinnacle of the genre.   Later, mid-career stuff is fine and dandy but doesn't outshine the earlier (though they do remain fiendishly readable).   For a time, I admit, I kind of lost interest.   Then I came upon post-millennium novels and particularly novellas; 1922 opened my eyes to what he is now doing, and I absolutely loved it.   That led me to Joyland and The Colorado Kid and Billy Summers.   OK, King no longer frightens me (nothing will ever equal the woman getting out of the tub in The Shining) but he can still surprise and startle, and his writing is as top quality as ever.  The man's imagination and love of his craft are just astounding.

I know.  This is supposed to be a review of Later.   What can I say without giving away too many twists?   As always, King is at his best when he writes from the kid's point of view.   We get Jamie at various stages: late infancy, on the verge of his teens and fifteen.   He is telling his story from 'Later', when he is in his early twenties.   That is the touch of genius.   'Grown' Jamie can tell us things that would be beyond his younger self, but is not so old that he has lost touch with how it feels to be a kid.   Some of the horror moments are excellently gruesome.   All are splendidly diverting.