Why Stephen King’s The Outsider Book Scared Me

 

Credit to Google 

I love Stephen King. 

He is one of my most favorite horror authors, that produces the best stories that leave you absolutely terrified. I have practically read over fifty of his books over the years since I was in middle school, and I loved every second of each of his stories. There are a couple of his stories that left me feeling very creeped out or scared, such as one of his recent stories, The Outsider.

The first time I read this story, I felt so disgusted and scared of the main ‘monster’ presented in the story. The Outsider follows a man who is a baseball coach named Terry Maitland, who is suddenly caught in a murder investigation of a child. He becomes the main suspect; due to many witnesses claiming they saw him covered in the blood of the victim.

Despite Maitland’s protests that he wasn’t the killer, everyone pointed their fingers at him, claiming that his DNA was found on the corpse, and literally saw him covered in the blood of the child. This is literally one of my worst fears, imagine being told you’re the main suspect behind a horrendous murder that had nothing to do with you…yet you’re the one that everyone immediately believes committed the crime. 

What made this crime so much worse in the story, was that the crimes against the children were brutal, and it made me physically cringe from the descriptions of the crime scenes. These deaths take a toll on the main detective, Ralph Anderson, who realizes that that perhaps something much more sinister is taking place; something far evil than anyone could ever imagine.

Credit to the artist who made this image 

What makes this story so damn interesting and scary is the crazy twist that is revealed of who actually committed the crime. It turns out to be a shape shifting monster who takes on the form of anyone, to use their image to get away with an evil act to put the blame on the wrong person. It is a such a vile and sick act to do against an innocent stranger. 

The Outsider doesn’t just ruin the lives of a family after killing their children, but also destroys the lives of people who were never physically present at the crime, only their shape. We are living in a world where everything is supposed to be normal, living our daily lives every day, not knowing of what lies out there. Unfortunately, we sometimes can run into the worst situations that we never expect, containing something that we never thought possible.

Do you ever ask yourself when you were a child, is there really a monster under my bed? In the majority of cases, the answer would be no, but in those few instance...the monster is there. 

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn