This is a horror story.Is it though? Who am I to say what is and isn't horror? There was a recent kerfuffle, yeah I said kerfuffle, where it was said that there cannot be horror in space so what do I know about what defines something as being horror?So, is this a horror story?After thinking about it, yeah Uncle Stevie, or in this case our protagonist Jamie Conklin is right, there are some pretty horrific things that happen in LATER by Stephen King. Now don't get me wrong, it's not on the same level of horror as IT or PET SEMATARY or ‘SALEM’S LOT but that doesn't mean it's not horror, right? Horror can be found at any place and any time, in any shape and any size. Just because something isn't horrifying to one person doesn't mean it won't scare the bejesus out of someone else. So what have we learned after this long tangent?This is a horror story.With that out of the way let's actually talk about the book some shall we? Jamie Conklin is just a kid and he sees dead people. Now that's not a spoiler as you find that out very early on in the book. Think about that for a second. Seeing dead people. That sounds pretty horrific to me, especially as a kid. And I don't mean Jamie sees ghosts. No, he sees full on dead people exactly how they looked the moment they died. So if someone is killed by getting their head smashed in Jamie sees that in all it’s brain leaking gory goodness. It is this secret, this gift (curse?) that Jamie must come to terms with and make a decision on if he will use his ability for right or wrong, for good or evil. Someone once said “With great power comes great responsibility,” wait, that’s a different universe but you catch my meaning.I'm a Stephen King fan so am I a bit biased? Maybe. Probably. But even trying to set that aside this was a good book. A fast paced coming of age crime thriller with great characters and of course bits of the supernatural as the cherry on top. Yeah, this is a Hard Case Crime novel, but it’s also from the mind of King so having supernatural elements is something that we should come to expect by now. I really enjoyed the gritty crime aspects of LATER and the hard connection to one of King’s most popular works. I am a sucker for connected universes and this was a fun tie in that I think raised way more questions for me than it provided answers.Some may complain that King is just rehashing material from his older books, and I can see that viewpoint, but for me this was new and original enough that I didn’t mind if bits felt as if they had been borrowed and incorporated into this story. Something I did feel indifferent about was a revelation that we get about Jamie right at the end of the book. I didn’t hate it, but I also felt that it was introduced so late in the game that it didn’t have any real impact on the story one way or another.I don’t have a fancy blurb to write here at the end of the review like I usually try to do, I mean it is Stephen King for goodness sakes. If the day comes when King needs me to blurb his book I will be living the high life. Just know that I had a lot of fun with LATER and thoroughly enjoyed this quick and grimey ride into the Kingverse. Reading King for me feels like coming home, and yeah I know that sounds cheesy but that’s the best way I can describe it whenever I crack open a book by him that I have yet to read. And once again for all those in the back who may not have heard and missed it...This is a horror story.