Later

Stephen King is one of the most prolific writers of the late 20th century. King is best known as a horror writer, but his strong characterization and use of setting and mood make his work appealing to non-horror readers as well. He writes many genres, including horror, supernatural, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, often blurring the lines between them.

In Later’s case, King mixes horror and the hard-boiled detective genre. Horror often comprises the insertion of a supernatural or otherwise incomprehensible force into a realistic setting, where ordinary people must deal with it. In Later, Jamie lives in a realistic world; but for him, even seeing the dead is ordinary. King depicts most of the dead as normal-looking people with nothing frightening about them. However, something alien, the mysterious deadlight, threatens Jamie with unnamed terrors.

Horror often relies on visceral disgust, which can be invoked by common human aversions like texture-based scares (i.e., slime, tentacles, etc.). Blood and gore can also trigger disgust. For example, Kenneth Therriault’s head wound exposes his brain and distorts his face. With that said, horror easily ties into hard-boiled detective stories.