The Colorado Kid
Ratings124
Average rating3.2
I'm a big fan of Stephen King, and I understand that this is nothing like what he normally writes — especially as this is meant to be a short book — but I can't help but feel that it just seems to be the equivalent of listening to an elderly neighbour gossip about the locals for about two or three hours. It's not really my cup of tea.
It's almost too simple to kinda get me into it, my main dissapointment with the book is that I was like 3/4 of the way through the book and i realised that is really not gonna lead to anything much else than an empty story, although the newspaper guys say their own ending explicity. But if i want to hear a story like that i would be hundred times more invested if it wasn't a work of fiction and it really happened, because if its fiction just write me an ending stephen. Has a lot of personality and gets you into this sea side town aesthetic with the characters and the description of the town, little read but dont completely regret it
In the foreword to the 2019 printing of The Colorado Kid, the editor lays the cards on the table as to the intent of this novel, and the Hard Case imprint overall: it's meant to be a throwback to the pulp novels of the early-mid 20th century, where you could pay the price of a movie ticket and knock out the novel in a sitting or two. Nothing revelatory or heavy or life-changing, just a good time. And The Colorado Kid absolutely delivered that for me, with the added bonus of an ending that left me something to think on for a little while after.
I finally finished the book and it was not what I expected. It's the first Stephen King book I've read and it was a bit disappointing. I expected more action and it wasn't there at all. I also found it hard to read because the story was boring.
It's easy to see why this is such a polarising book. I, personally, loved the ending. I found the characters and story compelling and really enjoyed my little sojourn with The Colorado Kid.
I'm not sure what to think. The logical side of me wants to give it one star because it's a mystery novel, with a real corker of a mystery, but that mystery's conclusion is...unique. (Without giving anything away.)
Now, I know the point of the book is the storytelling itself. And I know that King connects the book to his Dark Tower series in several ways. And I know that King purposely made the story's ending and connections to the Dark Tower painfully ambiguous on purpose. But it does not make the ending any less frustrating after riding through the tale for 18 chapters.
The storytelling in the book is a masterclass, though. Told through dialogue of two old-timers to a young cub reporter, there is no real action in the book–at least not in the present reality of where the story is being told. The characters spend the majority of the book sitting and chatting. But the action is told through the dialogue and lets you truly construct the tale in your mind. The use of vernacular is thorough, but never too heavy. The Maine accent comes through in the men's speech, but never to the point of annoyance.
This was a different sort of story, and told from a unique point of view. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, though.
I love Stephen King, but this wasn't my favorite of his books. The Colorado Kid, published in the Hard Case Crime series, is somewhat interesting albeit disappointing. The book consists of two old newspaper men telling a story about an unsolved mystery to a young female intern. The mystery is never solved. There was no real resolution, and they simply have to find satisfaction in the unknown. Compared to some of King's other tomes, this volume is rather short- so perhaps he may be forgiven, but I might have enjoyed knowing a bit more of how the Colorado Kid came to be in Maine, and what happened to him. O suppose what I did enjoy was how bold King was in denying me resolution and forcing me to feel what these characters felt. I also appreciated the setting and how King established the island. I guess I enjoyed reading it. 3 stars.
“Sometimes loving eyes don't see what they don't want to see.”
Holiday read for the plane to and from Malta and it was a great easy read! Unusual read because of the lack of closure, King explains it well in his afterword explaining his love of a good mystery meant he wanted us to keep questioning the Colorado Kid and you can't do that if he gives you all the answers...
If you need a quick and easy read give The Colorado Kid a go!
“It was that kind of story. The kind that's like a sneeze which threatens but never quite arrives.”
I loved the TV-show Haven (especially the early seasons), which was inspired by this story. The story is quite far from Haven, but there's the Grey Gull and Vince and Dave. And a mystery...
the first 3/4 of the book are formidable and exciting. Loses some steam in the final stretch. A good read anyway.
Folks that get here by way of the TV show Haven will be sorely disappointed - like many of King's work turned into film, the names are the same, the places are the same, but little else runs the way you expect it to. This book is a mystery - if the imprint didn't give that away - but it's less about solving the mystery than learning what makes it so mysterious. A fun quick read, told mostly like a ghost story (third person narration).
An enjoyable read from Stephen King, with not a hint of horror throughout. Some readers may find the ending disappointing, as the mystery remained a mystery, but for me it made the book more enjoyable.
I enjoyed the read. It was lightweight. Stephen King never fails to entertain.
I read this because I have started to enjoy the syfy series Haven. It's short and was quick read, did it on the plane. But the book only and the show only have the town in common. There is not a single character or other element the two share. It was well written, and I somewhat enjoyed the characters, but overall I was disappointed because the book is really only half of a story.
Based on the series this is part of and the misleading cover art, I thought this was going to be a hardboiled, trenchcoats-and-dark-alleyways sort of mystery novel. What I got was something completely, wonderfully different from that: Stephen King writing post-modern metafiction.
Two old newspapermen sit down with an intern at their small-town Maine paper and tell her the story of The Colorado Kid, whose dead body was discovered on the beach some 25 years previous. They lead her through the mystery, with the whens and wheres of his disappearance and discovery, and along the way teach her the difference between Stories, which have a clearly defined beginning, middle and ending, and Life, which rarely does. That's why, these newspapermen theorize, people like stories - they're cleaner and safer than life, and better fit our preconceptions of things. Life, in comparison, is messy and thematically incoherent (and, I believe, more beautiful for those reasons), and that's why it's the job of the storyteller to tell their stories well. To prove this point, the mystery of The Colorado Kid is just that - it's a mystery, one that has no solution provided and now easy explanation of how or why it happened. It just ends, and leaves us as the audience to try to make sense of it - to make the life of these characters fit our idea of what story should be. That twist at the end - that the mystery is just a mystery, and has no explanation - wouldn't have worked if the characters were any less realized, and it wouldn't have worked in a longer story, but here? Damn, it works.
The ending's a little on-the-nose but that's appreciated; given the amount of mystery surrounding the entire story, leaving it at all ambiguous would have been horrible.