King's 22-year-old male narrator gets the comparisons with The Sixth Sense out of the way early, noting that he, like the kid in that movie, sees dead people. And talks to them. And they're compelled to tell the truth after they're dead, though overt references to Wonder Woman's magic lasso are not made in the novel.
It's the truth-telling that drives the major plot elements of the novel. We follow our narrator's life in detail from 6 to 13, all of it in New York, where the dead are abundant. Thankfully, dead people fade away after a few days. But when disaster threatens his single mother's literary agency, our narrator finds himself using his powers to a specific end -- and as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.
King's ability to write in the voice of a young adult remains as solid and convincing as ever. Long-time King readers will note shout-outs to many of King's previous novels that include It and 'Salem's Lot, among others. Ultimately, there are two monsters at the end of this story, and it's hard to decide whether the supernatural one or the very human one is worse. Well, OK, it's the supernatural one. But the human one is pretty close! Highly recommended.
