REVIEW

Bad Little Kid

Posted: March 14, 2014
Category: Books
Bad Little Kid is King’s latest story. The difference between this one and many others is that it’s only published in French (Sale Gosse) and German (Böser Kleiner Junge). King did this as a thanks to the French and German fans for the nice time he had there in November 2013. I’m sure it will be released in English eventually but no date has been set so far and it might take a while.

The story is about George Hallas who is sentenced to death for the murder of a young child. And now, only a short while before the sentence is to be carried out he tells his lawyer, Leonard Bradley, what really happened and why.

After hearing George’s story of a bad little kid with a propeller hat appearing in Hallas’ life from time to time, causing death and misery to Hallas’ loved ones with him powerless to do anything about it until the very end, Bradley is convinced that Hallas is crazy. But is he? Well, I’m not sure. He could be but I’m not convinced and I think that even Bradley reconsiders at the end.

As usual King create great characters and tells a great story and even though this one is rather short (you can finish it in one sitting) it’s just the right length for what the story needs. It’s a simple story but it captures you and gets you to ask why is this happening to Hallas and what has he done to bring it on? Or is he getting exactly what he deserves?

It works perfectly and I like it a lot and the only thing I’m missing is more answers. Why did this happen? Who is that bad little kid? But then again, if we got the answers to those questions we wouldn’t have anything to think about once we’ve finished the story, right?

Lilja's final words about Bad Little Kid:

As I said Bad Little Kid is a great story and it’s a bit unfortunate that King only lets his German and French fans read it. I understand what he’s doing but it would have been just as nice a gesture if they got it like a week earlier then the English speaking readers.