Stephen King was always so great at writing kids, but I feel like he’s lost his grasp on todays kids. Curious if other people will agree with me.

For instance, there is a scene in Holly where Holly and Jerome are talking to a couple of 12 year old boys, and everything that the boys said struck me as very unrealistic.

First of all, when they find out Holly is a detective, they immediately compare her to Veronica Mars. They’re 12. Veronica Mars premiered in 2004. I realize it’s probably streaming somewhere, but it just still felt like a real stretch. They also compare Jerome to Shaft— you know, the guy that was big in the 70s. I looked it up and they did a remake of Shaft as a movie with Samuel Jackson in 2019 but, again, it felt like a real stretch that these 12 year old boys would immediately jump to that character??

And they’re out skateboarding. I’m not gonna put any spoilers, but there was one kid that was apparently hanging out with his friends and something bad happened to him. He did not have a phone on him because he left it at home. He didn’t want to break it while he was skateboarding.

First of all, I don’t know any kid whose parents would be OK with them hanging out for hours in the street skateboarding, without even having a cell phone on them?? I felt like that was completely unrealistic for today’s kids. Maybe I’m wrong but every kid I know carries a cell phone and has it with them all the time. If they were out there skateboarding, they would be making Tik-Toks of it. Haha

There were a few other things, but this is long enough. I suppose if I should be glad none of these kids were saying jeepers or telling anyone to put an egg in their shoe and beat it. (The Institute)

It really took me out of the story. What do you guys think about SK writing kids?