This book was released September 5th, 2023, which is exactly the day I received it via Audible. I will ALWAYS pre-order King’s work. Life has been steadily throwing me curve balls for awhile now, and I have to admit the unwavering quality and familiarity of all things Stephen King strangely gives me warm and fuzzies when little else will. I know him. I know what to expect, which is absolutely anything and everything. I apparently don’t know what to expect from real life yet. I know that he will do absurd and do it incredibly well. Real life really sucks at absurd, so I always prefer King’s versions, even when they require a steel stomach and sound mind, as this one does.
Emily and Rodney may be two of King’s most psychotic characters to date… SO insane, in fact, that it is impossible to get a thumb on them for the entirety of the novel. The narrator, Justine Lupe, intensifies the solid characterizations impeccably and couldn’t have nailed them any more perfectly. Holly is the opposing stable, dependable force and serves as an amazing protagonist. I especially adore how the art and whimsy of writing is threaded through this work as something that affects all parts of life and people of all walks. This novel seems like a last hurrah for King, especially since Holly’s character returns as a very capable and matured protagonist, almost like she’s all grown up and successful, so his work here is done… I hope not, but that is kind of the air I get. Maybe this is the final starring role for Holly before she rides off into the sunset to enjoy her newfound fortune. I hope so, simply because the girl has been busy and deserves a permanent vacation.
There’s an unabashed Carrie reference in the first few chapters. I love that King is aware that he is a household name and plays with it a little here and there. He can be as cocky and arrogant as he wants, in my opinion. He’s earned it. He’s not just amazing at horror… he’s amazing at all things writing. Read anything he’s written and you are bound to be fascinated and enthralled, even if you are genuinely disgusted by his all-too-effective imagery now and then.
King openly touts his anti-Trump political views in this one, which I am not especially offended by but deserves a mention. Set in the midst of Covid and the peak of the BLM movement, King’s personal politics scream through the pages of this novel. Storming the capitol is mentioned a few times. Our personal politics run fairly parallel, so I’m not bothered by him using the novel as a forum. I am fascinated by him as a person and already knew his stance on such things. He isn’t shy, and I like that he uses his art as a platform for those issues for which he feels passionate. King appears to be having jovial fun with an old friend while writing this one, and I love hearing that tone weaved through his art.
As the novel says, “Perfect is the enemy of good,” and this novel was oh so good.
Amazon’s review:
Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingenuously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” —BILL HODGES
Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Audiences have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.
“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” —STEPHEN KING
©2023 Stephen King (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio
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Pretty Colors Unabridged 