Published by Scribner Genres: Fiction, Horror
Format: Hardcover
“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes, and she just stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” – Stephen King
I could not wait to get my hands and eyes on this book. I wanted more Holly and was curious to read a book with her without Bill Hodges in it. Having read the above quote from Stephen King, which is on the back of the book, I knew this was his love letter to her. If any constant readers follow King on social media, you know he is not shy about voicing his politics. Nor was he shy about sharing them in this book.
Holly was written during the pandemic and there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of COVID and political talk/opinions in this book. Will it be too soon for some readers? Perhaps, but keep in mind that Holly takes place during COVID. His characters will be wearing masks (or not), washing their hands, not shaking hands, talking about vaccination, etc. Plus, this is King’s book, so he is free to write and have his character’s feel and express whatever he pleases. I have no problem whatsoever with his viewpoints, but eventually I began to wonder if it was just too much.
For the first half of the book, I struggled with getting into the story. It felt slow and honestly, it didn’t grab my attention as his other books have. There are some “bad” characters in this book doing some bad things, but I wasn’t creeped out by them as I usually am by King’s villains. I felt very meh about them. They were not that interesting in my opinion. Peculiar, twisted, bizarre, yes but also bland and I’ll say it again meh. What was not meh, was Holly and her approach to solving a case and how she looked at things.
The second half of the book, and especially that last third of the book, moved much faster and I was finally invested in the plot. The latter part of the book is also when King cooled off on the political and COVID talk and got to the business of Holly doing detective work. The book began to feel tense and there was a sense of danger at the end which I always enjoy in books in this genre.
I so wanted to love this book as I have enjoyed Holly as a character. For me, this was enjoyable but way too slow. I struggle with slow books. Plus, I was hoping to be creeped out. Readers know who the depraved characters are, so we are watching and waiting for Holly to solve her case.
King has always written interesting, unique, and engaging characters. No matter how I feel about them, I am usually intrigued and captivated by them. In this book, as I mentioned, Holly was the only one who I felt one way or another about. The other characters just didn’t stand out for me until the end.
For me, not his best. This won’t stop me from being on the lookout for his future books. King is well, the King of horror in my book. He knows how to spin a yarn. We can’t love them all, even books we are highly anticipating.