Book: Holly by Stephen King
SPOILER WARNING: End of Watch & Holly are both discussed here. Pretty big plot points are given away.
I read End of Watch first, a story about Bill Hodges and Holly, two private investigators who investigate Brady Hartsfield, a psychopathic killer with telepathic abilities who's physically trapped in a psych ward.
This was the first fiction book I had read in quite some time. It was good, I really like it.
There's two more books in the trilogy: Finders Keepers (the name of the private investigation business they run) and Mr. Mercedes (presumably a prequel, about Brady Hartsfield, but I don't know). I haven't read those.
Then comes Holly. Bill Hodges has died (he was old in End of Watch), and Holly is running Finders Keepers with Pete Huntley, Bill's old partner from his time as a cop.
Pete is down with Covid, and Holly is investigating a case of a missing girl. We learn very early that there is an old couple abducting people and eating them. So the book is basically about Holly uncovering all the details of the missing girl, and discovering the cannibals.
I love Holly. She is, presumably, autistic (with very low support needs). Her social abilities are not great, and she's very uncomfortable socially, but she does very well when asking questions in pursuit of a case. She's kind of a dork too, and very meticulous about some things.
The overall story is very enjoyable. Much detail in many things, as it goes with King. There are two other characters we follow (and care about) throughout the book: Jerome (25ish?) and his younger sister Barbara (18 or so). They both appeared in End of Watch, but not as significantly.
An unexpected part of this book was the discussion of current events - Trump losing the 2020 election, COVID deniers, BLM protests, and a couple other more minor things.
These issues came up many times throughout the book. Holly's vaccinated, and her mom had died of covid (anti-vax maga idiot). Basically every time we meet an unlikeable character, they're anti-vax, won't wear a mask, or think COVID is bullshit.
King discusses this in his author notes - He shares Holly's views, but he believes he'd write a thoughtful take if his protagonist were anti-vax or something. (I wonder if he'd write such a character as a protagonist)
It's cool to see current events (especially such impactful ones) brought up in fiction. I didn't expect it, and at times didn't like it though.
First of all, it took me out of the world of fiction, and I got stressed about how things were AND how things are now (Trump re-elected and being a straight-up dictator this time around). But the jarring nature of this content ... simmered down as time went on. I got used to it, for the most part.
I love this book, I love Holly. I'm glad I read it.
I do find the representation of ... let's say "woke" issues in entertainment media to be ... idk. I have mixed feelings about it.
I could ramble on that more. I'm in agreement with Holly (and what I would consider the general viewpoint of the book) on the woke things.
I thought I might ramble on it all more, but nah i'm done. I'm just done writing.
I might return and read Finders Keepers and Mr. Mercedes at some point, but I'm not sure. I might be all detected out. I checked out a couple fantasy novels at the library on Wednesday (not stephen king). It was a bit peculiar that this book didn't have anything supernatural in it. As a teen I only knew Stephen King as having supernatural stuff. I hadn't read him for years though. And yaknow he has lots of books, so I'm not surprised there's variation.
Oh, Every time Holly meets with someone they discuss vaccination status before taking off masks. That is awkward, feels a little excessive, feels forced. Like I'm sure that happened some, but it just didn't quite feel real.
And my yapping about this book gives a lot of emphasis to the woke stuff, but it's relatively minor in the book. Like it's there throughout, but yaknow ... 99.9% of the book is about the actual story, not the woke stuff.
P.S. I already posted this but it seems to not be showing on my posts lists or my books list