Review: Holly

Holly

Holly
By Stephen King
Scribner, 9781668016138, Sept 5, 2023,  464 pp

The Short of It:

Fans of the Bill Hodges trilogy will enjoy spending time with one of King’s most beloved characters.

The Rest of It:

But, this one felt a little different. Holly is hired to investigate a missing woman, but as she investigates the disappearance she realizes that more is at play when a string of missing persons all lead to the same neighborhood. A serial killer? Could it be?

The story that King created is quite dark, but also laced with a little bit of ridiculousness. I found myself pausing many times because it didn’t feel “King-like”. Plus, it’s also set during the pandemic so there are plenty of political jabs made at our former President. I am not a Trump fan but I grew tired of it.

Without giving the plot away, it’s just dark enough to keep you reading and there’s plenty of time spent with Holly to get your Gibney fix but for me, Holly truly shines when she interacts with the two other characters, Jerome and Barbara Robinson. There wasn’t too much of that in this installment.

To keep this brief. I enjoyed Holly but it didn’t hold me captive like King’s other books. I highly recommend reading the other books in this series before picking up Holly. King does a stellar job of giving you what you need to know but the entire series is just great.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

6 thoughts on “Review: Holly”

  1. I agree that this one wasn’t as captivating, but I ignored all that political stuff and focused on the story. I get it was set during the pandemic, but I thought he got a little heavy handed with those vaccine convos, etc.

    1. I agree with you. He clearly used the story to push his beliefs. It was pretty obvious. I know he has including political comments in other books but this time there was nothing subtle about it.

  2. I plan to listen to this one since I’ve enjoy the others on audio. Thanks for the heads-up about the political commentary. I don’t think it will bother me, but we’ll see.

  3. It sounds like it wasn’t your favorite but that the series is still good. The pandemic with Trump was bad enough living thru … so reliving it wouldn’t be too enticing. hmm

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