Holly

"Just when you think you've seen the worst human beings have to offer, Holly thinks, and There's no end to evil."

A character that was originally meant to be a walk-on in MR. MERCEDES ended up stealing the show AND the hearts of King's constant readers. She goes on to appear in several other novels and a novella and is back in her self-titled novel, HOLLY.

Holly Gibney has been one of the most fascinating characters I've read in crime/supernatural thrillers. Her arc spans the Bill Hodges trilogy, continues in THE OUTSIDER and she's even featured later in a novella, "If It Bleeds." I loved watching her bond form and flourish with the character, Bill Hodges, who is responsible for pulling the reclusive Holly from her shell and help her find her purpose and passion in life.

I was over the moon to get another Holly Gibney feature, but was extremely disappointed to find this serial killer case drowning in pandemic and political fiction. I get that King used the pandemic for some convenient plot devices, but there was no need to take it so far and involve it so much. Though I shouldn't be surprised. Stephen King can't seem to help but go overboard with his political views, so why wouldn't he take the same opportunity with his pandemic beliefs? What's funny is that I followed the majority of the precautions, some cases I took them further than Holly, and even I got annoyed at it - not to mention there were some incorrect information shared - but hey, it's fiction, right?

If you're able to ignore/skim all of the above, then you actually have a great core story: the disappearance of Bonnie Rae Dahl. Holly has been hired by Bonnie's mother to locate her daughter and in the course of the investigation, Holly uncovers a rash of disappearances suspiciously close to one another, spanning years. I was quite shocked to discover who was behind these disappearances and even more so at why these people vanished so completely.

Now I do have to say that I feel that King got a bit out of character with some of the actions Holly takes in later sections of the book. It just didn't feel right to me. I've recently reread all of her stories and actually finished her novella the day I started this one, so it was all very fresh. It could also have a little bit to do with immersion reading using the audiobook, where they used a different narrator. That really threw me because Will Patton has always been the voice of Holly and the abrupt change to Justine Lupe was jarring. Justine Lupe did a good job, but she didn't give any change in her voice for the different characters, which at times made it difficult to know who was talking in the dialogue. She also didn't really nail some of the older character voices, but that's me being nitpicky.

I was a little disappointed that King pretty much sidelined Jerome Robinson in this one. Jerome has always played an important role in Holly stories, so I was looking forward to seeing these two interact more in this one and was left wanting. Barbara had her own side story going, but no real case participation until she became convenient.

So thus, the average rating. As much as I love Holly Gibney, I'll continue to reread her other stories, but I doubt I will ever give this one another read. Once was enough.

I've also finally learned my lesson about buying Stephen King novels immediately upon release. I'm so over the political crap. I think he does more damage for his side of things than help.