Politics. Oough.
An early review of Holly claimed that anti-maskers will hate the novel. I think more than that will find elements of it tiresome. Many people are weary of proselytizing. We've had it up to our ears. Everywhere you go people want to dump their precious socio-political convictions on you. Even if I agree with them, I get sick of it.
King obviously bats for the left. I hear he makes a lot of political tweets. Me, I've never been on Twitter. No interest.
I'll cut Mr. King a break here. His new novel, Holly, takes place smack dab in the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly everyone was obsessed with theories, ideas, fears, hopes. The memories are thankfully starting to fade like a distant nightmare.
It's King's job to take readers to the heart of the matter in his fiction. It would be dishonest leave out the pain, the rage, the frustration we all felt. For the record, I was vaccinated.
Obviously this book centers upon King's Holly Gibney character. She was a major character in the Bill Hodges trilogy as well as the title novella in the If It Bleeds collection.
I loved the Gibney character in the previous stories. She's a little harder to like in Holly. For one thing, King obsessively dwells on her smoking habit, which she picked back up during the pandemic. She is constantly smoking in Holly, and it gets distracting. And distasteful.
Holly is also a lot more bitter, which comes from a loss she suffers and the complicated feelings she has about it. Holly stole my heart in earlier works, but came off like someone I would not like in Holly. I think this is King trying to make her a credible human being. We all have our cranky sides, and it came out in most of us during the Covid months.
Previous characters Jerome and Barbara also appear again. What I did not find credible is the deliriously happy situations they end up in. Same with Holly, for that matter. While Holly has bittersweet feelings about her windfall, it sounds like a dream too good to be true for those of us who constantly struggle through life.
As for the plot of Holly, it's where the book shines. This is one of King's darkest novels, and the story is incredibly suspenseful, and the villains are a couple of his most devious creations. Unfortunately it gets more than a little heavy-handed in that area as well. The bigotry is almost ludicrously overplayed. It's like something out of a cartoon. I like it when antagonists are portrayed in a more even-handed way.
Still, I whooshed through the last hundred-and-fifty pages of Holly in one breathless gulp. Stephen King knows how to pace a novel.
I won't put Holly in the same high category as recent favorites like Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, and Elevation, but it's a damned good book. More than a bit hysterical, but again, it's almost justified.
Stephen King has indicated that we will see Holly Gibney again. This book ends on a positive note, and I think the next time we see Holly she will be in a better place. Then King will turn the gators loose on her. That's why we love him.
Written by Mark Sieber
An early review of Holly claimed that anti-maskers will hate the novel. I think more than that will find elements of it tiresome. Many people are weary of proselytizing. We've had it up to our ears. Everywhere you go people want to dump their precious socio-political convictions on you. Even if I agree with them, I get sick of it.
King obviously bats for the left. I hear he makes a lot of political tweets. Me, I've never been on Twitter. No interest.
I'll cut Mr. King a break here. His new novel, Holly, takes place smack dab in the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly everyone was obsessed with theories, ideas, fears, hopes. The memories are thankfully starting to fade like a distant nightmare.
It's King's job to take readers to the heart of the matter in his fiction. It would be dishonest leave out the pain, the rage, the frustration we all felt. For the record, I was vaccinated.
Obviously this book centers upon King's Holly Gibney character. She was a major character in the Bill Hodges trilogy as well as the title novella in the If It Bleeds collection.
I loved the Gibney character in the previous stories. She's a little harder to like in Holly. For one thing, King obsessively dwells on her smoking habit, which she picked back up during the pandemic. She is constantly smoking in Holly, and it gets distracting. And distasteful.
Holly is also a lot more bitter, which comes from a loss she suffers and the complicated feelings she has about it. Holly stole my heart in earlier works, but came off like someone I would not like in Holly. I think this is King trying to make her a credible human being. We all have our cranky sides, and it came out in most of us during the Covid months.
Previous characters Jerome and Barbara also appear again. What I did not find credible is the deliriously happy situations they end up in. Same with Holly, for that matter. While Holly has bittersweet feelings about her windfall, it sounds like a dream too good to be true for those of us who constantly struggle through life.
As for the plot of Holly, it's where the book shines. This is one of King's darkest novels, and the story is incredibly suspenseful, and the villains are a couple of his most devious creations. Unfortunately it gets more than a little heavy-handed in that area as well. The bigotry is almost ludicrously overplayed. It's like something out of a cartoon. I like it when antagonists are portrayed in a more even-handed way.
Still, I whooshed through the last hundred-and-fifty pages of Holly in one breathless gulp. Stephen King knows how to pace a novel.
I won't put Holly in the same high category as recent favorites like Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, and Elevation, but it's a damned good book. More than a bit hysterical, but again, it's almost justified.
Stephen King has indicated that we will see Holly Gibney again. This book ends on a positive note, and I think the next time we see Holly she will be in a better place. Then King will turn the gators loose on her. That's why we love him.
Written by Mark Sieber
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