Holly

Mixed feelings about this book. I like the titular character as it's great to have leading PI's who are neuro-diverse (see the great "IQ" series of novels for another engaging character.) I like her backstory which I learned from the three Bill Hodges novels. I'd not read the other, more recent, series in which Holly and Barbara Robinson appear. And I don't think I will read it now as there's quite a few references which apparently spoil the climax in at least one of those novels. On the negative side, I don't like mysteries where the identity of the villain(s) is immediately known by the reader. While this gave intense insight in to their heads in this instance, I feel much more suspense could have been built. And then there's the cannibalism - which doesn't remain a mystery for long either. I think it was handled mostly tastefully (pun intended) - except for one scene late in the book which involves lines drawn by a sharpie - which was jaw-dropping for me. Lastly, the "twist" which leads to the climax was telegraphed a mile away. NOTE- I was disappointed in the audio version of this novel. I'd listened to the outstanding reader for the three Bill Hodges novels. Although Holly was a secondary character, he gave her a voice which illuminated her uniqueness. While having a female reader for "Holly" makes sense, I thought she gave Holly a flat, uninteresting and often tough to listen to voice. Overall, a good, mostly engaging story, but lacking in a few key areas.

Finally had some time to come back and leave some thoughts. I absolutely love Holly Gibney as a character. She's one of the best characters Mr. King has created in recent memory. You can tell he thinks so too, since she has evolved from a supporting character in the Bill Hodges Trilogy and the [b:The Outsider 36124936 The Outsider Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524596540l/36124936.SY75.jpg 57566471] to being the protagonist in first a novella ([b:If It Bleeds 46015758 If It Bleeds Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571399830l/46015758.SY75.jpg 70552618]) and now a full novel.I found this book uneven. There were parts where I was really engaged and wanted to keep listening, but there were others where my attention started to wander.This is also set during covid. That's somewhat important to the plot, but not really that important in my opinion. Mr. King has an author note about how If It Bleeds should have covid in it too, but doesn't because he wrote it before we knew about covid. Personally I think that's part of why I liked that novella better.I read as recreation/an escape. I prefer not to have to be reminded of that stuff. For me that impacted my overall enjoyment of the book.Overall I'd give this 3.5 stars. I liked it, but not as much as past stories with her. I found it slow at times, and the case/mystery just wasn't as interesting to me as some of the others.I hope we get another Holly Gibney story though, because I really love her and the supporting characters (the Robinsons mainly) and I've enjoyed having some mystery/thriller books to consume in between all the fantasy and sci-fi I typically read.With regards to the audio. As strange as it sounds, I missed Will Patton. He was a great fit for the other novels. I got used to his Holly voice. He's narrated all the previous Holly Gibney stories, including the novella, so the change of narrator caught me off guard. That said, if you're going to replace him with a more appropriate female narrator, picking one of the two actresses to portray her on TV is a good choice.I think Justine Lupe does a good job, although it's been a few years since I watched the Mr. Mercedes TV show, so I didn't really recall her portrayal of the character very well. Once I got used to the narration swap, I enjoyed it. I hope that they keep her for any future Holly stories for consistency, because I really hate when narrators change for series/characters.

Holly was a pleasant yet weird experience, to say the least.

I define it as weird because I lack a better word for describing how engaged and immersed I felt while reading this book. I usually can’t remember most characters of a book by the time I finish it because most simply don’t matter or aren’t explored well enough for me to care but during Holly I felt strongly for their pains, celebrations and even sadness. In terms of character development this is probably one of the best books I’ve read and I’ll definitely read the other books.

I saw lots of complains about too many mentions of COVID and politics but that felt more like additional context and insight on their personalities.

Overall a very good read and possibly a good (soft) introduction to Stephen King.

Best one yet. Okay this is by FAR my favorite story that Holly has been a part of. I've read the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, The Outsider and If It Bleeds, and everything about this one made me love Holly even more. My favorite storyline thus far. HUGE downfall that ended up kicking my rating down—all the Trump bashing and COVID bullshit. I get what he was trying to do and how he was trying to portray for Holly but I personally feel he let his own beliefs slip through the cracks a little bit and it was just distasteful in my opinion. Had there been less of that, it would have been an easy 5⭐️ for me and probably my favorite book of the year so far. Will still highly recommend.