Let’s clear a few things off the table.
Yes, this is a Holly Gibney novel. You don’t care for her much, do you?
Yes, this book is set during the pandemic and there is a fair amount of discussion about Covid. People in the book talk about masks and vaccines. You just lived through it, you don’t care much for that, do you?
Yes, Stephen King is active, politically. He has opinions, one of which is that he really doesn’t care much for Trump. And there are moments in this book when those feelings are made clear. You don’t care much for that, do you?
My apologies for starting off-topic. But it seems like anymore, as soon as a Stephen King book is released the same thing happens. There’s a burst of static from the corner of the darkened room and the ol’ social media transistor radio starts blasting the same old music we’ve heard a thousand times over.
And to be clear. If you are a member of one of the groups I just referred to? While it may seem otherwise, I have no quarrel with you. All I’m saying is that there’s a reason why I don’t eat at restaurants I don’t like. It just isn’t for me. And if Stephen King’s latest installments aren’t for you, that’s fine and I have no interest in swaying you from that opinion. It’s just that maybe we’re at the point where it’s better to take a pass on his books in favor of content you’re more likely to enjoy. There’s no need to proclaim to the mountaintop that you don’t like his new writing. Because chances are he’s going to continue writing what he wants.
Anyway, beep beep, Richie. How about that book?
It’s a shame that I suspect many readers will not give this a fair chance based on any or all of the issues I have just gone over. I’m not going to suggest that it took me off my feet and I would not rank this among King’s greatest works. But after struggling quite a bit with Fairy Tale, I found this to be a refreshing return to form. It was entertaining and I felt myself comfortably moving through the narrative. The book itself is structured in such a way that you feel like it’s reading quickly but at the same time it doesn’t feel rushed.
And as a last preamble, I feel like I should point out that if you are new to the Holly character, you shouldn’t start with this book. The story itself is pretty well contained within this volume so it’s not like the plot is incomprehensible. And you can get the gist of most of it from the context. But there are a slew of secondary characters that you will be expected to know from the other books. And Holly frequently reflects on her personal history, with Bill Hodges in particular. Having all those touchstones absent from your mind will be a barrier to enjoying the book.
If you want to go back to the proper entry point, you will need to read the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, followed by The Outsider and “If It Bleeds,” the title novella from the collection that bears the same name.
What I found most surprising about this book is that behind the veneer of light-heartedness that Holly often puts off as a character, there is a dark underbelly to the story that is grim and disturbing. The monsters of the tale are about as horrible as I have seen from King in quite some time and while many will take me to task on this, there were elements of this story that put me right back into his golden age of writing. And the most impressive part is how much of the book these antagonists spend off stage. We are introduced to them early on and we know exactly what they are doing. This provides a fantastic level of tension as we watch our heroes slowly zeroing in on a suspect, oblivious to the level of evil and tragedy that they are about to reveal.
This is not a long book. And compared to other offerings from King, the story will likely come off as somewhat simplistic. But it accomplishes what it needs to with incredible efficiency. And interspersed through it all, we get a poignant glimpse as Holly is forced to come to terms with the traumas and challenges of her own life. The individual elements of the story don’t always gel together as well as they could but as the book drives towards it’s inevitable climax, everyone is drawn together with their own crucial role to play in the course of events. Dramatic irony is a narrative device when the reader or the audience is given information that the protagonist does not have. King uses this brilliantly throughout the book. And it comes to play in not just Holly’s subplot but also with the secondary characters as they unknowingly have their own close encounters with the monsters of the story.
If I had any quibbles it would be the following. First, while I loved the villains for not just their brutality but also their complexity, they have an unusually stilted form of speech with each other. Their weirdly formal way of addressing each other at times comes off like a bad actor trying to pass themselves off in a period drama. This isn’t a huge deal but considering that this is usually a strength for King, it was a little distracting. Also, while the ending was exciting and satisfying, it is a little on the neat side and could have stood from having a slightly rougher edge to it.
None of that is enough to outweigh the brighter aspects of the book for me. I will concede that the middle of the book may drag as the plot becomes focused on Holly’s investigation and the villains largely depart from the story. For me, a lot of this book seemed to depend largely on the reader’s willingness to make connections and recognize the evil lurking around the edges of the plot. It’s not unlike reading comic books where the important storytelling is often what happens between the panels in the reader’s imagination. Could Holly have had a harder time at the end than she does? Maybe. But I think part of what makes the monsters of the tale effective is that we see their weaknesses as well as their disturbing behavior and actions.
In all, the book is an entertaining read. I don’t know if this is the last we will hear from Holly and if it is, I’m okay with that. Also, though, if she does make her way into another Stephen King book, I’m also okay with it.
After all, it’s the pen that I’m a fan of, not the ink.