Holly

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Justine Lupe, Stephen King

#1 New York Times Bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book * An NPR Best Book of the Year

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and resourceful characters, returns in this chilling “exploration of grief and delusion, just pure undistilled evil” (New York magazine) as she uncovers the truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency, hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just passed away. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny’s desperate voice makes it impossible to turn her down.

Meanwhile, mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are also harboring a shocking, unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to…for they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Now Holly must summon all of her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver these unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries in this chilling and unforgettable masterwork from Stephen King.

©2023 Stephen King (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Of course it's excellent,

The 'reviews' in here that slam it are predictable and have nothing to do with the book, everything to do with America's current outbreak of fanaticism. Odd that his disappointed detractors have never noticed that King's human villains have always reflected his keen awareness of how real evil plays out among the citizens of small town and rural America - we recognize them and have known them from our schooldays. His familiar bad guys are everyday bullies, abusers, hypocrites, haters, and random sociopaths writ large and monstrously scary. There used to be a sane consensus about those types, in real life as well as fantastic novels.

The books work so well because King understands understands vice, and American-style vice particularly, in all of its moral and psychological awfulness. He also understands American goodness, in all of its stubborn, earnest sanity. And he understands what's going on today. It's in his books because writers are culturally engaged, even when they seem or pretend not to be - literacy 101.

And it's odd that the complainers are so exercised about Holly, anyway - the villains aren't even vicious sheriffs or lunatic clergy or woman-bullyers (plenty of those traditionally right wing bad guys in his works). Just some perverse old academics genially going about their evil versus a modest, luminously decent, politically temperate woman investigator, in a pandemic-exhausted, half-lunatic, Trumpy world that King could have written himself. Same as the one we're all trying to survive.

And as always, it's delicious, creepy fun.

Perfect narrator

I have six hours left. But I wanted to say a few things. Great choice for the narrator. I recognized Holly’s voice right away.
Also, I love the politics. Yes, they are thrown in a lot, but it works with where this country was during Covid. So it works. More when I’m finished.

Good writing as usual but disappointed.

This is my critique.
1. Steve, why did you have go there with your politics?
2. What made you select any but Will Patton for this novel?
3. I liked the Holly in prior books not only because of her personality but also the way she spoke. Kind of robotic, but that was her.
Someone should have advised you not to do that. Big mistake.

Absolutely loved it

My first NEW Stephen King book since I became a "Constant Reader". I love how King weaves modern day events into his stories. It makes it more real and believable.

I stayed to the end

Despite the heavy left-leaning political beginnings, as a committed fan I decided to stay through to the end, albeit at 2+ speed. I hope King feels better after getting his anti-trump and pro-vaccination views out to his readers who don’t follow him on social media so he can get back to taking us through the thrillers we know and love him for.

Such a let down

This is the wrong narrator for the book: she wasn’t able to capture Holly’s presence at all and her tendency to shout the dialogue hit my ear as strident.

It seems also that Holly’s entire personality has changed from prior books in the series. I remember her as having somewhat quirky traits, but this Holly is flat and without her former struggles and inner dialogue. Not that we spend much time with Holly in this novel: more time than is necessary is spent with the creepy villains (with witchy, high-pitched narration).

For me, Holly was one of the more interesting characters from this series, so I was really looking forward to a novel that focuses on her. This isn’t that novel.

The characters constant inquiries of, “Are you vaxxed?” along with mentioning which brand of vaccine they received while urging each other to take off masks was weird and became tedious. Not one person said “vaccination”. always “vaxxed” which I’ve never encountered IRL. This is another pet peeve of mine with King’s recent novels: his use of slang is very narrow and often awkwardly non-modern.

Loved this!

Excellent story with relatable characters you can’t help but love — or hate. While I’m aware of Mr. King’s political positions, I did not find the story to be “preachy” or overbearing in any way — they simply and accurately reflected our country during the height of the pandemic. And while I’m a huge fan of Will Patton, I never cared for his portrayal of Holly. I found Justine Lupe’s voice much better suited for this book. Maybe a collaboration for the next Holly story?

Wonderful and terrifying

Another brilliant story from the great Stephen King. His ability to create believable and sympathetic characters facing dire situations is unmatched. As is his thrilling imagination.

Not Holly’ voice

I took stars off because of the narrator. This is not the voice and mannerisms of the Holly we know and love. I ended up switching to the kindle book so I could keep her in my head. I’m my opinion the choice of narrator here was a huge mistake.

A gift from the King

Thank you Mr. King for this amazing book! Thank you for telling the truth about the pandemic and not shying away from portraying the various courtesies and unfortunate idiocy we all had to endure during that time (and ongoing!) The story is brilliant and scary and Holly is lovely. And I, for one, was grateful for the break from Will Patten’s narration. Time for Holly to have a voice of her own.