Kim D's Reviews > Holly

So. I AM a constant reader and I’ve read everything King has ever written. I love many of his books and I preordered this one. I also am not against his politics necessarily, but holy crap….just stop. I was so excited to have a book about Holly—who wouldn’t want a whole book about Holly???—but I made it to page 20. Page 20!—before I realized this wasn’t going to get better. I have a 50 page rule, but I made an exception with this book.

Enough about COVID-19 and the pandemic and boosters and Biden and politics. It’s 2023. When did he start writing this damn book? We’re all so over this. Move on.

I can’t even. I want character development (which, ironically, is one of King’s strengths. And is one of the reasons we all love Holly), plot, some good images, some memorable word choices…but no.

I’m actually sad, y’all. Let me grieve.

Update: Okay. I can’t stand not finishing one of King’s books, even one with the insufferable faults of this one (in his own On Writing, King says not to attempt to convey a message or “teach” in writing because the writing would suffer, yet what does he do? The book reads like a government propaganda piece on the benefits of the COVID vaccine. It’s so not-subtle and detracts from what ended up being a not-terrible story plot), so I tried the Audible version, hoping a good narration would make this preachy screed more palatable. And it worked. I was able to roll my eyes at the clunky rocks thrown at the morons who don’t wear masks or get vaccinated (and somehow deserve to die because of their “stupidity.” It’s not that I’m so against the politics as it’s just clunky and just plain mean spirited) and blah blah blah masks and vaccines good, people who don’t believe that bad. And I don’t see such a nice character as Holly (who smokes) being so mean spirited to others who just don’t agree with her masking ideas.

But buried in all that is a semi-okay story. I did want to find out how it would end. So there’s that. I added two points for plot.

Also. For those of you who say “Mr. King has always been liberal….this should come as no surprise…” have you READ his other books? Particularly the ones he wrote prior to, say, 2000? It’s not the politics. It’s the “old man preaching at me” bit, which does not make for good writing. He wasn’t so clunky before. It’s like King isn’t even writing his books.