Stephen King’s HOLLY marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
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 harbouring an 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: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Dark bleatings everyone! I read this book the day after it was released, but I didn’t want to throw my hat into the ring until now because absolutely everyone was already talking about it, and I didn’t have anything new to add to the conversation at the time. Before I go in to my thoughts, I want to recommend that if you’re new to the character of Holly, you should read the other books she’s in before you hit this one. You can read Holly without reading the others first and still understand the story just fine, but I think you’ll get a lot more out of the book if you’re already familiar with her. There are some references to the other books that involve spoilers for them, and also over the course of these stories, Holly’s had quite a lot of character development that I think would be a real shame for you to miss out on. In order, they are Mr Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, and the title novella in If It Bleeds.
So, on to the main attraction. There are two main things I want to talk about, so I’m sort of putting my regular review style to the side. I could talk about King’s writing and characters, but as you probably already know, I’m a life-long King fan so naturally, I think he’s great in both these regards. However, just so we’re clear, I really loved this book and found it a great reading experience. It’s my favourite of the books he’s released in the last decade. His style has evolved a little over time, and I like it, but there are shades of his older writing in this too.
Firstly, the villains – Rodney and Emily. They’re a seemingly sweet and educated older couple with some of the health issues that you can expect with age. A kindly, vulnerable, and non-threatening pair, except for that they aren’t at all. Watch out for these folks! I loved them. I often say that King writes children extremely well, but I think I’ve failed to mention how well he also writes his older characters. Ralph from Insomnia is one of my favourite King characters of all time. Rodney and Emily are great. I mean, they’re villains, but as far as depicting them as a regular elderly couple (with a shared dark side, of course), they’re so realistic. The fact that you’d never expect these two of the crimes they commit makes them all the more formidable, and they’re my favourite part of the book. They really reminded me of a couple in an earlier episode (and one of my favourites) of Supernatural, which made me smile a lot.
The next thing I’d like to address is a criticism that I’ve been seeing everywhere – that Stephen King should keep his politics out of his work, that there’s too much mention of Covid and vaccines, and that there’s “too much Trump bashing”. Of course, I’ve seen these sentiments expressed by a lot of readers that politically align with the right – and that’s to be expected, I think. It grates on people when their personal beliefs and opinions are challenged, particularly if they feel mocked or attacked, or if they feel that their leanings are being depicted as the wrong way to lean. I can see why this book would rub them the wrong way. I’ve also seen these complaints voiced by people who share King’s political opinions. They say that the mention of masks and vaccines and Covid are way too numerous and frequent, that the constant concern over infection grew annoying and tiresome, and that it took them out of the story and reminded them of the real world too much. I can also understand that – it is discussed A LOT.
Here’s where I sit with this – Firstly, King has always discussed his politics in his work. Maybe he does bake it into his prose more than he used to, I don’t know.
In regard to all the pandemic stuff, initially, I felt the same way. It was a lot, too much. But as I went on reading, it became less jarring, and at some point, I found it weirdly relatable and comforting. One of my favourite things about King’s work – perhaps my very favourite thing, actually – is that he always seems to do his best to just tell the truth about people. I’m not saying that he gets every detail right, or that he isn’t guilty of making mistakes where certain representation is concerned – the man has been writing a long time, and particularly in his earlier works, you’ll find a few things that haven’t aged well. However, I sincerely believe that he does his best to reflect people as they are, warts and all.
His characters are always layered. His protagonists are usually very flawed people that make bad but relatable decisions. For years, King has been giving us heroes forged out of alcoholism, trauma, abuse, cheating, and crime. And we love them, because they feel real. I might not always like the things his heroes do, but I believe that they’d do what they’re doing. And in this book set in 2021, when the world was still in and out of lockdowns, when the vaccines had just been rolled out, I came to realise that he was just telling the truth. Covid is mentioned frequently because in 2021, that’s still all we were talking about. It’s already in Holly’s character to be a little germ-phobic, meticulous, and hyper-focused, so it makes total sense that she’d be donning a mask at all times and checking that the people she interacts with have been vaccinated. Politically, Holly is a leftie, and she’s concerned with the same things that most of us were concerned with during this time. Of course it would be on her mind.
It was on my mind. I can’t tell you how insanely anxious I was between 2020 and 2022. I don’t have a spleen, and am therefore highly susceptible to infection, particularly cold and viruses. My immune system is trash, and I don’t have the first line of defence against these things that most other people have. If I get a cough or a sore throat, or even just a high temperature, I have to take it way more seriously than I used to back when ole spleeny was still with me. I’ve been hospitalised because of the flu, and it was scary. When Covid rolled into town, I was freaking the f out. The news, and the entire world, kept going on and on about the death toll, and the risk to healthy people, never mind people like me. We were constantly being told about the unusually high and rapid infection rate. I was utterly convinced that I would catch the virus, and then when I did, I’d die. I’m not saying that to be bleak, I’m just telling you the truth about my mindset at that time. My husband and I were freaking out because he didn’t get furloughed for a short while and he had to leave the house, and we had a decontamination system for when he got home every day because he was terrified about catching it, and infecting and killing me. We lost people to it. It was a long, consistent, and terrifying ordeal. It was extreme and all-consuming, and after a while, pretty goddamn annoying. And I think that’s what King reflected in Holly.
He frequently brings it up because it was frequently on everyone’s minds. He mentions masks and vaccines because – whichever side of politics you’re on – we were all talking about masks and vaccines. Constantly.
It seems like too much when you’re turning the pages but that’s because it WAS too much. We were all stressed the f out about it all the time. My memory of that time period makes me laugh now (not in a ‘haha covid what a hoot’ way, more in a ‘thank god I’m not living on the edge of a paranoid panic attack 24/7 anymore’ way). King was just reflecting the time as it was, and the people as we were. That’s what I think anyway.
Overall, I think Holly is a wonderful read. The story is great! I’d recommend it – especially to King fans. If you’re a King fan that hasn’t enjoyed his last few releases, I’d give this one a try. I had the best time with it.
If you’d like to check out Stephen King or get a copy of the book, there are links for you below:
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