Holly by Stephen King

Holly by Stephen King
Published by Scribner
Publication date: September 5, 2023
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Horror, Mystery

Bookshop, Amazon

I know many people have moved towards cozy holiday reading in the last month, but my reading has remained varied and a little bit dark. So, I have a compromise today: a book with a Christmas-y title, but written by the master of suspense and horror. It’s Stephen King’s Holly and while it won’t warm your heart it does involve hearts and is no more terrifying than the news these days. Even better, like all the best of King’s books it’s the kind of reading you can’t put down.

Holly is both the novel’s title and the main character in King’s latest series. She makes her first appearance towards the end of Mr. Mercedes; a highly-strung woman in her 40s with OCD still living with her overbearing mother. In the novel Holly, years have passed and Holly has come into her own, much to her mother’s displeasure. She’s not only managing her neuroses, but has made them work for her as a private investigator, going so far as to her start her own agency with a partner. Unfortunately, the pandemic has brought much of business to a halt, but given that she lives in a red state there’s no enforced lockdown. Which means when a desperate mother badgers her to find her adult daughter, Holly’s bored enough to say yes, despite the fact that the police won’t even classify the young woman as abducted.

This is the jumping off point for King’s vivid, singular imagination to take flight and he takes full advantage. Holly is packed with mystery and suspense as one missing woman may be tied to others, but while they make for engrossing reading it’s Holly and her circle of friends that round out the novel. Jerome and his sister Barbara are back, growing up and living their own lives, but still a key part of Holly’s. Holly is flawed and damaged, but fabulous in her quirkiness and the fact that the very things that make her seem broken also give her a unique and important perspective. It’s these personal touches as well as King’s no-nonsense attitude towards modern-day America (hint: if you think COVID was a hoax and vaccinations a con this is not the book for you) that keep him firmly on my list of most readable, go-to, great-escape authors. It’s a bit dark if you need warm and light during the holidays, but I loved spending time with Holly this month.

 

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