Stephen King Book Club

And so we close out Stephen King Book Club with "Holly". There will be future entries upon future King books (for example the collection "You Like It Darker" comes out in May). But this review is the last until those new books come out. I have reviewed everything I own with this.

This happens to be the best Holly Gibney story. Mostly because it's the type of hard-boiled mystery "Mr. Mercedes" SHOULD have been, but wasn't. And also because the lack of supernatural elements make the cat-and-mouse between Holly and the Harrises that much more interesting and evenly matched.

It's interesting that Holly is going through a hard time. Her horrible mother died of Covid and she's started smoking again. She quits again at the end of the novel, but it's such a sad thing to see.

King says in the Afterward that although Holly shares his views on vaccinations, if he had a protagonist or major character who was an Anti-vaxxer, he would hope to reasonably represent their views. Even in 2023 Uncle Stevie still doesn't get it: That crap is NOT reasonable, and should never be treated as such. King's politics have evolved over the years, but his insistence in fair-mindedness in the current climate is lazy thinking. No other way to put it.

It IS a very political book, at least in the background, mostly because Covid was tragically turned into a political issue, as were vaccinations. In a sane country that would never have happened. It's not just the trauma of losing her awful mother. Holly is suffering the same trauma we all went through back then. And truth be told, we're still suffering it.

This is the first book I've seen King write that is very conscious of the fact that he has used (and overused) certain offensive words (like the n-word) in the past, and is sort of him acknowledging he does not have the license he claimed he did there in "On Writing". King's politics HAVE evolved, and his previous refusal to entertain the notion of cutting back on that type of thing, even slightly, is something he's starting to understand is actually something he needs to be more sensitive about. 60 books late, if you ask me. But the selling point of Stephen King is he's in his mid-seventies and you can still teach him new things. Amazing, but true.

Jerome is a wonderful character for the first time ever because Tyrone Feelgood isn't even MENTIONED.

But I especially dug Barbara Robinson, and her bravery in seeking out Olivia Thornsbury, and the fearlessness of her final essay for the poetry contest. "The poetry is my essay." That's hardcore. I also loved Olivia asking her "Do you understand how good you are at this?" What an amazing mentor.

I also cheered at the doomed Ellen Craslow for refusing to buckle under the Harrises' torture and tyranny. That woman had been to hell and back, and I love that she refuses to give those monsters any level of satisfaction. It felt very good.

King Connections Of Notes: Holly Gibney novel, and the events from all of her previous stories ("Mr. Mercedes", "Finders Keepers", "End Of Watch", "The Outsider", and "If It Bleeds") are all mentioned. Also Inside View, although that one's pretty much a gimme at this point.

That's a wrap for Stephen King Book Club (for now). I'll see you all in May when I review "You Like It Darker". Ooh, "Cujo" sequel! Can't wait! 5 stars.

Latest Stephen King short story collection!

Like Full Dark, No Stars, this collection is billed as a grim group of stories. While that IS true of Full Dark, No Stars, I found many of the stories here varied in tone, some with refreshingly positive messages. So even if I DO Like It Darker, not everything actually is, or even needs to be.

My favorite stories are the novella "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream", the "Cujo" sequel "Rattlesnakes", and the morality play "The Answer Man". Good stuff. Collection Overall: 4 stars.

Two Talented Bastids

It's a cool and interesting story. It explores big themes about what creativity actually is, and the harsh truth that many people would do just about anything to harness the latent talent they have, but that they seem currently unable to channel.

Luckily for us, the Two Talented Bastids in the story are decent, morally upright fellows, and despite his skepticism , the son Mark is too.

King Connections of Notes:

Castle Rock. Derry. Dark Score Lake and "The Noonan Place" from "Bag Of Bones" is mentioned (it's been torn down and replaced by condos). The Suicide Stairs from "Gwendy's Button Box" is mentioned. Deadlights is from "IT".

I liked it. 4 stars.

The Fifth Step

The story is predictable, manipulative, derivative, and mean. Not one of King's finer recent efforts. 1 star.

Willie The Weirdo

Nasty, unpleasant story. Fortunately, Willie is SUCH a sucky character you almost feel he got what was coming to him. Though the story is a spiritual successor to "Gramma", the poor kid in that story sure didn't deserve his bad end there. The horrible ending here serves Willie right. 1 1/2 stars.

Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream

Stephen King OFTEN reuses storylines and premises if he can think of new angle. And this novella feel very much like a retelling of "The Outsider".

Full disclosure: That book got positive reviews and critics and fans love it. Me? I think it is the single shoddiest book Stephen King has written in the last ten years. I am bewildered it is highly regarded. It is as shoddy as some of King's shittier novels from the 1980's before he got off cocaine.

Basically, King created a perfect locked room mystery. And it was so airtight, as the book went along, he simply did not have the talent to come up with a good explanation. So he made the explanation "supernatural". In a straight procedural? That is dirty pool, and a completely unfair mystery. Adding to the novel's clear dysfunction is King was so clearly running out of gas, he added Holly Gibney from "Mr. Mercedes" to the main cast to add character quirks, and a way to explain the goofy monster he was forced to use as a mystery solve.

"Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" shares many surface similarities to that book, but all of the major differences are huge improvements. I think it was an absolutely idiotic decision to make the police chief Ralph Anderson there the protagonist of that book. While Terry Maitland is innocent and being framed, which gets him killed, the idea that the reader is supposed to sympathize with the fact that Ralph refuses to entertain his innocence, and especially digs in upon hearing Holly's outlandish (but true) theories is bullshit.

Basically King decided to make the hero of that book a shoddy cop, who sucks at his job, and lacks even basic common sense or reason, or the ability to admit he might be wrong.

Supernatural cop-out or not, the proper thing would have been to make Terry Maitland the main protagonist of The Outsider and left his innocence without question for the reader and made Ralph the villain. And that's what "Danny's Coughlin's Bad Dream" does.

What's great is that Danny isn't even being framed. The supernatural element is simply how he discovered the crime, and King is wise enough at this point to understand that doesn't even NEED an explanation. It's just A Thing That Is. But while Danny Coughlin is a good Samaritan, Frank Jalbert, every inch as intractable as Ralph Anderson, but mentally unstable, is the actual bad guy. The mystery is actually besides the point. I like that his shoddy police work is being called that, instead of repeatedly excused. The Outsider's "happy" ending involved both clearing Terry Maitland's name posthumously, and saving Ralph Anderson's reputation. It's my opinion, Ralph's reputation did not deserve to be saved. He did not do anything illegal when screwing over Maitland, and to be fair, this is a HUGE difference between him and Jalbert. But there was a point he was severely tempted to, so that asshole gets no credit for it from me.

Danny is not a particularly smart or learned character. What he is is sensible. Arguably there is little tension as to whether or not he'll be charged. Of course he won't. Because he's innocent there will be no actual evidence against him. Even knowing that, he made several cunning moves to protect himself from Jalbert's and Davis' manipulations.

Davis is almost as unforgivable as Jalbert and I see her as exactly as stupid and damaging as Ralph Anderson was. Unlike Ralph, she is not exactly redeemed by the end of the story. Although truthfully, I didn't consider Ralph that either, no matter WHAT King wanted me to think there.

When Danny looks up at the newspapers photo of Yvonne's family grieving and sees Jalbert smiling, I was like "This guy is just as sinister in thought and intention as whoever really did that." The glee is the thing that fucking galls me so much. What an evil character.

King Connections Of Note: Inside View (Unsurprisingly).

Best story in the collection. 5 stars.

Finn

I find the story confusing and the ending unsatisfying. I sense there is humor in the background of it (of the gallows variety) but it all feels so mean, it's not actually funny.

I would very much like to learn the details of how Ludlum and Pando saved the world in 2017.

Weird opinion: Ludlum bringing up the crazy idea that Elvis absorbed his twin in utero does not strikes me as TOO crazy, at least not as far as identifiable markers about that go. Crazy idea or not, if you saw that story somewhere, it's an unknown fact you wouldn't mind spreading around.

The things that told me he's crazy is claiming Elvis was gay. There's somethin' "LATENT" there, by God, and considering where they were, and under what circumstances, that seemed a weirder thing to me for him to note than the fetal cannibalism. Believe it or not. Utterly bizarre thing to obsess about in that moment.

Not loving this. 2 1/2 stars.

On Slide Inn Road

I actually really like this story. It combines several well-worn Stephen King tropes and by the end subverts them all.

The car being stranded in a bad place is a King oldie usually involving a young and fighting couple, but an entire family is seen here. Also a King trope is the nasty old grandfather or grandmother that the parents can't stand but the kids are too stupid to fear. Another classic King trope.

Except it doesn't go down that way. Not only does Grandpop save them all from the thieves, his quick-thinking and heroism makes us understand every unkind thing Frank and Corinne thought about him was actually untrue. The actual hindrances to the crisis and weak links of the family are the parents, mostly Frank, not Grandpop. And I thought that was a pretty cool twist.

I love the phrase "That is one slutty billfold." Stephen King knows the best colloquialisms. Bar none. 3 1/2 stars.

Red Screen

I have mentioned in the past Stephen King has been a problematic writer all throughout his career. And it's still true. This story is the proof. If you told him "Uncle Stevie, are you aware you just wrote a story with the sole purpose of having a thought experiment of giving men justification to brutally murder their nagging wives?" Stephen King is a problematic writer because if you pointed out that true, troubling thing, he'd be shocked, because when he wrote the story that red flag disgusting subtext never occurred to him. He would be shocked to hear it and only even money he'd accept the criticism as legit (even though it totally is). King's career is FILLED with shit like this.

Nasty story. 0 stars.

The Turbulence Expert

I don't really get the logic of how this works.

And Craig is the bastard of the year for refusing to tell Mary what a devil's bargain she'd be making.

King Connections: I am almost positive the facilitator mentioned in this story and The Lisping Man, the Ultimate Evil behind "The Institute", are one and the same. Mary bringing up precogs cinches that idea.

I was a little unclear on the concept. 3 stars.

Laurie

VERY cute story. SO cute, it almost does not belong in this collection, scary climax or not.

King Connections: The story is connected to the novel "Duma Key" and the short story "Rattlesnakes". 3 1/2 stars.

Rattlesnakes

"Cujo" makes a LOT of sense to make a sequel out of.

First of all, King likes the book, but considering he was strung out when he wrote it, he doesn't remember writing it. Which is sad. Revisiting and updating the characters for a story he'll remember writing has got to be very rewarding for him.

The other major selling point is most people think "Cujo" had a shitty ending. And yet, using this story to see the consequences of it over the following decades it cool and you are rooting for the reignition of the Vic and Donna Trenton 'ship.

Vic and Donna. Just realized one of my own couples in my story has the same name except they are both totally evil.

I love that Vic pegs Andy Pelley as a problem. He's not as frustrating as Jalbert, but he's frustrating for the same reason. On the plus side, even if he doesn't like it, the dude knows when he's licked. If Jalbert did, "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" would not have spiraled so.

The story misspells Heckle and Jeckle as Heckle and Jekyll. I'm a Terrytoons nerd. I notice these things, Uncle Stevie.

King Connections Of Note:

Direct sequel to "Cujo", ties into "Duma Key" and feels VERY much like a spiritual sequel to that book as well. Lloyd Sunderson and his dog from the previous story "Laurie" also cameo at the end.

A great read and great to get extra closure and context for one of King's most unsatisfying endings ever. 4 1/2 stars.

The Dreamers

The story is the scariest in the collection but I like it solely because I like the laconic protagonist. His job interviews are great because he refuses to answer questions and simply mildly agrees with any opinion offered to him. And that adds to his mystique and weirdly impresses his future employers. Davis is a cynical asshole but I forgive him because he's cynical for the right reasons.

I especially love that Davis is all "If the cops were smarter, they'd question why the gas explosion happened in the kitchen and Elgin was found in the study." I love that.

King Connections: Castle Rock and Dark Score Lake. 4 stars.

The Answer Man

Wonderful story. The hook of the premise is great. The Answer Man noting that smart people were more likely to ask impotent questions than dumb people is an interesting insight. The refusal to answer "should" questions is also another great hook.

But tragedy strikes, and Phil is finally able cope after meeting the Burning Woman. The answers stop mattering. Others have it worse. His life of charity and kindness afterwards suggests tragedy only need to define our lives if we let it.

The ending is perfect with all answers free. Phil hurriedly asks a bunch of contradictory questions about the afterlife and the Answer Man's answer to them all is the same: "Yes." That wonderful, and it's a real beaut of a story. 5 stars.

The book jacket describes the latest King novel as a one-of-a-kind experience only he could pull off. In the afterward King all but admits he's unhappy with the book, almost ditched it, and put it out not because it was good, but because he felt he patched it up enough to be "good enough".

Who is right? The marketers or King?

King, of course, but I'm not 100% sure King fully understands why the book is so weak. Yeah, the narrative is shady, and all over the map. But speaking as a person who likes messy fiction that never bugs me.

But I feel like there are things in the book King has gone to the well over FAR too many times, and while it's ALWAYS made me uncomfortable, seeing it yet AGAIN, in a book even he doesn't like bugs me. I'll try to put down my thoughts best here.

Stephen King spent the 1990's trying to be sympathetic and a champion of abused women and also an advocate of women's lib and rights issues. He tackled abuse, rape, domestic violence, and abortion in his work constantly. King finds this era of his writing as him "trying too hard". I won't agree or disagree, and think his success ultimately varies from book to book. What I will say is that King wants to be an ally SO badly and yet does a LOT of shit that shows he's clueless.

In "Insomnia" he made Susan Day, the feminist iconoclast who spoke on behalf of abortion rights unlikable and selfish. The term one of the heroes used was "stirring the pot". And after an lethal attack on the women's shelter by antiabortion extremists, the protagonist Ralph Roberts is a bit discomforted to realize the abused female neighbor he helped is 100% against stopping the Day rally because "Then they'll win!" Her saying something like that is done to show that she has gone over to extremism the same way her abusive husband did.

She's right though. I don't care that it's Derry. People have EVERY fucking right to hold a convention to state their beliefs without fear of it being bombed in a terrorist attack. The idea that Day simply doesn't care about the people who will get hurt is a terrible message, because terrorists like that CAN'T win in a free country. Calling off the rally, even if the fate of the Dark Tower is at stake, is not an actual option. People are dying over this, and it's not something the people getting killed need or even OUGHT to step back from because they are supposedly "riling people up".

King making Kate McKay, a similar character to Day, so selfish and unlikable is King again tone-policing what women should and shouldn't be allowed to say while their lives are being threatened. And here the fucking truth: They should be allowed to yell "STOP!" at the top of their lungs every fucking time. No matter how uncomfortable it makes Ralph Roberts.

Fortunately Holly Gibney is a much cooler character than Ralph was, and although she doesn't like Kate, she at least agrees with her political views, and was a fan before she got to know her. But making Kate completely oblivious to the danger she was putting people in and a total asshole may be a MUCH lighter instance of King tone-policing women than "Insomnia" was. But it's 2025. It hits harder and differently now.

The other thing that bothered me was Barbara Robinson getting captured and being made the damsel in distress. King is trying to falsely empower her all throughout the book. But it's false because he puts her in danger because he needed to up the personal stakes. And it does. But not for the reason he thinks, and not remotely in a good way. Michael Scott on The Office was right that pulling a gun in Improv was a bold move. But he didn't understand why it didn't work, and made the skit in question worse and impossible to get out of. Yes, King, I was nervous for Barbara because I cared about her. But you shouldn't be doing that to your most notable character of color, especially since he's spent the last two books empowering her poetry and musical talents. It technically works. But it works for the wrong, lazy reasons.

One of the biggest problems of ALL of the Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney books is King creates tension via plot-related stupidity. If ever a character needs to give a piece of crucial life-saving information, the person who is receiving the call hits ignore because they are distracted by a much less important issue. Even knowing the people on the end are actually doing important shit involving the main shit, they ALWAYS do. Also frustrating is Holly always ALMOST getting the picture and than getting distracted by something else right before the solution forms in her mind and it utterly evaporates. You can argue that King needs to do SOMETHING to eat up 439 pages, otherwise it would turn into a novella. But why should I read a book where a great deal of it exists solely to eat up pages? How does that make the book better? How I am supposed to compliment King for upping tension when he does it for stupid and unnecessary reasons?

King Connections of note: Events from all of the previous Bill Hodges / Holly Gibney books / stories are mentioned. It's also mentioned Holly has a knack for making herself "dim". Randall Flagg had the same talent. Trig believes the vision of his father at the end is calling him a goal-tender "like Cujo". I have no fucking idea what that means either.

I'll tell you what was good about one of Holly's intuitions. She figured the Deacon was lying to her because he was mispronouncing her last name on purpose. That's a really cool idea.

Her suspicions of the lawyer being the culprit were less impressive, but I liked that scene anyways because his wife basically hands the jerk his ass. He might not be the killer, but he's still a wad of cud.

One of the interesting things about Trig is that although he eventually admits to himself that all this was just an excuse for him to go on a killing spree, the truth is, to start out with he doesn't act much like a killer. There is regret attached to his first murder, and he's not even sure he can go through with it. Learning that he was Juror Number 9 and the Guilty Party that needed to be punished unfortunately, makes his scheme seem ENTIRELY crazy, whereas before we knew he was Gibson it was just MOSTLY crazy. If he weren't Juror Number 9, the idea almost sounds reasonable on paper.

Another thing I like is that unlike many villains, and MOST of King's villains, he's self-aware. When the news calls him mentally unbalanced, a different killer would be smashing the TV and vowing to kill the reporter who said that blasphemy. Instead the first thought that enters his head upon hearing that is "That's fair." You might think his descent to pure delusional madness at the end isn't consistent with how rational he ACTS during the rest of the book. But the truth is he always knew he was crazy. Maybe we should have listened to him.

I hate that Holly realizes she's the employee because she always hands Kate the towel. I hate that bit too. It pisses me off.

Better watch out, bail-jumpers. Holly will call your mom and tell her you were in a bar. One of the cool things about Holly is she doesn't remotely operate like other fictional detectives.

But that shit works, right? You'd figure other hardboiled crime dicks would be threatening Momma-Snitchin'.

I also like Sista Bessie's reactions to Trig. She's extremely cunning and understand realities of the situation he doesn't. She's cautious, smart, and not remotely falling for his crap, even if he believes she has.

Her relationship with Barbara is cool too. Another reason to resent putting Barbara in the position she was put in.

One of the cool things about reading Stephen King books is he often relates well-worn AA sayings, that me not being a drinker, have never heard before. They each tend to be funny and wise. It was sort of cool reading some "new" ones here.

The book is such a fucking mess that with 30 pages to go, Barbara and the victims tied up, and the case unresolved, King spends several pages on the ins and outs of Izzy's charity softball game. I get King loves the game, but that is probably the most self-indulgent thing he has done in years, if not decades. And Stephen King has ALWAYS been a very self-indulgent writer. This was bad even by his standards.

This book is not as bad as The Outsider. But it's the only other recent book of King's I have actually disliked. King's writing has actually improved over the years (it does for most writers over their lifetimes, and King is 77 now) so I notice the misses more now. If he had written this in the 1980's while coked out of his gourd, I'd probably find it almost acceptable. The Stephen King of 2025? King says in the afterward Tabitha read the first draft and told him he could do better. I think she should have said that about the finished book too. King is apparently a little embarrassed of this book, and I don't like it much either. 2 1/2 stars.