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Thread: Stephen King's new Holly Gibney novel "Holly" (September 5, 2023)

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    Default Stephen King's new Holly Gibney novel "Holly" (September 5, 2023)

    www.liljas-library.com/article.php?id=6872

    It’s a Holly Gibney book in which the coronavirus plays a big role.
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    I know a lot of people don't like Holly, but I love her. This is great news for me!

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    I like her more than when she first appeared but it’s crazy to think how she’s on her way to surpassing Roland as King’s most used character. Just three more books before they’re tied at eight novels and a novella.
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    Quote Originally Posted by CyberGhostface View Post
    I like her more than when she first appeared but it’s crazy to think how she’s on her way to surpassing Roland as King’s most used character. Just three more books before they’re tied at eight novels and a novella.
    We need a book with both of them!

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    Quote Originally Posted by daniel_pyle View Post
    I know a lot of people don't like Holly, but I love her. This is great news for me!
    I like her too. Interesting character who deserves more story IMHO
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    I'd love another Holly book. A book where the 'rona is a plot point? Not so much.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin1958 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by daniel_pyle View Post
    I know a lot of people don't like Holly, but I love her. This is great news for me!
    I like her too. Interesting character who deserves more story IMHO
    I like her too. Not sure why she is polarizing.

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    She’s a great character in my eyes. Easy to root for and never bland. I am excited.
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    If it's a COVID-19 book, interesting it's supposed to be sent in 2021 and not 2020.

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    I don’t have issues with Holly. It’s just in the past, his books have been mostly new ideas and different. He said it himself in the interview thst he quit reading 3 authors because they became so predictable. I love Connelly, but he uses the same characters over and over. Holly disposed of the last bad “guy” to easily. That was my problem in Dr Sleep too. The main character was able to dispose bad guy - Too easy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Roseannebarr View Post
    I don’t have issues with Holly. It’s just in the past, his books have been mostly new ideas and different. He said it himself in the interview thst he quit reading 3 authors because they became so predictable. I love Connelly, but he uses the same characters over and over. Holly disposed of the last bad “guy” to easily. That was my problem in Dr Sleep too. The main character was able to dispose bad guy - Too easy.
    I'll read it but not with great enthusiasm. Holly is not very interesting. Recycling a character over and over is a lazy way to write and read books. It avoids having to develop and introduce a new character to an audience. Just plug an existing character into a new plot and hit play over and over again. It's a big tactic in the detective genre. And I definitely agree about the criticism of how easily she disposes of the bad guys. Making great use of a sock.

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    It's hardly a case of King reusing Holly to prevent creating new protagonists. After the Mercedes trilogy she appeared halfway through The Outsider which at that point already had its own protagonist and supporting cast. And he's been writing numerous other books during this period. so it's not like every other novel is "the continuing adventures of Holly Gibney".

    The reality is King keeps on revisiting Holly because, well, he really likes her: "I just love Holly, and I wish she were a real person and that she were my friend, because I’m so crazy about her." [source]
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    Plus King has been really into detective fiction over the past several years, so that shows. I don't mind it at all, and I don't think it's copy-pasting, either. Setting a novel in a COVID world sounds cool and urgent.

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    If SK writes it I'll reserve it at the library (like I have been doing post 11/22/63) and gladly read it.

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    I like Holly; King's use of her in Hodges trilogy/Outsider (I haven't yet read If It Bleeds) felt pretty organic, so no problem for me there (yet).

    The COVID factor is another story; I can tell exactly where that is going to go (the attitude, not the plot) and have no interest (I'll read reviews, of course, and it's possible I'll eventually read it, but my default position will be skip unless reviews clearly show that I'm wrong).
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    Quote Originally Posted by mae View Post
    Plus King has been really into detective fiction over the past several years, so that shows. I don't mind it at all, and I don't think it's copy-pasting, either. Setting a novel in a COVID world sounds cool and urgent.
    There are more good detective fiction writers than you can throw a brick at. In contrast, there are very few good horror writers. I like both genres but would prefer to see King write more horror or supernatural books because of that and horror is what he does best. Also no one is getting any younger. So for every new Holly book there is one less horror-themed book.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardX View Post
    I...would prefer to see King write more horror or supernatural books...horror is what he does best.
    I feel the same, but I wonder what his most recent true horror work even is; even the supernatural-tinged ones aren't full-blown horror. I think his inspiration (or simply, interest) has lain elsewhere for a while now (not that I'm thrilled about that).
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    I prefer King when he's exploring other genres. I feel like he's done everything there is to do with horror. I read his books for his language and it's comfortable going back to someone whose writing abilities I admire so much, over and over. So plot or characters or genre is almost secondary to me. Obviously, if it's a great unputdownable plot like Under the Dome or 11/22/63, that's all the better. But yeah, I'm sure King won't abandon horror or supernatural stuff altogether until the end of his days, but I'm glad he's getting into other things, other than horror. He's never been a pure horror writer, anyway.

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    I also enjoy the other stuff, but I miss the feelings I got from:

    - when the sun was going down near the end of Salem's Lot

    - COME HOME COME HOME COME HOME (it gives me goosebumps just typing this)

    ...to name two. It just feels like it's been a while.
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    Quote Originally Posted by St. Troy View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by RichardX View Post
    I...would prefer to see King write more horror or supernatural books...horror is what he does best.
    I feel the same, but I wonder what his most recent true horror work even is; even the supernatural-tinged ones aren't full-blown horror. I think his inspiration (or simply, interest) has lain elsewhere for a while now (not that I'm thrilled about that).
    Yes, it's been a while since he wrote a true "horror" novel. Revival was touted as his return to horror but that book was a big disappointment. Most of his books have at least some supernatural element, though. It may be somewhat unfair to compare the aging King to the guy from the 70s and 80s but the difference between those books and the tepid novels he has released in the last decade or so is stark. The last King book that I enjoyed was 11.22.63. Hard to believe but I think that was released a decade ago or so. That was a great one that ranks with his best in my opinion. The others since then were not very good and a few were even dreadful.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mae View Post
    I prefer King when he's exploring other genres. I feel like he's done everything there is to do with horror. I read his books for his language and it's comfortable going back to someone whose writing abilities I admire so much, over and over. So plot or characters or genre is almost secondary to me. Obviously, if it's a great unputdownable plot like Under the Dome or 11/22/63, that's all the better. But yeah, I'm sure King won't abandon horror or supernatural stuff altogether until the end of his days, but I'm glad he's getting into other things, other than horror. He's never been a pure horror writer, anyway.
    I don't mind him exploring other genres but he's now written several detective/crime books. He is not just exploring that genre, he has taken up residence. Maybe it is nostalgia for his early books, but I find his more recent books to be fairly mundane and boring with characters that are portrayed as laughable stereotypes or hark back to the 70s as though King has been trapped in a time capsule. Kids still playing board games, people giving each other high fives etc. It's clear that King hasn't had much exposure to normal people including kids or minorities in the last couple of decades. And he overcompensates by writing about them as he envisions them to be or as he sees them on TV or through his woke prism. In his early days, King was a great storyteller, but an average writer. Over the years that has flipped. His plots have become mundane, even laughable and his characters are difficult to care about. Just cardboard figures to move the plot. How many characters in Billy Summers went nowhere or were uninteresting? Most of them. I miss the raw power of his early books and stories.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RichardX View Post
    Revival was touted as his return to horror...
    Revival was a great example of what I mean by a supernatural-tinged one; while bits of that are present, it's generally a slow-burn thriller type thing, not horror at all really. I think that was the one for which King said (pre-release) something like "you'll need to get your nerves ready for this one," and boy was that overselling it. I liked it, but it was no headliner.
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    I don't expect a 74-year old man whose children have since all grown up to be "down with the kids" but I had no problem believing the characters in The Institute for example. Likewise with him writing minorities; Jerome wasn't his best character but Kalisha in in The Institute was fine.

    As has been said before... I don't think we will ever get something like "It" again. In that sense, he's probably peaked. But the idea that King has lost his touch is completely premature. He's always had his hits and misses. In 2006 he did Cell and Lisey's Story, neither of which are on many King fans' top ten lists (I know Lisey is King's favorite). Then over the next five years he gave us Duma Key, Under the Dome, 11/22/63, The Wind Through the Keyhole and Joyland. Some of those are in my opinion among his best. 11/22/63 in particular seems to be a top five book for many people.

    More recently, King has went from Sleeping Beauties which is IMO one of his worst to The Institute which, while not his best, was still a very engrossing and fun novel that kept me hooked throughout. Again, hits and misses.
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    Quote Originally Posted by CyberGhostface View Post
    ...I had no problem believing the characters in The Institute for example.
    My major problem with The Institute was that the characters (mainly kids) felt dry and flat to me, like penciled in "characters" and not real people. This was strange; usually even in his lesser works, King characters feel pretty real to me.

    I don't contend that King is out of touch; I might actually prefer that to his current habit of making a point that he's going out of his way to be "with it" (criticizing as "outdated" the idea that a male character in The Institute didn't want to be seen crying in front of others, and woke-isms galore sprinkled throughout that and Elevation). This doesn't ruin his recent fiction for me, but it is distracting, and distractions aren't fiction's friend. It feels mighty contrived and stands out like a strobe light every time he intentionally throws a bone to "newer ideas" as if to say "gee how dumb we all were until the kids handed me these notes 5 minutes ago."
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    Im about 75% through Billy Summers, and hasn't been much of that, if any. It's set in 2019, so some of his characters make passing references to Trump - pro and con. But the younger character wasn't obnoxiously woke - or even very woke at all - and neither was the tone of the book.

    I'm not at all concerned about COVID being a plot point of the new book. Our entire society was changed for 18 months - it stands to reason that writers are going to write about it. And no doubt some of King's characters will still complain about Trump ... and some won't. Just like real life.

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