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Cody | CodysBookshelf's Reviews > Holly
Holly
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BREAKING: outspokenly liberal author Stephen King pens a novel about COVID and takes jabs at Trump’s inadequate handling of the crisis.
King has NEVER mentioned politics in his books before, and I am outraged! How dare he cover a time period (2020-2021) in which politics was everything and everywhere all at once and actually mention *gasp* Trump by name! Not to mention the vaccines and mandates!
(Seriously, the 1-star reviews on Amazon are fucking gold. Since when has politics NOT seeped into King’s fiction? It’s been there since ’Salem’s Lot, at least. I have no love or patience for those “offended moderates” who just want to escape the “real world” into … an art form that often reflects the real world? Because authors are real people living in the real world? The math ain’t mathin’.)
And fuck it, I love Holly. The character and the novel. King’s caught some crap lately for his output, especially the crime stuff, and that’s valid. I get why it isn’t for everyone. But I love it, it’s always a fun ass time. I didn’t expect this one to get as dark as it does, sitting very comfortably with one foot in the crime-mystery genre and the other in the horror genre. This book even gave me a few bad dreams, something not all (or even many) of SK’s other releases have done.
I won’t go into specifics because spoilers, but yeah, if you’ve liked Holly’s previous adventures you’ll like this too. Reading the Hodges trilogy, The Outsider, and “If It Bleeds” is necessary. Otherwise you’ll be as lost as I was when I tried reading Insomnia before the Dark Tower series. (That’s a hint at what I’m about to reread with my best friend.)
King still has it. And it’s OK to love his new releases.
King has NEVER mentioned politics in his books before, and I am outraged! How dare he cover a time period (2020-2021) in which politics was everything and everywhere all at once and actually mention *gasp* Trump by name! Not to mention the vaccines and mandates!
(Seriously, the 1-star reviews on Amazon are fucking gold. Since when has politics NOT seeped into King’s fiction? It’s been there since ’Salem’s Lot, at least. I have no love or patience for those “offended moderates” who just want to escape the “real world” into … an art form that often reflects the real world? Because authors are real people living in the real world? The math ain’t mathin’.)
And fuck it, I love Holly. The character and the novel. King’s caught some crap lately for his output, especially the crime stuff, and that’s valid. I get why it isn’t for everyone. But I love it, it’s always a fun ass time. I didn’t expect this one to get as dark as it does, sitting very comfortably with one foot in the crime-mystery genre and the other in the horror genre. This book even gave me a few bad dreams, something not all (or even many) of SK’s other releases have done.
I won’t go into specifics because spoilers, but yeah, if you’ve liked Holly’s previous adventures you’ll like this too. Reading the Hodges trilogy, The Outsider, and “If It Bleeds” is necessary. Otherwise you’ll be as lost as I was when I tried reading Insomnia before the Dark Tower series. (That’s a hint at what I’m about to reread with my best friend.)
King still has it. And it’s OK to love his new releases.
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Reading Progress
August 20, 2023
– Shelved
August 20, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 5, 2023
–
Started Reading
September 9, 2023
– Shelved as:
favorites
September 9, 2023
– Shelved as:
stephen-king
September 9, 2023
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 79 (79 new)
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Sep 09, 2023 03:01PM
Excellent stuff here. People who read for that escapist stuff shouldn't lump Stephen King in with the Pattersons of the world. That's no knock to Patterson--it's just that King has always been more deep than a beach read. I'm also loving his crime stuff!
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Hmm, I have to disagree with your review. I think many of the people on here giving 5 stars to this book and defending King’s inclusion of COVID, vaccines and anti-Trump rhetoric are really the same people that said people should be shot for not getting vaxxed and are like the cat that got the canary over King’s essential soapboxing. “Double vaxxed” was mentioned so many times in this novel, I started wondering if Pfizer and Moderna sponsored the book, yet he misses key elements of what actually occurred during COVID. Masks are mentioned almost non-stop, but Bonnie goes into a gas station where she doesn’t wear a mask and the attendant doesn’t have one on? Visitors allowed in the hospital? Come on. This is just a reminder that King doesn’t live in the real world with the rest of us and decided to lecture the pleebs on what their political and individual beliefs should be from his shiny ivory tower after taking his nightly dose of CNN and CBS. I drove across the US from Cali to Virginia for a job in 2021 and I had to wear a mask in every gas station, no matter what color the state. My father was hospitalized in 2021 and was allowed NO VISITORS. So this malarkey about him including this for reality sake, I’m not buying it.
Damn, I ain’t reading all that
Haha! Thanks Rod :-)
The problem with King is not that he touches on politics. The problem is overloading his own personal Twitter personality into the personality of his characters. THAT is not okay. It’s preachy and distasteful and completely detracts from his thrilling stories. So unfortunate that he’s reached this point.
Great review! I enjoy King's politics almost as much as I do his novels, so all these reviews just strengthen my desire to read HOLLY!
I *love* how after the right wingers threw hissy-fits over his more subtle jabs in the past few books that he just leans full into it this book. No one seems to remember that *every* *fracking* *interaction* with the world and the people in it back in 2021 was completely filled with this stuff. I found it absolutely realistic and the fact that the cons are mad about seeing an accurate depiction of themselves in a book is hilarious.
I agree 💯 Great Review!!
You are typical left wing fanatics. If someone disagrees with you and puts it eloquently, you go out of your way to degrade that person. @Elise was not derogatory in any way, but you whiney little boys had to call her a twit and demean her. The ONLY reason I am responding in a demeaning way is it appears to be the only thing you understand, which is understandable from a bunch of emotionally stunted 5th graders. And dos you fools even ask if she was a Trump supporter or maybe she was, like me, someone who actually believes that everyone is entitled to an opinion without being nasty towards those with a different view. I love talking to right wing and left wing individuals, trying to find common ground, but then, my friends and I run into idiots like you who cannot see being their own nose. Sad!
Love your review, us constant readers need to stand up for the KING :D
I think a lot of the one-stars are by political operatives who are paid to read books for “liberal content” and review-bomb them.
Now I can't wait to read it!
Except his stance didn't age well did it? We have since found out the masks didn't help anything, the vaccines didn't either and the COVID virus was created in a lab. Sorry, been a fan since I was 12 but can do without the liberal bullshit.
Love you, my friend, and I agree.
Politics: The Dead Zone
Yes, how DARE he mention all of that Covid stuff during the TIME of all of that Covid stuff! LOL! GASP!! Another of my favorite authors leans right, Koontz, I still read his books.
Just imagine The Trump Cult reading Michael Lewis' "The Premonition." LOL
"Except his stance didn't age well did it? We have since found out the masks didn't help anything, the vaccines didn't either and the COVID virus was created in a lab. Sorry, been a fan since I was 12 but can do without the liberal bullshit." I love how modern medicine is now considered "liberal bullshit." Yeah, sure, COVID was politicized...by the Trump Cult.
Great review Cody! The Dead Zone had tons of politics in it so I have no idea why King fans are shocked that he decides to do it again?I think the villain "Under the Dome" is about Dick Cheney.
Fans who say that King's work is too political are the same people who say they wish "Rage Against the Machine" weren't outspoken on politics. LOL
Great review— love that first paragraph!!
And, if you don’t like having politics deep into your reading, like myself, you can just read the inner cover and decide to opt this one out. 🤷🏻♀️ It’s that easy. I read to escape that nonsense and I know this one isn’t for me. BUT you can’t base your opinion on an authors entire catalog of works because of their political stance. It’s childish.
Thank you! I was already very excited about reading Holly. Now, I couldn't possibly be more excited than I was previously. I feel like some of the “constant readers” have been half asleep, each time they read a King book. With regards to Holly, do people forget that this book is a work of fiction? It's not a documentary that is expected to contain facts. And therefore “accuracy” about what “actually” occurred, is not required. This is a story that just so happens to take place during COVID. The mentioned differences in other replies, about having or not having to wear a mask in the gas station and other places, to me is very realistic. Especially when you consider that's what happened in a lot of America. Some places required a mask, and others did not. Why would anyone think that those inconsistencies would not be present in his works? How could he not, include them the same as he would any of the other political shit from that time. Simply put, if you desire a different political outlook or viewpoint, just read a different author. It's not rocket science folks. Lol
King is on Twitter all day railing against Trump. It's kind of embarrassing
For petessakes relax. If you don't want to read it, fine, but there's no need to get all twisted into knots over it. I for one don't want to hear about about your silly outrages be that from the right or the left.
I've read all 60 something books now from King and he's never been this religiously self-righteous in this views until Trump was elected. You may want to re-read everything pre-Trump, because King is so obsessed with his anti-right wing liberal self it's sickening. Won't be buying anymore of his trash novels because he was such a great author before he started spewing hate crap about Trump and now he can't stop talking about racism and covid? Get the fuck out of here with that shit.King is no longer the King of anything but his own self-righteous bullshit. Hope he actually starts writing fiction without all his anti right-wing anger to taint his novels.
Oh man! Now I'm going to have to go back and re-read "Insomnia". I really enjoyed your review. It made me chuckle. I also loved the book. Happy reading!
Cody, I think you'd better reread King's work or read them for the first time... He's never been this hateful of a politician or supporters of him. It's to the detriment of the story at times. If you don't think so--fine. Others do.
It's not really that hard talked about it, or included it for most people. It's how damn much. He included a covid or Trump reference for almost every page of the book. Eve. Bringing up Covid when it's not relevant to the characters current thoughts or actions. It's by far his worst work.
The dude is a hate-filled weirdo who doesn't live in the real world at all. Lectures everyone from atop his cultural throne (which he's earned for sure) and risks nothing by Hating those who think differently. He's just an awful human.
I wondered why this book became so quickly available on Cloudlibrary! I guessed correctly when I saw the mentions of COVID and the references to the Cheeto. I have not finished the book yet but will not throw it aside in a huff because Holly prays and I don't believe in god! Hilarious review...
Now, you know no one can dare criticize, much less take jabs at, these people's lord and savior. So what he went on national television to suggest the injection of disinfectant of COVID-19 patients. After all, there were some dim bulbs, adults, who actually followed his "advice" and swallowed down Clorox bleach and Lysol.
I find the Holly character hardly believable, yeh the Godfather is her fav movie and she has a star wars bin.. seriously Stephen should talk to some 40 yo single women. Holly is basically a bloke. I am a constant reader but sick of covid handling tirades, nobody cares anymore and trump is not news anymore, I can’t help thinking the character is a dude.
So a book staged in the covid agenda dares to taken a stance and Trump gets mentioned in a negative way. There are 2 subject that dividend the US in two sides. Tough to write a book being neutral about these 2 subject. The negative reactions take King as offensive White hé always leaned to the left. That said from a Dutch point of view both the left and the right are rightwing in our political believes.King still rules for me, nice review though.
I so agree that the political themes of this book make perfect sense for the time period. And I love Holly's OCD self, too! Thanks for telling it like it is, Cody. Your math is totally mathin'!
I read the Bill Hodges trilogy this year (and had already read The Outsider and If It Bleeds) but I was going to give myself a "Stephen King break" and read something else - until I saw all the outrage in those reviews. I thought, "Well, jeez...This is right up my alley! I have to read it NOW." Haven't finished it, but holy heck does he get into ALL of it, and I LOVE it! Plus, it's a great book - the characters, the plot, the usual King genius. It's by far my favorite book of 2023. And I don't even care how it ends (but of COURSE I'm going to finish it - can't put it down!). Great review...Now I have to get back to my book.
DNF just something else to start people to arguments about. I want to read a book to escape the world and all the political parties and crap! What a way to start a book. Didn't take me many pages to figure out I wasn't going to finish it.
I love it so far. The book takes place during Covid - probably one of the most important events in the last century, so I don’t mind the references at all. Most the whining, I’m sure, is politically based - but Stephen King is one of the more intelligent and outspoken liberals of our time, so don’t read his stuff if his political views offend you. He doesn’t owe any reader a soft cushion for their opposing views. I’m loving the creepiness of the persons you’d least expect to send victims through a wood chopper, Holly’s usual quirks and brilliance, and the story in general. I’m going to savor every page til the end.
Hahahaha I’m only 38 pages in but popped on here to read some of the reviews. I was thinking SK had prob pissed off some people with this book. Love your review and enjoying Holly 📚
SK knows how to curate a more high quality audience.
Gosh, how dare a human literary artist write something where he displays his personal values! How dare literary artists NOT do so! I'm thankful the novel Holly isn't a polemic and does give some respect to other views too.
King always has his finger on the pulse of America. It's truly hilarious to see the snowflake-accusers of 2016 become the snowflakes themselves in 2023. Trump's dictatorial aspirations notwithstanding, King hit him right where he lives in this book. I've also read that the "Spanish" flu of 1918 was somehow, quickly memory holed, and people didn't talk about it after it was over. People now, especially right-wingers, are trying to do the same thing and then get pissed off when one of the most popular authors in the world brings it up in his latest book.OWN IT Reich-wingers. YOU elected Trump. YOU denied COVID. YOU want his sorry ass back in the White House in 2024. OWN all of it, because it's yours. At least try to have the courage of your alleged convictions. "Owning the libs" is no longer an option. What now?
Amen. I learn so much about divided America reading these reviews
Hahahahaha! Love this review, my feelings a thousand percent, and still chortling over "the math ain't mathin'."
This man does indeed still have it! I love every second of this book
Preach. Cracks me up that the people complaining are like, “I’m done with Stephen King!” Y’all, I think he’s gonna be okay without you.
