Holly by Stephen King
Genres: Thriller, Horror
Pages: 448
Cover: Paperback
Age rating: 15+
Buy on: Amazon, Kindle
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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 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 harboring 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.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King. - Goodreads
Review:
​​​Characters and Plot
Really needed a fantasy break so I pick up this thriller, and it helped. I love Holly, literally one of the smartest female character I ever read about, the way she steadily solve the case, connecting dots together, clues and events that occur years ago to solve the current case was amazing. What make this book chilling was the complete evilness of the professors, Absolute cannibal that scares me... cause what do you mean you make pudding out of your victim's brain... and you disect them while they are concious, making a liver dish... I felt the consequence they face was way to quick and simple, they should have face much, much worse.
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However, there were a lot of chapters that aren't needed in this book, such as Barbara chapters... It's nice that Barbara is pursuing her dream of becoming a famous poet, but I struggle to see how that relates or contribute to the overall plot of the book. If anything, it just drag the book on.
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What absolutely shook me was how realistic this novel was, the cannibal couple are well respected people, being seen as old and weak, perfectly normal. This is the unfortunate truth of most serial killers in real life, they could be anyone, could be the most perfect, polite people you know, but you never know that they are hiding something dark in their basement.
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Not to mention the nostalgia I felt when reading this, as this story took place during Covid, it was weird to be reminded of how we always wear mask and sanitize our hand, people losing their family members to the pandemic.
​Conclusion
Holly was a refreshing read after so much fantasy, I love the way Holly solve the case and how resilient and reliable she is. It was an enjoyable read, a bit drag on, but fun.
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