Author:
Stephen King
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Series: Bill Hodges #2
Verdict:
After reading the first book in this series, Mr Mercedes, a little while back, I wanted to read the sequel.
So, yes, this book is a sequel.
It's actually very different in terms of tone to Mr Mercedes - the central crime-fighting team takes a bit of a back-seat to the plot here - but I actually would recommend reading Mr Mercedes first, rather than reading this as standalone.
(This advice is coming to you from someone who reads most series in a random order according to mood and what book was in the library.
So people who like things organised - and you know who you are - you will definitely want to read Mr Mercedes first.)
This though, is not a book that's that much about our main characters.
I know, that sounds crazy. But this is a book where the central characters of this series are very much in the background.
Instead, our focus is on a decades-old crime, (which, a la Mr Mercedes, we already know the perpetrator of,) and it's unforeseen affect on a teenager from the present day.
This is a tale of literary obsession which bookish folks will recognise as the potential frightening extremity of fandom. This is about the power of words, and people who will literally kill to possess them.
Because this is what happens when the teenage Peter Saubers finds the missing notebooks of a murdered literary genius. This is what happens when the person who hid them wants those notebooks back...
This isn't for the faint of heart - but then, it's Stephen King; even though it's not horror as such, you probably guessed that it was going to be dark.
I found the final showdown pretty disturbing, in honesty. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing ;) But yeah, I actually flinched; it was pretty damn vivid.
There's loads of violence, a shed-load of swearing, and slurs of various sorts from some pretty horrible people.
There's also a lot of reference to rape - there's a lot of rape-as-incidental-plot-point in this book. It's not gratuitous, but it's also very uncomfortable.
I'm glad that black character Jerome is phasing out his jive-talking alter-ego (who consciously came out whenever Jerome decided to act like a jack-a*s,) because that was one of the things that bugged me most about the previous book.
A white dude writing a black character who liked to mock negative stereotypes by inhabiting those stereotypes was a very fine line to tread, and I'm glad that aspect of Jerome's character seems to be falling by the wayside.
I still love our female crime-fighter Holly - the sidekick to main character, ex-cop Bill. She's fab.
She's strong, smart, and has OCD and anxiety problems. And she still kicks a*s.
Allow me to indulge myself in an awesome heroine with mental health problems, ok? ;)
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Seems interesting! A kickass heroine who also battles with mental health problems is always a plus too :)
ReplyDeleteExactly! :)
DeleteGlad you liked it! I think End of Watch is even better so I'd love to see your thoughts. Finders Keepers was the weakest of the three for me (but I still enjoyed it!) because the main three took more of a backseat and it wasn't so focused on Mr Mercedes. I do think it's clever, though, how King wrote this trilogy that can be read as such or as a standalone and a duology.
ReplyDeleteI don't about the last one, but like I said, even though this one was less main character focussed, I still felt like maybe you needed to read Mr Mercedes before it :) End of Watch is on my TBR (but then again, so is everything else... so Lord knows when I'll get round to it!!!) :)
DeleteI don't actually read horror very often, but ooh this sounds interesting! Especially a strong heroine with mental illness - very interesting! Thanks for sharing, lovely! <3
ReplyDeleteThis is actually crime rather than horror (but still has the gore!) And I love Holly :) she's an actual 3-dimensional character with mental health issues! :)
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