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Holly (September 5, 2023)

2

Comments

  • Six times, he says: Three Mercedes, the Outsider, If it Bleeds and Holly
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTHedda Gabler
  • Okay. He says he’s written about holly 7 times. What were they? I’m forgetting two. 
    Counting Holly it is 6 times surely, not 7? The Hodges trilogy, The Outsider, If It Bleeds and Holly. Or am i missing some occurrence in a short story??
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTHedda Gabler
  • I misspoke. Six, he clearly says six. I was forgetting If it Bleeds. 
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNT
  • Both the TV series and The Outsider miniseries severely underplay Holly's age, though. She's forty-something in Mr. Mercedes and in her fifties by Holly.
    GNTLGNTKurbenLou_SytsmaHedda GablerFlakeNoir
  • Philippa Pride on Stephen King's Holly Gibney

    King's British editor Philippa Pride discusses what makes Holly such a special protagonist and highlights the gorgeous rejackets of the other books in the series.  
    GNTLGNTHedda GablerFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • ...well written, and she hits on many aspects of what makes Holly probably the most "real" character in his long career...and that's not damning with faint praise.  She, in many ways, reflects our own insecurities and weaknesses-yet somehow finds the fortitude to battle on despite her "frailties".....
    Hedda GablerKurbenFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • GNTLGNT said:
    ...well written, and she hits on many aspects of what makes Holly probably the most "real" character in his long career...and that's not damning with faint praise.  She, in many ways, reflects our own insecurities and weaknesses-yet somehow finds the fortitude to battle on despite her "frailties".....
    Nicely expressed. 
    GNTLGNTKurbenFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • Just a few days until Holly is here!!! Counting the days.
    GNTLGNTFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • I absolutely love “anxious rescue whippet.” What a great descriptive. 
    BevVincentGNTLGNTFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • Read an Excerpt From Holly in Esquire

    A young woman has gone missing in a small town. All that remains of her are an abandoned bike, a missing earring, and some surly classmates who don't want to talk. Then the mystery deepens.

    GNTLGNTHedda GablerFlakeNoirLou_Sytsma
  • edited August 2023
    Got this preview lined up to read while I parking lot sit. 

    Okay bev, do I need to finish all the other Holly books to fully appreciate this one or is this standalone in every way? I know the jist of who she is. 
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTLou_Sytsma
  • It works as a standalone, although it does make reference to incidents from previous books.
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTLou_Sytsma
  • Okay. I’m going to wait. I have to get her other appearances read because i want her full, rich history. 

    Sigh. 
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTKurbenLou_Sytsma
  • ....always appreciate "the insider" perspective on King....nicely done Bev....
    Hedda GablerKurbenLou_SytsmaBevVincentFlakeNoir
  • As I'm not seeing any review from Publishers Weekly, here's a quote from The New York TImes' (paywalled) review:

    During my time reading “Holly,” I woke screaming from a night terror, which was unexpected, and which everyone who reads the book will understand. What makes King’s work so much more frightening than that of most other suspense writers, what elevates it to night-terror levels, isn’t his cruelty to his characters: It’s his kindness. King describes his characters’ interior landscapes, their worries and plans, with a focus like a giant benevolent beam. You can sense the goodness running through them, and that current of goodness is what makes the acts of violence so disturbing.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/books/review/stephen-king-holly.html
    Hedda GablerLou_SytsmaGNTLGNTFlakeNoir
  • As I'm not seeing any review from Publishers Weekly, here's a quote from The New York TImes' (paywalled) review:

    During my time reading “Holly,” I woke screaming from a night terror, which was unexpected, and which everyone who reads the book will understand. What makes King’s work so much more frightening than that of most other suspense writers, what elevates it to night-terror levels, isn’t his cruelty to his characters: It’s his kindness. King describes his characters’ interior landscapes, their worries and plans, with a focus like a giant benevolent beam. You can sense the goodness running through them, and that current of goodness is what makes the acts of violence so disturbing.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/books/review/stephen-king-holly.html
    What an insightful and fresh thought. 
    Lou_SytsmaKurbenGNTLGNTFlakeNoir
  • As I'm not seeing any review from Publishers Weekly, here's a quote from The New York TImes' (paywalled) review:

    During my time reading “Holly,” I woke screaming from a night terror, which was unexpected, and which everyone who reads the book will understand. What makes King’s work so much more frightening than that of most other suspense writers, what elevates it to night-terror levels, isn’t his cruelty to his characters: It’s his kindness. King describes his characters’ interior landscapes, their worries and plans, with a focus like a giant benevolent beam. You can sense the goodness running through them, and that current of goodness is what makes the acts of violence so disturbing.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/books/review/stephen-king-holly.html
    What an insightful and fresh thought. 
    Indeed!
    KurbenGNTLGNTHedda GablerFlakeNoir
  • Today is the day for us regular folks to invite Holly into our homes.   B)
    Hedda GablerGNTLGNTFlakeNoir
  • 297 pages in. Loving it. Favorite Holly story already.
    FlakeNoirGNTLGNTHedda Gabler
  • I admit upfront this is irrelevant, but I found it interesting nevertheless.

    I saw a review for "Holly" at Variety and wondered why they had done that.  It turns out this "Holly" is a European film that just premiered at the Venice Film Festival.  But somehow it still manages to refer to SK.  The first paragraph:

    When Holly’s classroom peers call her “the witch,” she meekly shrugs it off. It’s not the least flattering slur with which the shy, soft-spoken 15-year-old has been bullied, and it beats people complaining about how she smells. It even may, at a certain level, be true. When Holly’s seemingly psychic abilities save her from a fatal disaster at school, her status in the community shifts from outcast to otherworldly icon — as if Carrie White had actually been crowned prom queen, and not bucketed with blood. Stephen King’s antiheroine comes to mind more than once in Fien Troch’s elusive, intriguing teen drama “Holly,” which plays a little like his story stripped of any outright horror, and only the everyday vanities and failings of humanity in its place.




    Lou_SytsmaGNTLGNTHedda Gabler
  • And done.  Loved it!
    Kurbennot_nadineGNTLGNTHedda GablerFlakeNoir
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