Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Holly by Stephen King

79 reviews

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0


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devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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privateimposter's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me hooked from the first chapter. Definitely worth a read!

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jenniferbbookdragon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

King brings his A game to the story of Holly Gibney's investigation of the disappearance of a young woman amid her own mother's death and her partner's illness. The darkness of the secrets she discovers, along with discoveries about her family,  brings her character new challenges. I deeply appreciate her growth from timid to powerful across multiple books,  and hope she continues to appear in King's books.

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lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

A brilliant book and a really fun time.

Holly Gibney is my favourite King character so I'm so glad she got a book of her own.

Similar to Mr Mercedes, this is a cat and mouse type thriller where you know who the killer is from the start and are watching as Holly gets closer to figuring out the truth. I know that doesn't work for everyone because it does remove some of the mystery, but this worked so well for me. 

In terms of King's writing, you could tell he's taken some common criticisms on board, and there's even a joke in there referring to how he's described tits in previous books. The female characters were better developed without being heavily sexualised, and he's dropped his use of racial slurs despite there being racist characters. That's kind of just asking for the bare minimum, but it felt like a deliberate shift and I appreciated it.

A good time, an intriguing plot, brilliant characters and decently paced. A very solid 4 star read.

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nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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zosiablue's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Didn't expect Stephen King to write the most COVID-based book I've read yet, but dang. And it's 2021 COVID, too, which was startling in how different we treated it then - people still wore masks and bumped elbows and worked vaccines into every conversation. We were all obsessed without knowing it and King captured that. 

This was also his most openly political book to date - not only does he satirize health nuts who are also anti-vaxxers (an elderly couple turns to cannibalism as a health cure, but thinks COVID is fake), but he spends a good deal of time excoriating the right-wing fringe. Listen, I'm not complaining. I'm on his side! But the murder mystery - which was fascinating! - was often drowned by all this other stuff. And Holly as a character seems dulled in this iteration, though maybe that's part of her arc - the healthier she gets, the more boring she becomes. Not a bad moral.

I had a good time reading (except when I had to think about COVID). And hey, Willa from Succession narrates the audiobook! (She also played Holly in a TV version.) 

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winterlee's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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jemmabrown's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I learned a valuable lesson reading this book - read the blurb.

I loved the Mr Mercedes series and really liked the first 2 books in the Finders Keepers series so when I saw this book I probably read the first line of the blurb and that was it. 

As a result I went on a fascinating, dark, mystery ride across American Politics, Literature and attitudes to the pandemic. 

Stephen King winds together so many threads to create a book that leaves you guessing just what will happen next whilst also creating debate on serious social issues. 



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