3.5

I will admit I had no idea that our narrator for this was actually the actress who played her on tv until after I finished it. I love Justine’s voice but the whole book I kept thinking her voice is too young to be 55 and she doesn’t seem nearly as awkward as she always has been. Almost too smooth. Then I found out who the narrator was…and I am correct, in the show Holly was younger than her original book self and the actress portraying her is only 34 as of 2023 so she’s 21 years younger than the book Holly she is supposed to be. My brain just refuses to accept it after listening to the Mr. Mercedes series and jumping into Holly. I loved Justine as the character in the show and thought she did a great job but for this she seems to have smoothed out all of Holly’s ragged edges and I didn’t love that. Maybe I missed some major change in her in If it Bleeds or The Outsider but….although never specifically stated I always assumed that Holly was neurodivergent which is something I loved about her and I feel it’s loss in this book. This might be worth purchasing the book and using my eyes instead because this is DARK and I’d like to read it without the distractions of voices that don’t match my internal pics.