Book Summary and Reviews of Holly by Stephen King

Holly by Stephen King

Holly

by Stephen King

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  • Published:
  • Sep 2023, 464 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King's most compelling and resourceful characters, returns in this chilling "exploration of grief and delusion, just pure undistilled evil" (New York magazine) as she uncovers the truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency, hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just passed away. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny's desperate voice makes it impossible to turn her down.

Meanwhile, 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 also harboring a shocking, 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…for they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Now Holly must summon all of her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver these unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries in this chilling and unforgettable masterwork from Stephen King.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Early in the book, readers learn who the perpetrators are and why they are committing their crimes. Why does King take this approach? What does it add to the narrative?
  2. The first time we meet Holly, she's logging off from the Zoom funeral for her mother. We later learn more about the difficult relationship Holly had with Charlotte. How does the loss of her mother color Holly's interactions with Penny, whose own daughter is missing?
  3. Holly prides herself on being a detective, and she is a good one. However, in this novel she learns that her mother kept some stunning secrets from her. Does her mother's deceit, and her own years-long, unknowing acceptance of it, shake Holly's confidence?
  4. The story takes place a year ...
Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

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What are you reading this week? (8/7/2025)
I am starting the Stephen King series, which will introduce Holly Gibney, thus Mr.Mercedes is my first book.
-Sally_M

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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." —New York Times Book Review

"Both intimate and sprawling in its ambitions… Holly is the imperfect but determined angel among all those demons..." —USA Today

"Holly demonstrates that one of the last true rock stars of fiction can continue to grow as a writer, and doesn't define success solely as a continuation of what's worked for him before." —The Washington Post

This information about Holly was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Stephen King Author Biography

© Tabitha King

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the ...

... Full Biography
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