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Post by GRWelsh on Sept 11, 2023 13:44:00 GMT -5
I don't know why but I didn't at first make the connection between the title of this book and the Holly Gibney character. I think he first introduced her in MR. MERCEDES (2014) and she's been in four books so far as well as a short story "If It Bleeds" (2020). She is one of my favorite King characters, and I like the other books she was in so I'm going to have to pick this up.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 18, 2023 10:33:09 GMT -5
I picked this up at the library yesterday and my goal is to finish it by Halloween since I'm leaving for Italy on Nov. 1st.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 20, 2023 11:13:07 GMT -5
I'm liking this so far. The premise is a crazy old couple kidnaps one person at a time to keep in a cage in their basement. The goal is unclear but it seems they are conducting some sort of twisted psychological experiments. As the reader, you know who the old couple is and gradually learn more about them... In the meantime, also as the reader, you follow Holly Gibney as she gets up to speed while investigating a missing girl. It's an interesting story technique because it isn't a mystery but a thriller that builds up tension over what will happen when the two narrative lines converge.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 28, 2023 11:59:13 GMT -5
I'm a little over halfway through. I only have one complaint... the geography! King has avoided specifying where these characters are located. It's vaguely in the Midwest, but the references are contradictory. My brain keeps trying to figure out where they are in the background, and failing, and it keeps distracting me from the story. "There are almost four hundred thousand residents of the city by the lake..." seems to be a good fit for Cleveland, Ohio, but other references contradict that like a character planning to fly to NYC and it being described as 1000 miles away... That's more like St Louis. I don't mind fictional locations that are a vague amalgamation of various Midwestern towns King has been to over the years, but I wish he'd just pick a place on the map so he could stay consistent with his references.
EDIT: I just came across a reference to a character buying a sixpack of Iron City beer in a convenience store of the town Holly is in... That beer is from Pittsburgh and as far as I know isn't available for sale further than eastern Ohio. It's probably available further away in a Steelers bar, but that doesn't count.
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