Finders Keepers

Nobody captures a villains character quite like King. I get a sense King had fun writing this story. I enjoyed it more than Mr Mercedes. Looking forward to to the 3rd book.

Not to say the other two werent great, and Mr. Mercedes gets it’s flowers for it’s original story, delivery and character creations and their relationships in their own right but just as importantly, enough to want more! Thanks to the first of the series, this book is set up PERFECT for a deeply contextual, seasoned and intimate “who done it” experience. Which may sound uninteresting but SK does SUCH an amazing job of creating connectedness through so many devices but he highlights his skill of connectedness through conflict in this book. A story about a unique crime of passion, and i mean burning fiery passion that sets off a series of domino’s that runs the reader right into a roller coaster of calamity. Since the first book has given us all we need to know for the most part about Hodges, Holly and Jerome, we get a detailed look into the driving desires of a maddened criminal who you are almost guided into understanding and empathizing. What begins and feels almost like a tale of a cursed box of books, seems to evolve into a story about the cycle of trauma that can exist outside of the typically explored family trauma cycle and peers into an untold cycle of trauma that can hide within a society forced into distraction, disassociation, and indulgence by tragedy, dysfunction and instability. I never read the Hardy brothers or the likes but i imagine this is the closest ive gotten to “the crew does it again!!” But with all the knacks and quirks of SK’s dark perspective. No real mention of Brady Hartsfield until the very end which sets up the third book in a new an unusual way but turns the third into a more supernatural experience than the first two. This book is another perfect piece of evidence supporting the “injustice” of King being labeled solely as a “Horror” writer (it’s hardly an injustice bc his name is synonymous with horror and it’s why i started reading him and he has earned his place on the top in the horror world, but i cant imaging not knowing that he has so much more variety in his storytelling.) I just love how King manages to ‘sneak’ another incredible story into a detailed world he has created telling an almost unrelated one but somehow leaves room to use these ramifications for something like this. Bravo

As a 28 year old female reader who started loving SK while reading IT when I was 9 years old. This series has not disappointed me. I’m so excited to read the third book. I like the way the stories tie in together. I like how the characters progress, and I’m a huge fan of the in depth backstories. 5 full stars and anticipation for “End of Watch”