Alexis Bailey

I just finished this book via audio book and wasnt surprised by the many upset reviews lol so thought I'd leave an unbiased one. I am not political in the least for personal reasons. I'm a Stephen King fan and have been since I was in high school (I'm 30 now). Political things aside... I texted my book buddy in amusement when I started this and mentioned how heavy the mask wearing and political bias was (and I wore masks and am vaccinated, so I'm not biased on anything here). I thought the narrative around world events could have been lessened because like others I thought how strong it was from the jump took away some shine from the characters but there is also a part of me that thinks of our own experiences during 2020-2022. The things that happened were heavy, permeating every aspect of our lives. For Holly, this is part of her experience and thus is realistic (though, and this isn't spoiling anything crucial but *very minor spoiler warning*, the way she readily takes off her mask when she knows someone is vaxxed to me is unrealistic. Vaxxed people get covid too, it doesn't make you immune lol). I think while we want to move on from this time in our lives and the experiences of them and the weight they carry, Stephen King created a character and novel where people were just starting to experience things we already did. Was it the best choice? My opinion on that doesn't matter. He's the author and it's his book. I think that any assigning of division or bias etc is purely projecting our own feelings into something meant to be written and seen as just so. His authors note also well explains a lot of the reasons for certain things. Overall I thought it was pretty chilling. Personally I would have loved more backstory on the Harris family to make it a winner for me... They truly creeped me out. I also hated the way certain things would be alluded to or hinted at and then you'd have to wait until another chapter to find out what an answer was or what was being talked about etc. It felt like a forced way of keeping you reading (if you didn't already figure out what was up), which wasn't necessary - clearly everyone leaving reviews here are loyal fans and will read a Stephen King book even if they hate it and his viewpoint. I didn't hate this though, it was good.