Book Details
| Title: | Never Flinch | |
| Author: | Stephen King | |
| Times Read: | 1 | |
| Last Read: | 09.14.25 |
Other Books Read By This Author (28)
- 11/22/63
- Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Billy Summers
- Blockade Billy
- Cell
- The Colorado Kid
- Doctor Sleep
- Duma Key
- Elevation
- End of Watch
- Fairy Tale
- Finders Keepers
- Full Dark, No Stars
- Holly
- If it Bleeds
- The Institute
- It
- Joyland
- Just After Sunset
- Later
- Lisey's Story
- Mr. Mercedes
- On Writing
- The Outsider
- Revival
- Under the Dome
- The Wind Through the Keyhole
- You Like It Darker
| Date Read | Note |
| 09.14.25 | Another Holly Gibney novel. This makes, what, the sixth one? Seven if you count a novella? I guess after sixty-some odd books he's allowed to write about whatever the hell he wants to, and it's not like I'm skipping this one just because Holly's in it. I'd say most of her appearances have made for good stories, even though I do tend to like the stuff with supernatural elements more than the straight mystery thrillers like Holly and this book. I guess since I also keep up with Michael Connelly that I might be biased or reading too much into things but I think King likes having an ongoing character to hang stories on like a Harry Bosch or a Mickey Haller. It seems like half of this book is just checking in with the group of characters supporting Holly's little world away from Maine, to the point where some characters like Izzy I had trouble remembering how she intertwined in Holly's books. Also, it seems like we're watching the Barbara character grow up from a child to some poet laureate rock star singer whatever else. Every character's star seems to be rising with each installment, which is fine I guess. It just feels to me a little bit like King raising a different kind of children. Anyway, this was decent. It was maybe most interesting to read the afterword where he writes that this was a difficult book to nail down, involving three rewrites that he still doesn't think is quite up to snuff. I didn't feel too much of that - I'd put this at the level of Holly, which I still liked more than Mr. Mercedes - but I guess I do see some signs of uncertainty creep in. Like this trope of ominous foreshadowing like "then they practiced for the game. A game that they'd never play." Stuff like that makes me groan pretty much every time. I think maybe King felt insecure about back-loading all the action so he felt the need to keep us on the hook, like "hey bad things are gonna happen soon, don't worry!" but I don't need any of that. It's a Stephen King book, you know shit's going sideways sooner or later, if you have to lay this much track just lay it and move on. Except, I still believe that King's soft in his old age. The teeth present in all his earlier books have been worn down to gentle chompers. He loves his characters too much to gut-punch us anymore. So the ominous foreshadowing is even more annoying to me because oh boo hoo, the game was cancelled because of a stubbed toe (these are not spoilers btw, I'm trying to talk about the story using metaphors... which are poor). In that way it's even more like Connelly to me: the mystery will get solved, tension released, everything will work out. Again, King can do whatever he wants, I'm not rooting for characters he makes us care about to die or anything, but it is a thing I have noticed and continue to notice which changes the vibe of reading a King book for me. I guess this book is still a thriller but it's not horror, certainly not scary, and I don't feel any unease at picking it up. It's still a good enough read, for sure expertly written and super easy to read, just not horror. That said, the last fifty pages of this book were hard to put down. Part of laying so much track is seeing the trains collide at the end and, while I thought some events were a little pat, I still had to find out what happened next. We'll see what my memory holds on to with this one, but right now while it's fresh I'd throw this somewhere in the middle of the rankings. Not bad by any stretch and it was a breeze to read, but I don't know... even with the Holly stories I prefer her logic brain grappling with something more supernatural. The Outsider, If It Bleeds, and Finders Keepers remain my top three in this little series. |
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