Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Finders Keepers

I thought that this was a really great follow-up to the already solid start to the Bill Hodges trilogy.
I had heard talk before reading this book that people felt this to be the weakest of the BHT, and, while I have not yet finished this trilogy, I quite liked this book.
The basic premise starts off with the murder of a lauded author being robbed and then murdered by a devout fan who is unhappy with the direction the author took a beloved character.
The fan, a criminal known as Morris Bellamy, is a very well read literature lover who in addition to stealing twenty thousand dollars, as well as a series of Moleskin notebooks which contain the writings of John Rothstein over the decade and a half where he was a recluse.
Morris takes his goods and hides them, but is imprisoned for 36 years for the aggravated rape of a woman.
Meanwhile, young Peter Saubers finds these treasures buried quite literally in his back yard (he and his family reside in the same house as Morris Bellamy). Peter, ever the caring child, uses portions of the money to anonymously aide his family who has been struggling due to the financial downturn. As well, Peter's father, Tom, was one of the people who was injured in the Mr. Mercedes mass killing perpetrated by Brady Hartsfield who is currently in a hospital for brain damage (Holly fucked him up).

All seems to be going as well as well can be until Morris comes knocking when he is released from prison nearly four decades after his heinous crime.
Peter tries to sell these notebooks to Andy Halliday, a rare book seller, and one time associate (and the planter of the seed that blossomed in to the Rothstein murder into Bellamy's head). Halliday tries to manipulate Peter in to selling the manuscripts to him, and this tense situation is what causes Peter's sister Tina to enlist the help of two- KERMIE Hodges and Holly Gibney who have since the events of the last book formed a PI agency known as the titular Finders Keepers.

Now, this setup, to me, is immediately interesting. I am a literature nerd as much as the next person, and you can tell that King is as well. He clearly had so much goddamn fun writing this book, and it shows. It is one of those things where someone is doing something that they are passionate about and you can feel that come through in the writing.
I feel that the "in between" books in a trilogy sometimes fall victim to the idea of "this is a bridge book I don't really care that much about it", pairing that with the fact that we are not seeing Hodges go up against Brady, and this book had the complete makings of a by the numbers romp. However, I think that King delivered a truly interesting story, and one that I am sure is going to fit well within the realm of the BHT. Will this book be the worst out of the whole trilogy, it very well may, but, in this instance I don't feel that this book is a seriously deplorable or unworthy of reading read.

I have always liked the character of a prototypically "unworthy" person being in love with learning and reading and so on- think of Stoner in John Williams' Stoner or Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting. I think that Morris Bellamy is along the same thought pattern of these characters, but, obviously he is a fucking terrible person. I really did like the portrayal of him as a moderately intelligent man who you get the feeling is committing these crimes because of his situation. But, once he does, he truly falls in to the life of a criminal. All this to say that I thought that Bellamy was an interesting character and villain, especially because he was locked up for nearly 40 years of his life, he comes out of prison with the villainous sensibilities, but, is plagued by the fact that he was stagnant for 40 years. I did not think that he was as scary as Brady Hartsfield, but, again, I don't think that he was meant to be.

I don't really like Peter Saubers, I won't lie. I found him pretty boring to read through, and every time that I was reading him, I just felt like... "Where's Jerome? Where's Bill or Holly?". I thought he was a pretty dry protagonist that seemed like he was more there solely to move the plot along, and not so much because he was a character that I cared about. I will draw the comparison to Paul Sheldon from Misery- I liked Paul because he was the protagonist, but, would not have liked him otherwise. I felt the same for Peter. He seemed very one dimensional to me.

I thought that the pacing of this book was really well done, it had a strong build up and I loved the climax of this book- it was so fucking symbolic, Bellamy being killed by the books that he had obsessed over. I thought that the irony here was impeccable, as well.
What I really appreciate is that the massacre done by Brady is used as a framing device in these books. The fact that we pick up with the victims of the massacre is a really strong illustration of how these senseless acts of violence have ripple effects that last days, months and years and years. I do think that King has a good handling of these events, and they are not played for laughs, nor are they played as aa grotesque romanticization of the horrors of these events.

Overall, I think that the hardboiled nature of this book was pretty well done. The reveal that maybe Brady was more coherent and was back to his old ways was... cool, but, seeing as the third book has come out and King publicly announced the return of Brady made this faux- ambiguous ending sort of fall flat to me.

All in all, I think that this was a very fun outing in to the Bill Hodges- sphere. I am excited to see where the rest of this story ends up. I just hope that it focuses more on Bill and Holly. I don't understand the hate for this trilogy, but, I accept and understand that everyone isn't going to like everything the same!

Content Warnings

ufoparty's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

as someone who prefers king's more monstrous stories to what i would call regular thrillers, i found the story underwhelming. a kid finds a murderer's stash of money and manuscripts the latter stole from a famous author and uses the money to help his own family out of debt. the murderer gets out of prison and wants it back. a surprisingly standard story without any of the weird twists you'd expect from the author - the antag feels very much like an everyday bad guy without the horrifying impact of king's previous villains. about halfway through i realized i was supremely bored and struggled to get through 10 pages in one sitting before forcing myself to finish as quickly as possible.
3 stars because as always king has a very appealing writing style and strong voice, and i wouldn't say it's a bad book, just forgettable in my eyes compared to his other works.

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trash_reader_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was so definitely better than the first one. I was hooked from page 1. There wasn't a single moment where I wasn't drawn into the action.

This book will probably be my favorite of the trilogy, and that's mostly because it involves books. I love books and in a twisted sort of way I understand Morris's obsessive need to get his hands on the notebooks. Literature can change your life. And when you've had nothing to think about for 36 years than literature, I can understand becoming obsessive to the point of murdering for it.

I don't like where Stephen King is going with Brady, though. If he's doing what I think he's doing with the telekinesis thing, I'm going to be very disappointed. The biggest draw to this series for me was the real-life aspect of it. I love realistic, contemporary thrillers because it draws me in more. Brady developing telekinetic powers because Holly whapped him hard enough in the first book does not follow that theme at all.

I'm excited to see what King did for the third novel, but I'm also a little apprehensive now.

Content Warnings

ripxw's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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