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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
dark
slow-paced
3.5
I love a story in a story and that is essentially what Billy Summers is. I really appreciated King's writing style when talking about summers' life.
Definitely not horror. Loved the ending(s).
Oh and how could I forget the shout out to the Overlook hotel?! Loved it.
I love a story in a story and that is essentially what Billy Summers is. I really appreciated King's writing style when talking about summers' life.
Definitely not horror. Loved the ending(s).
Oh and how could I forget the shout out to the Overlook hotel?! Loved it.
While King’s new works aren’t as scary and well written as his older novels, he’s still able to write a good, if predictable, story. He even included a nod to one of his earlier novels written in Colorado, which I enjoyed immensely.
So what’s it about? It’s about assassin for hire Billy Summers and the last job he takes. Billy, a veteran service member with one tour to Iraq under his belt, has been a gun for hire for years but it’s time to retire. In taking his last job from people he’s worked with for years, what could possibly go wrong?
King does a great job with Summers’ backstory, even if it did feel a little clichéd—although he also mentions the autobiography of a sniper and another novel including a character with the same kind of backstory. Overall, it was a good one time read and while I’d recommend it to a friend, it’s not a book I’d reread (unlike The Shining, IT, and Pet Sematary).
So what’s it about? It’s about assassin for hire Billy Summers and the last job he takes. Billy, a veteran service member with one tour to Iraq under his belt, has been a gun for hire for years but it’s time to retire. In taking his last job from people he’s worked with for years, what could possibly go wrong?
King does a great job with Summers’ backstory, even if it did feel a little clichéd—although he also mentions the autobiography of a sniper and another novel including a character with the same kind of backstory. Overall, it was a good one time read and while I’d recommend it to a friend, it’s not a book I’d reread (unlike The Shining, IT, and Pet Sematary).
The plot was a little too slow paced for my liking.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Been sitting on this review, because despite how fast I read the book, I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to rate it, or what I wanted to say about it. I think ultimately that I was very entertained by this book, even if it isn't King's best. A lot of it revisited past favorite themes of his, but some of it felt new. This is his first straight up crime novel*, and his first about a hit-man.
*This honorific used to belong to the Bill Hodges trilogy, but as we learn in the third book of that series and its continuations (The Outsider and its companion novella) the supernatural is alive and well in Bill Hodges' world. An argument could be made for this novel existing in a supernatural world as well, as it hints to taking place in the same universe as The Shining(and Misery), but there is nothing significant about the content of the story itself that is anything other than mundane. The thing with the painting could very easily be read as a metaphor, and a product of Billy's developing paranoia.
Billy Summers is the hit-man. He sort of fell into the profession after leaving the military, and we get his backstory in the form of a Roman à clef novel Billy is writing to pass the time while he waits for his One Last Job to be finished. Billy has taken this job, even though something about it doesn't feel exactly right, on the back of a hefty seven figure payday. He plans to disappear after it's done. The story weaves backwards in the form of the autobiographical novel (which he has to pretend to write badly so his employers, who are monitoring him, don't start thinking he's smarter than he is pretending to be), and forwards as he plans for the job, executes it, and then has to deal with the fallout.
I liked pretty much everything to do with the hit-man story, the planning and the executing, and the way Billy pre-plans for everything to go sideways, and what he does about all of it in the end. I'm still not sure how I feel about the presence of a character who joins the novel about a third of the way through. I also didn't love reading the scenes from Billy's novel about his time in the military, because war stories are something I like to avoid when possible, but they are key to who he he is as a character. I'm also never not going to like a book within a book as a storytelling device, but it is a well King has gone to again and again. I'm not sure he could have made the book work without it and kept his ending. The conceit of Billy writing his story was central to how the denouement plays out. It was satisfying to see Billy take down a genuine Grade-A villain, as a sort of penance for his own poor life choices. Despite how good he was at his job, it made him a certain kind of person. I did like this aspect of the novel quite a bit, the musings on what makes a good person, and seeing someone who's done very bad things in his life reckoning with that.
So, not perfect, but I liked it.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
*This honorific used to belong to the Bill Hodges trilogy, but as we learn in the third book of that series and its continuations (The Outsider and its companion novella) the supernatural is alive and well in Bill Hodges' world. An argument could be made for this novel existing in a supernatural world as well, as it hints to taking place in the same universe as The Shining(and Misery), but there is nothing significant about the content of the story itself that is anything other than mundane. The thing with the painting could very easily be read as a metaphor, and a product of Billy's developing paranoia.
Billy Summers is the hit-man. He sort of fell into the profession after leaving the military, and we get his backstory in the form of a Roman à clef novel Billy is writing to pass the time while he waits for his One Last Job to be finished. Billy has taken this job, even though something about it doesn't feel exactly right, on the back of a hefty seven figure payday. He plans to disappear after it's done. The story weaves backwards in the form of the autobiographical novel (which he has to pretend to write badly so his employers, who are monitoring him, don't start thinking he's smarter than he is pretending to be), and forwards as he plans for the job, executes it, and then has to deal with the fallout.
I liked pretty much everything to do with the hit-man story, the planning and the executing, and the way Billy pre-plans for everything to go sideways, and what he does about all of it in the end. I'm still not sure how I feel about the presence of a character who joins the novel about a third of the way through. I also didn't love reading the scenes from Billy's novel about his time in the military, because war stories are something I like to avoid when possible, but they are key to who he he is as a character. I'm also never not going to like a book within a book as a storytelling device, but it is a well King has gone to again and again. I'm not sure he could have made the book work without it and kept his ending. The conceit of Billy writing his story was central to how the denouement plays out. It was satisfying to see Billy take down a genuine Grade-A villain, as a sort of penance for his own poor life choices. Despite how good he was at his job, it made him a certain kind of person. I did like this aspect of the novel quite a bit, the musings on what makes a good person, and seeing someone who's done very bad things in his life reckoning with that.
So, not perfect, but I liked it.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
adventurous
dark
Billy Summers is the story of a hit man with a conscience. The book itself reminds me a lot of 11/22/63 in its pacing and plot similarities, but 11/22/63 is far superior. The book suffers from a bit of a meandering plot, not really until over half way through the book do you begin to understand where the book is going. Another criticism is that King doesn’t like Trump, which is fine, but he sees fit to take around 30 pot shots (No exaggeration) of how stupid or annoying Trump is. King’s obnoxious hatred of Trump seeps through almost constantly throughout the book on ways that have no bearing to the plot and serve only to distract from the story and take the reader out of the narrative. We get it Stephen you hate Trump, let’s move on.
The part of the book that is great is the relationship between Billy and his young ward that he rescues. The relationship is engaging and well written. The plot line that develops from Billy and Alice’s relationship is the best part of the book.
The book is an easy and quick read with a enjoyable plot and enjoyable characters. No part of the book is boring, I’d give it a solid 4/5, rating based on the rest of the books by King.
The part of the book that is great is the relationship between Billy and his young ward that he rescues. The relationship is engaging and well written. The plot line that develops from Billy and Alice’s relationship is the best part of the book.
The book is an easy and quick read with a enjoyable plot and enjoyable characters. No part of the book is boring, I’d give it a solid 4/5, rating based on the rest of the books by King.
adventurous
slow-paced