Reviews of Fiction, 2024

Holly | Stephen King

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Summary: The eponymously named Holly is a detective searching for a missing person. Then several missing people. Suddenly, she has a history of disappearances with very little connecting them. Every stone she turns over adds to the risk of gaining unwanted attention or discovery by the antagonist. What little in the way of evidence can be gleaned is in short supply and time is running out.

Recommendation: Holly Rachel Gibney is a fictional character created by American author Stephen King. Originally appearing in the Bill Hodges trilogy of novels (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers and End of Watch), she later appears as a major supporting character in The Outsider and as the main character in If It Bleeds, a novella included in the collection of the same name. This is one of King’s most mundane works while still telling a great story, but if you are missing the supernatural from him, try Cell or The Dark Half or The Stand or Insomnia.

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Daisy Jones and the Six | Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Summary: Nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and by the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Recommendation: I regularly forgot this was a novel and not the oral history of a real life band being described. An excellent work of fiction, so much is written in detail, you soak it up like a bath. Between the two opposing main characters, you find the indignities and dangers of excess along with the trials of addiction. Not all rock bands end with a gentle riff of the strings – sometimes they are explosive. I hope these characters are still rocking, together or on their own.

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Book Lovers | Emily Henry

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Summary: Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine: not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

Recommendation: As a librarian, I confess to loving books myself. This was an intriguing read if only for the title. Obviously, the setting and people are going to appeal to my nature, so yes, this was a little telescopic (you could see the results coming a mile away). But that’s fine! I enjoyed it anyway, despite trying to be critical. It’s a fun beach read if your choice of beach had a library or bookseller on it.

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