Review: Never Flinch

Never Flinch by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had high expectations for this one, even after I was a little less impressed than I'd been hoping for with Holly, because Holly Gibney is a fan and creator favorite for a reason. But here we have Holly's latest case - or, more accurately, cases. There's a lot going on in this book, and it's so convoluted that it proves very difficult for the whole story to coalesce cleanly, and even King himself admitted that this one was hard to write for many reasons. What it all boils down to is, there's a mysterious killer stalking Holly's hometown of Buckeye City (finally it more or less confirms my longstanding headcanon that Holly lives in Ohio), and the Robinsons are involved with the upcoming return concert of long-retired soul singer Sista Bessie. While Holly is away bodyguarding for a controversial feminist speaker of a similar vibe to Susan Day in Insomnia, she's also having to contend with a stalker who turns out to be two personalities in one body, one male, one female, both toxically manipulated by Evangelical preachers with dirty money up the wazoo. The Psycho-like quality of this character in particular feels like it's King's way of reminding his Constant Readers that after his heavy moralizing in Holly, he really isn't a perfect leftist at all, never has been. But he's still a liberal at heart, exactly as expected for a man of his always-welcome anti-Trump, anti-Evangelical convictions, the latter being what shows much more in this book.

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