#1 New York Times Bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book * An NPR Best Book of the Year

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and resourceful characters, returns in this chilling “exploration of grief and delusion, just pure undistilled evil” (New York magazine) as she uncovers the truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency, hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just passed away. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny’s desperate voice makes it impossible to turn her down.

Meanwhile, mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are also harboring a shocking, unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to…for they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Now Holly must summon all of her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver these unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries in this chilling and unforgettable masterwork from Stephen King.

Reading Group Guide

Holly

Stephen King

This reading group guide for Holly includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Introduction

Holly, one of Stephen King’s most enduringly compelling characters, now co-director of the Finders Keepers detective agency, knows she should turn down Penny Dahl’s request for help finding her missing daughter. Holly has just lost her own mother, and Covid-19 is on the rampage, taking her partner Pete into quarantine and out of commission. But something about Bonnie Dahl’s disappearance seems like more than just a girl who ran away, especially when other missing persons cases from the past show disturbingly similar patterns.

Emily and Rodney Harris are retired professors who live in a posh neighborhood in a midwestern town. Now in their eighties, they are struggling with their health, and their attempts to cure themselves through diet have become more desperate—and more sinister. A gruesome secret in their basement is the key to unlocking Holly’s case, but can she see through their unassuming facade and avoid becoming a victim herself?

Topics and Questions for Discussion

1. Early in the book, readers learn who the perpetrators are and why they are committing their crimes. Why does King take this approach? What does it add to the narrative?

2. The first time we meet Holly, she’s logging off from the Zoom funeral for her mother. We later learn more about the difficult relationship Holly had with Charlotte. How does the loss of her mother color Holly’s interactions with Penny, whose own daughter is missing?

3. Holly prides herself on being a detective, and she is a good one. However, in this novel she learns that her mother kept some stunning secrets from her. Does her mother’s deceit, and her own years-long, unknowing acceptance of it, shake Holly’s confidence?

4. The story takes place a year after the breakout of Covid-19. Masks, gloves, and vaccines are brought up throughout the novel and many of the characters are heavily affected by the virus. Why do you think King set the novel during the pandemic?

5. One of the reasons the Harrises get away with their crimes for so long is that they are married octogenarians and semi-retired academics, seemingly the last people on earth who would be capable of a string of kidnappings. What part does profiling play in this book?

6. Emily and Rodney show time and time again that their actions come from a place of love for each other. King includes moments between the two that are tender and caring, mostly in response to their respective ailments. They love each other, but other than that, do they have any humanity?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. Challenge your book club to go back and read the other books Holly is featured in (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, and If It Bleeds) to better understand who Holly is as a character.

2. Take a field trip to a park and read excerpts from the book that revolve around the setting. Discuss what the characters must have felt just before their disappearance. For further immersion, plan your visit for after dark.

About The Author

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Product Details

Publisher: Scribner (September 5, 2023)
Length: 464 pages
ISBN13: 9781668014950

Raves and Reviews

“Holly demonstrates that one of the last true rock stars of fiction can continue to grow as a writer, and doesn’t define success solely as a continuation of what’s worked for him before.” —The Washington Post

“Stephen King does something amazing in his new novel, HOLLY… King’s storytelling skills are not dimming one bit.” —Tampa Bay Times

“Hugely successful… Holly surely deserves further episodes in the spotlight.” — Portland Press Herald

“Holly has a thrilling finish, in which our heroine looks horror in the face. The outcome is most satisfying.” —St Louis Post-Dispatch

“What makes King’s work so much more frightening than that of most other suspense writers, what elevates it to night-terror levels, isn’t his cruelty to his characters: It’s his kindness.” —Flynn Berry, New York Times Book Review

“Both intimate and sprawling in its ambitions… Holly is the imperfect but determined angel among all those demons...” —Brian Truitt, USA Today

“Holly is the heart of the narrative. Her growth from a shy, muttering mess in Mr. Mercedes to the smart, strong, smoking, slightly better, and much richer woman we see in Holly is tremendous. Please, Mr. King, give us more Holly soon.” —Gabino Iglesias, NPR.org

“In half a century of writing horror novels, Stephen King has created some remarkable villains. Who can forget the sing-song voice of Pennywise the clown, the devil incarnate Randall Flagg, or the drooling jaws of Cujo? The big bads in King’s latest novel, Holly, aren’t quite so memorable, but that’s part of what makes them terrifying.” —Rob Merrill, Associated Press

“A deadly folie a deux… Holly pursues this case to the gates of hell, figuratively—there’s no supernatural element in this powerful exploration of grief and delusion, just pure, undistilled evil.” —New York Magazine