A review by mewpasaurus
Billy Summers by Stephen King

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

3.0

While I found this a pretty fast read and was enveloped in the story, I have a few issues which knocked down the rating of an otherwise okay read.

  • No one calls a laptop a lappie; especially not someone supposedly as coherent and intelligent as Billy Summers is supposedly supposed to be. It just hits wrong and takes the reader right out of the story.
  • Look, Mr. King. No one gives a shit about how much you hate Trump. I didn't vote for him either, but I wouldn't devote 500+ pages making constant references to his administration and how "evil" he is. This is just like Under the Dome all over again.
  • The rape revenge fantasy later on the book was completely unnecessary. I get wanting to enact some form of retribution for a terrible act (I'm an SA survivor/victim myself, after all), but that scene was completely unnecessary and preposterous.
  • There were some minor issues I had with the flashback stories to the character's time during his AD tour, but nothing too major.

Other than those issues, the book was mostly a pleasant read, but the above issues kept taking me out of the story and continued to annoy and plague me throughout the entire story. Shame, the writing is solid, as always.

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