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A review by sueking365
Billy Summers by Stephen King
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Audio (and highly recommended in this media-the voice actor does just enough of a vocal change for each character to help you track the speaker but not enough to take you out of the story).
I haven’t read Stephen King in a minute (or perhaps in many, many years). As a youth I read everything he wrote: the scarier the better. Then came The Tommyknockers and I was out. I’ve read Misery and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, both of which I loved, but I’ve avoided all other King content until someone highly recommended this audio book to me.
Billy Summers is a hit man about to take on his final assignment and then he’s retiring. Things go sort of as expected…until they don’t. I was completely blindsided by a major plot change but ultimately I enjoyed the direction that the story took after that. There is a “book within a book” device, as Billy is an Iraqi war vet who joined the Marines after spending years in a foster home, and he decided to bide his time by writing his story. There are also some Easter eggs that call back to King’s other stories (big ones from one of his high-profile novels, possibly others which I didn’t catch).
I really enjoyed this book and can report that this is not a horror novel in anyway.
Content warning: rape, intense war scenes.
I haven’t read Stephen King in a minute (or perhaps in many, many years). As a youth I read everything he wrote: the scarier the better. Then came The Tommyknockers and I was out. I’ve read Misery and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, both of which I loved, but I’ve avoided all other King content until someone highly recommended this audio book to me.
Billy Summers is a hit man about to take on his final assignment and then he’s retiring. Things go sort of as expected…until they don’t. I was completely blindsided by a major plot change but ultimately I enjoyed the direction that the story took after that. There is a “book within a book” device, as Billy is an Iraqi war vet who joined the Marines after spending years in a foster home, and he decided to bide his time by writing his story. There are also some Easter eggs that call back to King’s other stories (big ones from one of his high-profile novels, possibly others which I didn’t catch).
I really enjoyed this book and can report that this is not a horror novel in anyway.
Content warning: rape, intense war scenes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, and War
Moderate: Gun violence