Posted on 09/06/2023 12:15:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
King explained that his new novel 'is a time capsule of a particular time when I was writing the book,' during which he quickly became an outspoken advocate for social distancing and COVID vaccinations
Stephen King is tackling his most terrifying horror yet: surviving a pandemic in Trump's America.
The author told Rolling Stone in an interview published Tuesday that COVID deniers and Donald Trump supporters are sure to hate his new book Holly, which follows the eponymous PI as she investigates a string of disappearances amid the height of the pandemic.
"I think that a lot of people are not going to like it," explained King. "I think that a lot of people — particularly people on the other side of the COVID issue and the Trump issue — are going to give it one-star reviews on Amazon. But all I can say to those people is, 'Knock yourself out.'"
Holly was introduced in King's Mr. Mercedes books, joining Detective Bill Hodges and the Finders Keepers Agency in solving crimes.
Her solo outing begins after spending the majority of her life at home with her domineering mother. As Holly sets out to get to the bottom of the disappearances, she faces a deadly pandemic, a racially-divided country and cannibalistic professors.
King explained that Holly "is a time capsule of a particular time when I was writing the book," during which he quickly became an outspoken advocate for social distancing and COVID vaccinations (King also previously said he believes "Trump was a horrible president and is a horrible person").
Holly begins with the titular character making a Zoom appearance at her COVID-denying mother's funeral, who continued to insist "I've just got the flu" from her deathbed.
"I think that it goes back to this is not a new thing," said King. "There have been people for years who have just been vaccination deniers who say that if you get a vaccination for a certain kind of thing, you're going to cause birth defects in your children, this and that. Or if you vaccinate your children, they could have strokes. And you see the same things about the COVID vaccinations."
King continued, "There's this constant story that thousands of people are dying of heart disease because of the vaccinations. It's not true, but it's gained a lot of credence. So there's a lot of that. And I tried to put that in the book. There are characters in the book who just say, 'I don't believe in this bulls—. It's all crap.' And that's the life that we live. And I always try to reflect the time that I'm writing in."
Stephen King's Holly is now available.
Never was a fan.
Out of all the books he’s written the only one I liked and only saw the movie version is Christine. I later read the book and it su*ked.
ok...I’ll be sure not to read it.
A far cry from his early book “The Stand”, where government officials with their quarantines and extreme precautions were seen as the evil ones.
Scott Sigler writes horror and suspense to make Stephen King look like a boy scout telling stories.
Great. I’ll be sure to skip it.
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