Billy Summers

I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.

Mr. King is turning into a crime writer and I am worried. Not that I don't like his crime stuff. I really enjoyed Later, Mr. Mercedes was alright and I LOVED The Outsider until a certain point. But Stephen King is my go-to horror writer when I want some chills and I find them less and less. I miss his horror novels and it is upsetting.

Billy Summers did not work for me.

It is a good “last job gone wrong” story with a spin towards the middle and it is a decent adventure but without any thrills or surprises.

My main issue was that spin. In the beginning, I really enjoyed the story. I liked the world that was being built around Billy. Billy Summers, a hitman who settles in a small town for his last job disguised as a writer. A quiet neighborhood, friendly, accepting neighbors, their children, etc. This is what King writes best right! Then something happens towards the middle and changes the whole story. After that point, the novel lost its charm, got boring and predictable. That's my first issue with the book. It was very sad to witness the book lose all its potential for me with the sudden change it made, while it started with great potential and follow in the footsteps of Stephen King's best books.

My second issue was the character work. I found Billy quite superficial for a Stephen King character. I liked what I saw, I wanted him to be successful, I wanted him to live happily ever after but he didn't come out of the page and materialize for me, even though as part of the narrative he articulated what made him what he was.

And Alice, my god Alice. I really didn't like her. Alice lost this book a whole star. I did not find her decisions and general attitude compatible with her experiences and her backstory. King isn't usually as good at writing female characters as he writes men, but Alice is truly unconvincing. Therefore the feeling of love and devotion between them seemed baseless to me and I could not take it seriously.

My third problem was that King's political views were incorporated into the story quite densely. I mean, we know dude, you hated Trump, every sane person did and you are already very vocal on Twitter. We. Get. It. The fact that he vomited his hatred at every opportunity he could find, whether it's irrelevant to the subject or not, without any contribution to the story, got boring after a few times.

I like the multiverse stuff, the ones I caught at least. It's impossible to miss one of the references anyway, as King has repeatedly mentioned it. Keep it, subtle man.

This book could've been amazing. This book could've been amazing if King had continued to tell the story of Billy, using themes of innocence and redemption, as at the beginning of the book, through a small-town, safe home, and accepting community. Could have been one of his recent bests.

Would I recommend Billy Summers? Sure. Absolutely. It sounds like I hated the book after all these complaints, but I read it in a few days, not looking for other options or thinking about dropping it. Billy is a character worth getting to know. I've been reading King's books since I was 11, 12 so that's why I go into the story with high expectations when I start his books. Maybe partly, for this reason, I was not satisfied with the story that I encountered along with the effect of the high praise Billy Summers received.

Sorry, Mr. King, it's not you, it's me.

Hopefully this isn't too much of a spolier, but I really couldn't get past Billy's relationship with Alice. It didn't feel like a believable connection considering how they meet, and I don't think King wrote her as a well rounded character. It felt very much like she was a prop to make Billy a hero and at times it was even a little creepy.

Honestly I'm really confused as to how this book has so many high ratings. It's far from his best work. Not a bad book by any means, but not great either? It still had a solid ending though and I'm glad I finished it.