Book Review: Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Petty criminal Morris Bellamy robs and murders acclaimed author John Rohnstein after feeling unsatisfied with the ending of his famous trilogy of books. Morris ends up going to jail on a rape charge, but years later Peter Saubers finds the trunk that Morris buried containing the stolen money and Rohnstein's unpublished works. A few years after Peter's discovery, Morris is released from prison and wants back what he feels is his...

"For readers, one of life's most electrifying discoveries is that they are readers - not just capable of doing it, but in love with it. Hopelessly. Head over heels."

You love books, I love books. We all love books. But King takes this book obsession to another level with two of his characters: one of which is the simply iconic and unforgettable Annie Wilkes, and the other is the despicable Morris Bellamy. Please never go this far, guys. Holding your favourite author hostage/murdering him so you can steal his unpublished works is just...too much. Let's just stick to fangirling over our favourites on all forms of social media.

Finders Keepers is an enjoyable detour away from the main story found within Mr Mercedes. The pace itself completely changes. Mr Mercedes is a fast-paced page-turner where your heart is in your mouth on multiple occasions. Finders Keepers feels more KING to me. That slow burn where King builds the foundations of a great story and then turns up the heat. I'm here for it!!

Very quickly I am fully absorbed in the story of the Saubers family. They've fallen on hard times after the father Tom was injured in the incident at the job fair, and the very likeable Pete thinks of a way to relieve the tension building between his parents after finding a trunk full of money and notebooks. For a while you're left wondering how exactly this will fully tie into the mish-mash trio of Hodges, Holly and Jerome, but King weaves it all so perfectly. For approximately the first half of the book, King flips back and forth between present day and the past, and as always, he does so seamlessly.

King explores literature and the love of reading in Finders Keepers, and that was one of my favourite things about this book. King so perfectly depicts how it feels to fall in love with reading, and it is very easy for him to do so because he is an avid reader himself. He gets us. His passion for reading is just as obvious as his love for writing. It's interesting to see how two passionate readers, the two main characters Pete and Morris, differ in their obsession. One is significantly more unhealthy than the other.

Holly is growing on me the more I get to know her, and my love for Bill Hodges continues to grow. I can take or leave Jerome - I just find it uncomfortable when King lets Jerome fall into speaking in his demeaning, and frankly unfunny, dialect. I think it's unnecessary.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed Finders Keepers. I love when King explores the relationship between an author and the reader. Really excited to see how the entire trilogy wraps up in End of Watch! I give this one 4 stars.

Johann

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