As someone who has tremendous respect for Stephen King as a writer but is decidedly not a fan of modern horror, I was very excited to see King take on a different genre, and one that deeply interests me, no less.

This book is a capital S Saga to be sure, deeply immersive and evocative. You feel like you’re really in it with Billy, and more importantly, you want to be in it with Billy, whatever “it” happens to be at any particular moment in the story.

The structure of the book is a little odd (the first half of the book has a very different feel from the second half), and the first half also has much more of a light-ish action/thriller feel. Things get a lot heavier (and more complicated) in the second half. I preferred the earlier part of the story, but both are good and despite how different they feel, the two halves of the story somehow feel like they belong together.

I could have done with a lot less rape-related content, and though some of it is (thankfully) off-page, it still felt pretty visceral in a way that felt excessive at times and not entirely necessary. So, TW for rape, sexual assault and child rape.

I loved Alice and Bucky and even some of the more minor characters from the first half of the book, but none nearly as much as I loved Billy, who is incredibly easy to root for and about as good a hero as you can get. Given that, I didn’t love the ending (it kind of crushed me, to be honest), but I still considered this an outstanding story.

I also highly recommend the audiobook version of Billy Summers. The narrator is wonderful, evocative in his delivery without ever getting hammy or exaggerated. The plot is a good one for the format too. It’s kind of like listening to a movie, and King’s writing is so painterly that you can visualize what you’re hearing quite readily.