I started working at a grocery store sometime in the last couple of weeks. It’s a nice place, very clean, and it has a positive working environment with co-workers that are very kind. It was also a way to get some money for over the summer (gamers gotta game, amirite?) and have some way to finally get out of the house.
With that setting, I was looking in the store’s magazine and paperback aisle out of curiosity and I noticed a couple of Stephen King books on the shelf. I have a slight bit of history with King’s works, most notably with Carrie, his first big book and I have seen both the movie adaptations. The one that caught my eye the most was called Finders Keepers. The plot sounded cool (which makes me wonder why stories about writers get me interested) and I had some slight knowledge that it was part of a trilogy starring an ex-cop character named Bill Hodges. Sadly, when I did more research the next morning after reading some of the book, I found out it was the SECOND in the trilogy after the first book, Mr. Mercedes. Despite that fact that I had been reading the second part of the trilogy, I found Finders Keepers a solid read, with my huge issue with it revolving around the titular character himself.
The story focuses on three elements: Morris Bellamy: a psychotic, damaged but intelligent man obsessed over a writer's work, particularly over the fate of one of his characters. I'd like to note Morris’ similarity towards another King story, Misery, but as we read in the beginning set in 1978, he is more willing to murder the author with a bullet straight in the head while robbing his house (Plus, I haven't read Misery, but have some knowledge of the what the story was about). He finds money but hits his ultimate paydirt when he finds a number of notebooks (element #2) of never before seen poems and stories by the recently deceased author, and even hints of a potential better conclusion towards his fictional obsession. Before he can read them, though, he buries them until the heat cools down, but eventually gets arrested later and sentenced to life for an unrelated crime.
About 30 years later, a young boy named Pete Saubers (#3) discovers the buried goods, and it becomes valuable to him and something helpful to his family (who have connections to events from Mr. Mercedes), who have fallen on hard times. But eventually, Morris does get out of prison, and has become determined to finally get his hands on the notebooks and will do anything to finally grasp them.
I like the character of Pete Saubers. His discovery of the notebooks get him hooked into the author's works like Morris (just less goddamn psychotic), and his motives in the story are goodhearted and towards helping his family. I felt bad for the kid and his younger sister, Tina, as they had to endure those hard times in the first third of the book; parents constantly bitching at each other and running on fumes in terms of lifestyles. With the story shifting between him and the delusional Bellamy, as he gets close to getting to the truth of where the notebooks eventually went, it’s scary when they inevitably meet up.
But now where does Bill Hodges come in? For a while when he finally appears in the second act, almost not at all. The parts that concerned him for half the second act is arguably pointless, other than following up (and at times, recapping the reader or possibly newcomers of) the events of the previous book. After a first act that had nothing to do with him, he felt awkwardly placed in halfway into the story. When he does get involved with the main plot, he's playing catch up to what we already know (basically recapping the damn story for the second time in the second act) until the third act, when he and his crew, consisting of Holly Gibney and Jerome Robertson, finally take more action. I liked the chemistry between the three and their dialogue, but until they finally moved their asses, it just kind of bugged me that they were in the story and slowing it down. It's like playing a video game and then having to help your brother or friend through it before you can get back to your playthrough. There are times, especially in the final act, where that kind of thing works because the other characters are getting closer to what’s going on, but when it involves them picking up the pieces we already have picked up a long, long time ago, it just doesn’t work.
For someone who has written a total of 50+ books, King's writing I don't think (given my lack of expertise towards the world of written word. I mean, just read this for Pete’s sake) has faltered so much over that time. Finders Keepers has some nice touches of humor I found myself laughing loud at, grisly details of blood, gore or the extreme violent act making me wince, and a climax and conclusion that was exciting and with a mean cliffhanger that reminded me of a Telltale game and wanting to read the other two books. The first act splits itself between Morris in 1978 and Pete in 2008-2014, and it was cool to see it all connect over the buried notebooks, from Morris burying it to Pete finding it. Some things change over whoever King follows in the story (Pete occasionally changes to Peter, Morris to Red Lips, etc) and the interactions felt natural.
After reading Finders Keepers, I do want to get ahold of the previous book, Mr. Mercedes as well as the final book, End of Watch, to fully get into the world of Bill Hodges, because this story is not a very good introduction for those wanting to read his stories. It's a good story when King places his focus on Pete and Morris, but when he finally brings in Hodges in the second act, it's an awkward introduction that slows the story down until he finally gets caught up in the plot.
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Thanks for reading to the end! I know my releases on this blog have been as consistent as Spoony's (a reviewer on YouTube for those oblivious to who these people are), and after constant promises to come back, I am now deciding to release posts when the thoughts come to me to do so, so it could be ages for the next one (Unless I decide to do more of these kinds of posts with the other two books in the trilogy). I wrote this one out of a feeling to do so originally on my Facebook, and this is a tweaked up and edited version of the post. I feel my opinions are a bit pedestrian towards the book, but I could be wrong and just hitting myself with the stupid stick.
Anyway, I do think of this blog (btw, 500 views, goddamn!) every now and then, so I haven't abandoned it, and I will come back when I can get the mind to get something fully written down. Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all next time.