2024 the best stephen king book review

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(as of Nov 16, 2024 15:51:14 UTC - Details)

The number one New York Times Best seller

An Esquire Best Book of the Year

A Wall Street Journal Favorite Book of the Year

A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist

From legendary storyteller Stephen King, whose “restless imagination is a power that cannot be contained” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a thrilling new novel about a good guy in a bad job.

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about everything.

This spectacular can’t-pause novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption.

You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy.

Reviewer: Josh Mauthe
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: In which King does Stephen Hunter way better than Stephen Hunter does
Review: As Stephen King has gotten older, he’s been more and more willing to step out of his comfort zone, finding new and interesting stories to tell and areas on which to focus. Until now, the most obvious example of this was Mr. Mercedes, in which King tried his hand at a serial killer novel, but found a way to do it that made it feel undeniably his own. That’s not to say that Mr. Mercedes was bad, mind you – I enjoyed it – but it definitely felt like King trying his hand at something different, and stretching it all to fit his ideas and tropes.But now comes Billy Summers, an “assassin with one last job” tale, and what’s remarkable is the fact that it’s simultaneously a superb, faithful entry in the genre that hits all the needed beats, but also unmistakably a King book, with the character development, relentless pacing, and set pieces he’s so capable of delivering when he’s at his peak. What’s more, Billy Summers finds King focusing his abilities in a way he hasn’t in a while, paring back some of his verbal tics and overly large characters in favor of a well-observed, surprisingly internal story about a very bad man reckoning with the choices he made that led him here. And the result is one of King’s best books in years – probably since 11/22/63, and that was a decade ago.As you’d expect from the “one last job” mention I gave, the setup of Billy Summers sounds formulaic: an assassin (one who argues that he only kills “bad men”) agrees to take a job that sounds off (if nothing else, he’s going to have to live “undercover” in a small town for months while waiting on the job to happen) because it’s time to get out, and he can’t turn down the money. Classic, right? But even early on, it’s clear that King has more on his mind than just the tropes. There’s the way that Billy, our assassin, is so clearly putting on a front of his stupidity, using that to lull people around him into letting down their guard. There’s the fact that Billy is all too aware that his “only bad guys” excuse is just that – an excuse that he’s using to justify his own actions.And there’s the fact that this last job doesn’t turn out to be the set piece of the book, or the climax…but something that happens at only a third of the way through our pages. So what’s left after that?Well, quite a bit, it turns out, as Billy Summers turns into something wholly different in many ways, all while never losing its focus on Billy’s development, as this very bad man begins to grapple with his identity – not just the choices that led him to this job, but his upbringing, his time in Iraq, his first jobs, and so much more. And thanks to some unexpected developments, Billy finds himself viewing himself in a new light – and a wholly more complicated one.Part of what’s so good about Billy Summers is watching the book evolve and change in front of you, so I’m trying to be coy about so much of what unfolds here. But what I’ll say is that the book does what King does best: marry genre thrills (in this case, a relentless thriller about an assassin) with strong, complex character work. And what he pulls off here is some of his best effort on both of those fronts. The plotting is tense but effective, using King’s gifts for pacing and tension to maximum effect, but also knowing when a much-anticipated event should subvert our expectations, or knowing when things can be best left off the page.And at the same time, King finds a way into Billy’s mind in a way that allows him to find even more of a voice than usual for a King character, eschewing King’s normal verbal tics and running catchphrases and instead giving us a complex individual who doesn’t really fit into easy categories. And the cast around him measures up to that, as King takes archetypal roles (ones almost demanded by the genre) and makes them individualistic and believable, down to the ending, which is one of King’s best and sidesteps his famed iffiness on nailing the dismount.Look, I’m a King fanboy, to be fair, and you can take this review knowing that I’ve liked way more King books than not. But to me, Billy Summers is a knockout, one that finds King focused and taut and showing a confidence in this (for him) unfamiliar genre that he’s earned. The book is tighter than he’s often gone, wasting little time but never forgetting the complexity of its cast, and it does right by both its thriller story and its complex protagonist. I absolutely loved it, and it’s a treat to see King still delivering knockouts this late into his career. And if you’ve always wanted to try King but weren’t into horror, well, do I have a treat for you.

Reviewer: Christopher Carrolli
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Billy Summers--Destined to be One of King's Most Memorable Characters
Review: Billy Summers is a hitman, but he’s a good man. He only takes out wrongdoers. He is the title character of Stephen King’s latest, and much to the chagrin of die-hard horror fans, “Billy Summers” is a heartfelt tearjerker and a page-turning masterpiece of human drama. After deciding to end his profession, Billy is hired to perform one last job by two trusted associates, Frank and Nick. Nick, who Billy knows well or at least he thinks, has hired him to kill Joel Allen, a rapist who walked away from his horrific crime. While he plays dumb for his own cover and safety, Billy understands well that it’s not Nick who wants Allen dead. That credit goes to a faceless, nameless big shot hidden in the background.Nick’s team provides Billy with a convincing cover. He’s an author working on a new book. Billy is then set up in a new town, provided with a new name, and given an office space while he sits patiently and waits for a prisoner transfer to the courthouse across the street. From the window, he will take the fatal shot at his target. Then, he will disappear. But Billy is not as stupid as he’s played for Nick and his team of accomplices. Billy smells a rat, and fearing for his own safety after the job is done, he completely vanishes.Now on the run from the law and his dubious employer, Billy hides in plain sight with a disguise and yet a different identity he’d had secretly stored up his sleeve. All remains quiet and uneventful. Billy bides his time to make a run for it, all while waiting for the rest of the money owed to him for the job. Then, late one night a young girl is thrown from a van out into an alley behind his new apartment. She is drunk and unconscious. Billy rescues her and realizes she’s been gang raped. As Billy revives her, we are introduced to Alice, his future partner in crime.As always, King’s characters are true to life and vividly depicted. Billy is a veteran of the Iraq war and an expert sniper. During the wait for his target, he began writing his memoir as part of his cover. From there, the details of his life emerge. As in “Misery,” King provides the reader with the book-inside-the-book scenario, and it works just as well as it always has. Billy takes us through his troubled childhood and into the bloody battles of Fallujah, and then into present day, where he leaves off and awaits the final chapter. Alice is young and smarter than she realizes. Underneath her spunky veneer, she remains traumatized by what happened to her. She has also developed feelings for Billy, an older man who saved her life, the man she will now follow anywhere. Billy has one trusted cohort, Bucky, who serves as sort of a hit man’s agent. Billy is to be paid his final installment through Bucky, but the funds never arrive.Now, Billy has decided to go after the man who hired him, as well as the man who paid for the job to be done. He and Alice embark on a cross-country excursion as different people, and the story plays out in fast-paced, thrilling action. As always, surprises and twists and turns abound. The story of Billy’s life continues to be written until page after page, we learn more and more about him and Alice, marveling at the fate that brought these two characters together and the bond that keeps them there.Although the outcome is no surprise, King has outdone himself again with a thrill ride that doesn’t stop until the final words. As the many puzzle pieces finally fit together into a concise framework, it becomes clear that Billy Summers is destined to be one of King’s most unforgettable characters.

Reviewer: YuMi Hc
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Historia entretenida, de muy fácil lectura. Muy recomendado

Reviewer: Ginny Brown (Virginia)
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I’m a huge Stephen King fan. Not every single King book has clicked with me, although most have. I give Billy Summers a 5/5.It’s a real page-turner, and I found myself unable to put it down at times.The story is huge. It covers a lot of territory- both geographically and intellectually, and it is hard to remember that the writer didn’t experience the events first-hand. It’s packed with excitement, sentimentality, humor and great wisdom….simply a great read!

Reviewer: Mateus Fonseca
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Estou avaliando a qualidade física do produto, não a história.A edição é linda e tem jm efeito maravilhoso na capa, é uma luva de ótima qualidade. A capa dura imita tecido e tem a cor preta na lombada e vermelho no restante. Simplesmente um lindo livro.

Reviewer: Donny
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This was a book I couldn’t put down. The life and mind-set of a paid killer is depicted convincingly and gave me much food for thought. Exciting right to the last page.

Reviewer: Cat
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Im still reading but pretty good so far