Holly

The balance between evil and good is a recurring theme in King’s work. Life according to King is rarely fair or happy. His novels present loss, trauma, and the cruelty of other people as unavoidable parts of the human experience. These dark parts of life are matched only by the resilience and goodness of the human spirit. In Holly, King explores how people endure grief and trauma, suggesting that the best way forward is to acknowledge the painful reality of life while retaining hope and morality.

In her job as a private investigator, Holly comes face to face with the depths of human depravity several times. Before the events of Holly, she witnessed several murders and faced off against supernatural and human evils. In Holly, she confronts a more banal evil while she processes the recent loss of her mother and the lingering trauma of their toxic relationship.

Holly’s resilience is tested throughout the novel. At the start of the novel, she has lost her mother to COVID-19; she grapples with the mixture of emotions resulting from their fraught relationship. Shortly afterward, she learns that Charlotte had been deceiving her, hiding a fortune of six million dollars to make Holly give up on her budding career. This revelation shakes the bedrock of Holly’s life. She is deeply hurt at the knowledge that her mother wanted to undermine her aspirations and keep her emotionally stunted. After learning of Vera Steinman’s overdose, Holly outlines her philosophy on grief: either you cope, or you don’t. Holly chooses to cope, as do various other secondary characters.

Barbara Robinson is haunted by her brush with supernatural evil. Vera Steinman mourns the loss of her missing son Pete, and Penny Dahl struggles to maintain hope that her daughter will be found. Each character has their own coping strategy: Barbara expresses herself through poetry, Vera sobers up in honor of her late son, and Penny’s grief manifests as anger and desperation. When given the choice to “face or forget” their pain, each character chooses to “face [it], because there is no other choice” (146).

When things seem darkest for Holly, she draws on what King dubs “Holly hope,” her internal store of resilience and optimism. It is this inner well of hope that prevents her from giving up on the Bonnie Dahl case. Holly doggedly pursues every lead, even putting herself into harm’s way to learn the truth about the Deerfield Park disappearances. In killing the Harrises, Holly confronts and defeats pure human evil.

In Chapter 42, Holly laments, “there’s no end to evil” (442). The sum of all the evil acts she’s witnessed threatens to overwhelm her, and she contemplates quitting Finders Keepers for good. Given her large inheritance, she is faced with a final choice between surrendering to evil and rising above it. Working as a private investigator entails the continual choice to encounter evil, but gives Holly the means to help others and put goodness out into the world. Ultimately, Holly decides to remain in the business, cementing King’s thesis that the hardest parts of life can’t be ignored or outrun. The best that humans can do is keep pushing forward, finding moments of strength and joy amid the darkness.

Tensions between parents and children are a recurring motif in Holly. Through Holly’s relationship with her mother Charlotte, as well as several secondary mother-child pairs, King examines the complicated emotional legacy of mother-child relationships.

At the start of the novel, Holly’s mother Charlotte has recently died of COVID-19. Holly is unsure how to process the loss. She and Charlotte had a relationship fraught with anger and tension. Charlotte was a controlling mother who sought to limit Holly’s personal freedom due to her perception that her daughter was fragile and weak. The effects of Charlotte’s oppression, which Holly dubs “smother-love,” linger in the wake of her death—when doubting herself at key moments, Holly often hears her mother’s voice in her head.

Despite their contentious relationship, Holly grieves the loss of her mother. She describes the void left by her death and wonders “why does it hurt so much […] when she didn’t even like her mother and she’s so angry about the stupid way her mother died?” (66). The posthumous revelation that Charlotte was hiding her fortune further complicates their relationship, as does Holly’s visit to her childhood home, which brings back memories of Charlotte’s controlling parenting style. Holly oscillates between anger, guilt, and sadness. Her frequent recollections of Charlotte’s micro-managing advice contribute to the impression that her mother is still controlling aspects of her life, even after Charlotte’s death.

Several other mothers in Holly address the complicated nature of parenthood, though none are abusive like Charlotte. Vera Steinman’s alcohol dependency estranged her from her son Peter. Though the two repaired their relationship after she got sober, Vera says that they still fought. Indeed, disagreements between parents and children are commonplace; Penny and Bonnie Dahl loved one another but fought often and explosively about Bonnie’s future. Parents are fallible human beings who don’t always know what is best for their children, and familial love often goes hand-in-hand with resentment and anger.

At the end of the novel, Holly shakes off the last vestiges of Charlotte’s control. She no longer hears Charlotte’s voice in her head, and she is focused on her future—a future she chose independently and without manipulation. Vera commits to sobriety for the sake of Peter’s memory, while Penny mourns the loss of her daughter. Holly ultimately portrays parent-child relationships as complex, difficult, and durable ties whose legacies endure even after death.