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Stephen King’s ‘Holly’ Swamped by Trump Derangement Syndrome

Legendary author turns book into serialized version of his X social media stream

Horror maestro Stephen King is no stranger to politics.

King routinely flexes his progressive positions on social media, echoing the Democrats’ talking points du jour.

He also brings his political musings to his stories.

“Under the Dome” mocked President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. “Insomnia” touched on anti-abortion protesters, with a clear nod toward a woman’s right to abort their unborn babies.

Christians are one of King’s favorite targets, from “Carrie” to “The Mist.”

His latest novel, “Holly,” pushes that practice to the limit. NPR calls it one of his most political novels to date.

The book showcases a character first introduced in his novel “Mr. Mercedes” – Holly Gibney. Our heroine is hire to find a client’s missing daughter, a hunt that intersects with a pair of respected professors who harbor some deep, dastardly secrets.

X user Ben Sixsmith shared a snippet from the new novel

The snippets read as if Rob Reiner, who may have the worst case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, took over King’s laptop. The teaser ties into King’s rage against so-called “anti-vaxxers,” MAGA nation and more.

The term “on the nose” rushes to mind. Here’s the far-Left NPR describing the story’s themes:

The Covid-19 pandemic, racism and homophobia, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Donald Trump’s effect on the country’s zeitgeist and political discourse are all very present in the narrative…

Why buy the book when you can read King’s Tweets?

HATE WOKE? YOU’LL LOVE THE HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO PODCAST

The tiny sample suggests the author’s Trump obsession is bleeding into his prose in ways that hurt the experience.

Show, don’t tell. Try a feather, not a sledgehammer.

it’s one of the dangers of creating art based on current events. The news is too raw, too recent, and the artist’s emotions can run hotter than necessary. For example, some of the best Vietnam War movies came out in the 1980s, more than a decade after the war ended.

PLATOON (1986) | Official Trailer | | MGM

Filmmakers routinely wrap political themes into their art, and the same holds for novels. You don’t have to agree with the points of view in play to cheer their inclusion.

Art often soars by adding complexity to the narrative.

What those “Holly” snippets suggest, sadly, is that King’s TDS is overlapping his considerable gifts. 

The conservative American Thinker excoriated both King and “Holly.”

King, America’s premier storyteller of the past 50 years, has never hidden his left-wing political bias. But before the mess that is Holly, King kept himself in check, never making politics central to his story nor demonizing those who do not share his ideology by using fact patterns unmoored from any sort of reality … Since King’s novel Carrie in 1974, I have purchased and read every novel King has written. I will never purchase another.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Holly’s ties to the missing daughter.

29 Comments

    1. In Europe all the news is left wing propaganda. I lived there 4 years. There is no balance. You aren’t “sane” you are heavily indoctrinated and don’t get both sides of a story so you don’t know any better. You know nothing about the topic, you believe what your handlers tell you. And I say this as a centrist, 3rd party supporter with no major love for Trump (which you will likely lazily dismiss as a far right Trump supporter, because you want to validate your bias and it’s easier than thinking), but none of the Trump derangement syndrome types predictions of doom ever came true. They are just insufferable children overreacting to “tweets” years after the fact, when nearly every problem from riots to a “vaccine” killing healthy young athletes has be because of the people who hate Trump, not him.

      A “sane” person can see bias all over, including on the left (where it’s often most unhinged from reality). The brainwashed only see it on “the other side” and think their team is incapable of wrong doing. That’s not sanity. That’s primitive, mindless tribalism. Worry about fixing Europe, including this inferiority complex most of you seem to have regarding the US, before worrying about commenting in topics you know nothing about.

  1. I guess the writer of this piece probably did not like the Barbie movie, thinks the event of January 6th in our nations capitol was was just a Trump stirred up mob that got just a little out of hand, a little sloppy attempt to steal the election, steal democracy. but he probably has enough sense to vote for anyone but Trump in 2024, yes? Thanks.

    1. The Barbie movie started strong but collapsed in the third act. Jan. 6 was an ugly riot, not an insurrection (unarmed!). Here’s my guess. You think the mainstream media is fair and balanced.

    1. NPR is far Left. No doubt. It ignores the Biden crime family. It didn’t even investigate the Hunter Biden laptop. So much more. Please open your mind and read a variety of news sources.

    2. Until *very* recently NPR was *still* promoting the long-disproven Trump-Russia collusion hoax as gospel truth. And, as someone else noted, NPR has buried any stories about Biden corruption as deep as possible.

      Just they other day someone on there was still saying Trump tried to overthrow the government because some people (*many* of them agents provocateur) *sort of* rioted on Jan.6. I’ve been to rowdier parties than that.

      NPR’s still calling that an “insurrection, an “attempted coup,” and a “threat to democracy.”

      I’m a crippled old man who can’t type, and I believe *I* could put on a better insurrection than that.

      *Real* coups are carried out from within by elements of a country’s military and security forces — *not* by an unarmed, disorganized mob of misfits in goofy costumes milling around confusedly and taking selfies, or yelling and breaking a couple of windows.

      There *was* a real coup in this country involving years of subversion by its security/intelligence agencies and mutinous top military brass like General Milly. It *succeeded* in installing its preferred regime. We’re looking at it now. Stephen King is cheering it on.

      Oh, and he believes masks and that mRNA jab work. No amount of proof that they don’t will change his mind

  2. Minor error in the reporting. “Our heroine must find her missing daughter…” Incorrect. Holly is hired as a PI to find the client’s daughter, it’s important to note that Holly has no children.

  3. is it derangement to accurately portray the political landscape in a contemporary novel?
    I’d say its far more deranged to turn a tantrum into a blog post because your little fascist feelwings got hwurt.

  4. Oh, my. The Trumpkins are in an utter snitfit over Holly, aren’t they? King is a novelist who reflects American life, and the toxic presence of the fascist right is an unfortunately large pare of that life.

    1. No, he reflected the far left TDS propaganda. From masks, to the useless jab, he used propaganda not facts for this novel.

  5. Trump Derangement Syndrome = people who are observant and remain in touch with reality. Stephen King’s greatest strength as an writer is his capacity to obserrve and understand human behavior. He has created plenty of Christian characters who are devout and good people, and they are heroes in his stories. He condemns fundamentalist insanity, which Trump supporters mistake for religion. You obviously don’t understand the difference, nor have you read enough King to understand him. You are too emotionally immature and beset with Dunning-Kruger syndrome to write a column on art, culture, politics, or anything else. This is trolling you have presented us, not literary criticism.

    1. Do you think those snippets are ham-fisted or nah? Do you realize he’s spouting lies about COVID because he, and I’m guessing you, actually believe St. Fauci, the serial liar?

    2. TDS is literally the exact opposite. Go look at the biggest suffers from it like Rachel Maddow/Kings Twitter feed and tell me their unhinged rants have any resemblance to reality.
      Masking, social distancing, and lockdowns did nothing and was based off of zero studies or science. The efficacy of the Jab was also wildly incorrect and the blaming of people for the pandemic who refused the jab was disgusting.
      It’s quite hilarious that you are calling the author of this piece “emotionally immature” when that’s litterly what King is. Smfh ‍♂️

  6. King, like most Democrat wokies, became uterly obsessed with color and gender. The results are this one dimensional predictable story. Sure he’ll make tons of money and sell millions of copies solely off of his name, but this is junior college level storytelling at best.

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