Billy Summers (Stephen King): Honest Review
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 INTRO
0:52 PLOT: SETUP
3:11 TOO SIMILAR TO 11.22.63
4:08 PLOT: THE TWIST
5:38 PLOT: ALICE
7:17 TOO SIMILAR TO MR. MERCEDES
7:42 FINAL THOUGHTS
9:14 PERSONAL UPDATE - Розваги
I couldn’t agree more! Once Alice entered the story it just became super boring, and like you said Alice wasn’t necessarily a Bad character either. Also the relationship between Alice and Billy was just cheesy and unrealistic. What girl is going to become friends with a murderer after just getting raped. She would have never in a million years believed him.
I feel like there were two good stories in here - one about a hired killer who gets mixed up in a bad deal - and another about a young girl piecing her life back together after something traumatic! Not so good as a two-in-one...
How could you say that! That was the best part! When the book took a turn for good! Smh
The revenge scene on the rapists is one of those that is consciously put in to drum up a bit of action and bloodlust in the reader. If not, that whole passage would have been far too boring.
You mean it gets even MORE boring than it’s already been after over 100 pages I’ve read so far??? Jesus Christ. I’m sorry I even bothered! I should have quit hoping for it to get compelling! Dammit!
The plot sounds like King lifted it from Stuart Gordon's King of The Ants.
King of the Ants… I’ll have to check that out
The story was a straight forward hitman plot we’ve seen and read across many different media thousands of times, but I can’t help but be partial to this novel. I was a big reader back in school (reading 500 page novels like this in less than a week just to get another one as quickly as possible) and loved to write but sort of lost interest after graduating. I hadn’t read a book in almost two years and many of my drafts had gone unfinished due to my lack of motivation. Recently, while perusing Walmart I came across the books section and decided to go ahead and pick one up for a quick read and to see if I still had it in me. This book has revitalized not only my motivation to read but also my will to write due to the “author Billy” subplot. Because of this, I can’t help but be biased towards it, and sometimes a little bias is okay
I'm kind of the opposite - I am always reading something now, but hated reading back in school. Even though I didn't like this one, it's well written and the characters have depth. My biggest problem was how similar it was to other recent King.
About your writing: I also tried writing something with what I thought was a clever idea, but got overwhelmed by the 50 page mark. Have you finished anything?
This is my first Stephen King book. I didn't mind the initial characters disappearing from the story, I think it gave us a sense of how lonely his job is. Enough of the main characters were kept around for the story to all connect together pretty smoothly, in my opinion. What I didn't like was how details of the plot felt unrealistic given the genre, like they were written that way simply to take the story in the direction King wanted to take it. but I like what he did with the ending of the book, and what he does with the concept of revenge throughout.
This is honestly a good start to King! It’s a decent story with great characters… since you liked this one, if you decide to keep going with King, I’m confident you’ll be impressed with some of his other stuff.
If you’re looking for classic King, check out Pet Sematary, or Misery. If your looking for more of his newer stuff, The Institute was good, and the Mr. Mercedes trilogy is fantastic!
Good luck with your reading!
Yeah.... i was listening to the audio book. I got to the end of the assassination job. I thought "huh, that was a pretty good short story" then i saw there was 9 hours left in the audio book. I was confused to say the least lol. It could have ended there imo.
Omg! That’s hilarious!
That’s also the worst part about audiobooks - you never know how far along you are in the story.
I just finished this yesterday, and I was also disappointed. Glad to know I'm not alone. A lot of reviews I'm seeing are of people enjoying this. Glad they liked it, but I was wondering if I was reading an entirely different book than they were. Felt a lot like the tv show Barry mixed with the movie You Were Never Really Here. It just wasn't for me.
Hi Christina, thanks for checking out my review, and THANK YOU for the comment! I was also surprised how much other reviewers liked this book! Like I said, it was well written, and the characters were on point, but the pacing was off and it didn’t seem to have a clear direction!
Have you read other King? I sure hope this wasn’t your introduction to him 😕
I’m reading it so far I’m on page 120 and damn there’s so many spelling issues I’ve noticed prior it’s embarrassing also the story starts to go away from billy and his sniper job he has to compete on page 112 up to 120 which was annoying.
@@TooBadAboutKenny Picked up this book to read in college so this is my introduction to him and man there are so many spelling errors it’s sad and embarrassing
@@omotayosatuyi252 if you were still interested in King, there are plenty of good ones out there! I hope this does not ruin your appetite. I just started Fairy Tale, and it seems good so far.
This was a good review. I'm also glad someone thinks it was a bit of a let down. A lot of people seem to really like it. I agree the writing was good and clearly he knows what he's doing, but the pacing was hard to keep up with and I feel like we didn't get something from the characters that we could've. It had potential to be a lot more exciting. Also Billy's relationship with Alice did sort of weird me out. I get and can appreciate their dynamic, and I understand that Billy's trauma with his sister would be reason to be close to a young girl, but it was a little uncomfortable to read and not super believable. Decent read though.
Thanks for the comment, Will! It’s good knowing I’m not alone! It’s tough spending so many hours reading a book to think it’s “just okay.” So you read much along?
@@TooBadAboutKenny I've been trying to read more and more lately. I'm a little inconsistent, but trying more King. I read The Institute earlier this year. Loved it, reading Misery now as I'm trying to get into more of his classic stuff.
Misery is a GREAT start with his classic work. I'd recommend Pet Sematary, that's my favorite (so far). When it comes to his newer stuff, The Institute is good, and so is the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy.
8:26 i wish I had gotten this advice before reading the book…🤷♀️ what books do you think is a better introduction to Stephen King?
Hey Choco, welcome to King! He's been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. If you're looking for some classic King, I'd say go for Pet Sematary, or Misery. Those are both relatively simple stories that really dive into just a few characters. If you're interested in something more modern, I'd say Mr. Mercedes is a good start. Mr. Mercedes is also a trilogy, so if you like it, you can keep going. Keep me posted on what you pick out!
Salem’s lot, The Stand, Carrie. There’s others that are great. Salems lot is very very good I finished it in 4 days could not put it down.
@@TooBadAboutKenny I read through Salem’s lot in only a few days and it was great, jut finished Revival going to read Mr.Mercedes next. I couldn’t get through Billy Summers for the same reasons and also I could’ve done without the politics thrown in there.
I haven't read Salem's Lot yet. I'll get to it... eventually! There is so much King out there! I'm looking forward to starting Fairy Tale - maybe I can score a copy for Christmas!!!! Also... I think you'll like Mr. Mercedes!
Any of his early works. The Shining, The Dead Zone, Firestarter are all classic Stephen King. The Stand might be best being your fourth or fifth book of his.
Its a guy who was an ex marine sniper. Leaves the military. Becomds a hired gun. Kills the guy he was hired to. Gets double crossed by the people that hire him. Then saves a girl that was raped. She joins him. Gets revenge on the rapist and the bosses that betrayed. Gets killed by an old lady at the house of one of the mob bosses. Whole 500 page book. No twist. No crazy moments or twist.
haha - the book is so much more straight forward when you put it that way! When you're reading it, it seems so much more meandering.
Maybe you didn't like it because there was similarities for other books.
But for me this the only book I've read for king and I loved it, especially when alice showed up.
Yea, I felt like it was too similar to other King books. If you liked this, I can’t wait to hear how you like some of his other stuff!
Welcome to King!!!
I agree with all of your comments!
Yeah, not every book can be extraordinary! This one felt too much like a rehash of other works.
Also felt like it was too similar to 11/22/63 but not a bad story
I'm glad I wasn't the only one! Yeah, it was a good story... just wasn't expecting that much of a digression!
Got to disagree, this book is really good and well written.
Hey, to each his own! I agree with you about it being well written, though! I have always loved King's pros. Very engaging and approachable.
Happy New year Kenny!!! Your biggest fan. Noel
Thanks Noel! Always love your support! And a very happy new year!
I thought Billy was dumb as a character. Sitting around making himself well known and the obvious killer burns him. With face recognition he would be caught unless he left the country
Thank you so much for the honest review.
Your welcome! Thank you for the comment!!
I liked it.
Yeah, if I'm honest with myself, this is a good book - just not what I expected, and a little too much rehashing from other books.
Is this your first King novel?
The incessant Trump digs tainted it.
Yeah, King sometimes sprinkles current events into his books, but ever since trump got into office, I’ve noticed it happing more often…
Sucked. 4.8 of ten.
Yeah, the writing is excellent, but the story doesn't deserve more than half credit.