Finders Keepers Discussion *SPOILERS*

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AchtungBaby

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Dec 5, 2011
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"I mean this in the gentlest way possible, but if you can't take that aspect of King's writing, perhaps it's best you don't read him"

I think after 40 years it's a little too late. :kiwi-fruit:

btw... I can take that aspect of his writing; it's just that it's a pet peeve of mine, so to speak. That's all. If an artist only invited positive reviews to his work, then where is the art? It's all good.
I agree with you, even if no one else does.

I'm reread King's books in order and he did it a lot in his early years. 'Salem's Lot has mention of "fags" and "homos" once every ten pages, or so it seemed.

Seems like he would have gotten more subtle about it over the years.
 

carrie's younger brother

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Mar 8, 2012
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I agree with you, even if no one else does.

I'm reread King's books in order and he did it a lot in his early years. 'Salem's Lot has mention of "fags" and "homos" once every ten pages, or so it seemed.

Seems like he would have gotten more subtle about it over the years.
Yes, there is just something puerile about the way SK goes about writing these scenes. As if he were a 10-year-old boy that just discovered these words and is using them to illicit reactions from the adults. Doing it once or twice in a story is fine and makes a point; repeating it over and over crosses the line for me.

And before anyone jumps on me, I am not censoring SK or telling him how to write. I am merely talking about my feelings on the subject. Big difference. I have read SK since the paperback edition of Carrie and stuck with him through the 40 years of his career so far. I am not bashing him. Thanks. :watermelon:
 

OldDarth

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Jul 10, 2006
730
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Canada
Stephen King's latest book showcases a master at work. Beautifully plotted, Wonderful characters - duh! And awesome hints at what is yet to come.

Especially loved the bits about how readers keep characters alive.

There was one moment in the book where something happened and I had to close the book. I thought, you didn't just do that did you? That is how invested in the story I had become.

I devoured it and it was a big five star - YUMMY!
 

RandallFlagg19

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May 5, 2014
809
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Probably not much of a surprise to you, SkiMom, but I agreed with most of what you wrote.
-I wish that the book had started out with our Mr. Mercedes trio of detectives...I'm like you--by the time they showed up, they seemed superfluous to the story. I loved all the other characters at the beginning, and felt they could have had their own stand-alone story without Hodges,
Holly and Jerome. Hodges and Holly seemed really put out that Jerome kept doing the stereotype voice, so maybe that was SK's setup to get rid of it for book three.
-I had a Mrs. Beasley doll too, and I'm 51, so that really took me out of the reality of the story. I kept waiting for Mr. King to explain why a girl in the 2010s had such an antiquated doll.
-I was also very surprised that he threw in the supernatural aspect at the end. I love it too, but I'm sure some don't.
-Would've liked to have known much more of Rothstein's background.
-I didn't think the Jimmy Gold books sounded that great! I would've liked more excerpts from those, I guess, and more information as it why everyone thought they were such great literature.
-All in all, really enjoyed it. These are just some tiny things that don't even bother me much.

I think Stephen King is teasing his fans with Holly and Hodges annoyance at Jerome dialect, a suggestive shout out that he knows the fans don't like the dialect, but he still put some (but not a lot) in the book anyway

The thing that bothered me most was the outdated cash, if the Saubers deposited $500 in bills 30 years old or older every month: a bank should have noticed that after a few month and been suspicious; also as a cashier that's something I would notice if they used cash directly at the same place (i e Grocery store) consistently

Supernatural Brady: Right now the super natural elements are possibly suggestive no character saw the picture fall on its own, they heard Clack and responded to the noise: which makes me think Brady pushes it over when people are not looking directly at him, which suggest he has strong mental functioning, not a vegetable states he is very good at faking. Brady was a tech genius so the spastic sequencing on the tablet might just be a computer program and not supernatural static, ; and just because the bathroom water gushes on when Brady tablet device is glitches doesn't mean Brady mental forced the water on (maybe the faucet is motion-sensored, and its that crazy janitor who is fixated on water.)
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
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[
I think Stephen King is teasing his fans with Holly and Hodges annoyance at Jerome dialect, a suggestive shout out that he knows the fans don't like the dialect, but he still put some (but not a lot) in the book anyway

The thing that bothered me most was the outdated cash, if the Saubers deposited $500 in bills 30 years old or older every month: a bank should have noticed that after a few month and been suspicious; also as a cashier that's something I would notice if they used cash directly at the same place (i e Grocery store) consistently

Supernatural Brady: Right now the super natural elements are possibly suggestive no character saw the picture fall on its own, they heard Clack and responded to the noise: which makes me think Brady pushes it over when people are not looking directly at him, which suggest he has strong mental functioning, not a vegetable states he is very good at faking. Brady was a tech genius so the spastic sequencing on the tablet might just be a computer program and not supernatural static, ; and just because the bathroom water gushes on when Brady tablet device is glitches doesn't mean Brady mental forced the water on (maybe the faucet is motion-sensored, and its that crazy janitor who is fixated on water.)
I forgot about
the cash thing! YES! That bothered me, too! My MIL put $10 in each of the kids' Easter presents, and they were oldies, bu not that old--just since the latest reboot. Even the kids noticed right away. They weren't sure they were real money--lol. Unless cash transactions in old bills are common in whatever nebulous city these stories exist in, it seems like someone would get curious about that.
 

jchanic

Well-Known Member
Jul 11, 2006
3,164
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Cleveland Ohio
I finished my reread of Finders Keepers this morning. I did not like it as much as I liked Mr. Mercedes, however. The suspense in Mr. Mercedes far surpassed that in Finders Keepers. Not that FK is a bad book, however--I just liked Mr. Mercedes better. I think Brady made (makes?) a better bad guy too. I found myself, at times, almost feeling sorry for Morrie. A man with a true obsession. I did like the maturing of Holly and Jerome. Someone above mentioned that Holly should have her own book/story and I could go for that--she's neat!

I'm really looking forward to book three--the way FK ends is great!

John
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
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dublin ireland
I loved Finders Keepers. I don'e mean to be pedantic, but was the term home invasion in use in the late 70's? I loved that the villian didn't change his way of thinking at all while he was in prison. He felt the same way in his head as he did when he was younger. Yes, it was also obession, but while I look different than I did 25 years ago in my head I feel the same. King captures that perfectly. I loved the mesh between this book and Mr. Mercedes. Masterfully done. Oh, clank.
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
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dublin ireland
Probably not much of a surprise to you, SkiMom, but I agreed with most of what you wrote.
-I wish that the book had started out with our Mr. Mercedes trio of detectives...I'm like you--by the time they showed up, they seemed superfluous to the story. I loved all the other characters at the beginning, and felt they could have had their own stand-alone story without Hodges, Holly and Jerome. Hodges and Holly seemed really put out that Jerome kept doing the stereotype voice, so maybe that was SK's setup to get rid of it for book three.
-I had a Mrs. Beasley doll too, and I'm 51, so that really took me out of the reality of the story. I kept waiting for Mr. King to explain why a girl in the 2010s had such an antiquated doll.
-I was also very surprised that he threw in the supernatural aspect at the end. I love it too, but I'm sure some don't.
-Would've liked to have known much more of Rothstein's background.
-I didn't think the Jimmy Gold books sounded that great! I would've liked more excerpts from those, I guess, and more information as it why everyone thought they were such great literature.
-All in all, really enjoyed it. These are just some tiny things that don't even bother me much.
No disrespect intended, but I totally disagree. I liked that we met new people and situations first, then fitted Bill and Holly in. I do have to kind of agree about Jerome. I loved the mesh of the first with the second. Just good story telling to me.
 

chester brooks

Well-Known Member
Jun 15, 2015
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I just finished it and thought it was a good solid thriller. I think I liked it equally as well as I liked Mr Mercedes. I'm on a different page so I can't go back and look to see who posted it but someone posted about liking how we get to see the City Center Massacre from a different angle and I agree with that. The last third of the book was a real page turner and now we have a pretty good idea of what we are getting for part 3 of this trilogy and it looks very promising.

Cody, I do agree with you on Hodges. His character does seem a tad flat in this book. I thought Andy was a great sleaze ball.
Doing a hatchet job on him pleased me. ;-D
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am looking forward to part 3.

So that's my very brief summary for now. I'll probably have a few things to add later.

I just finished this morning, wonderful! Yes I thought it was exactly the same scene at city center until the last second. I love how the feel of he book changes. Like its a mystery at first then bammmm! Brutally in yo face. Wtf moment. Then bam! Treasure story. Bam prison story! Bam detective story! Lol I loved it! I thought hodges was just as cool as ever if not even cooler. He so sly and on his toes. The ending was so awesome. Didn't see that coming! Heh. Snuck right up on me. I think I like this book better just because of the fact that my gf hated Brady. This time I can rub it in her face that king is the best ever when she loves the book.
Love and peace
 

chester brooks

Well-Known Member
Jun 15, 2015
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Not that I can speak for the man, but in my opinion, writers write what they NEED to write. If SK thought he needed to portray that, he had a reason (maybe not even a conscious one, but a reason.)

My point of view on this goes: it's not up to us to say to the writer "you shouldn't have written this, or you shouldn't have written this in that way"; it's up to us to face what the writer has written and ask why?

My thought about the anal rape in FK is that it serves to emphasize to us the subordination that Morris has to endure, at the hands of other cons, but also at the mind of his mother. Morris finds himself at the short end of every stick, always the loser, never with the last word. He must subordinate himself to bikers and others who are his "intellectual inferiors" in order to stay physically safe; he is left without control over his fate or the fate of the precious Rothstein books. It is also not surprising that someone who endures repeated and brutal rapes would find himself hating Andy Halliday and using words like homo to describe him. Morris is always the victim, never the perpetrator. All that's bad in his life is someone else's fault. The anal rape is the emasculating, dehumanizing act that symbolizes what his life is, and his hatred toward Andy -- successful, seemingly rich (little does he know), fat, gay -- is the hatred of someone who feels his greatness has been squashed by lesser people.

It's also interesting that in a body of work which involves a baby literally eating its mother alive, a hotel maid ensuring her son's success by consuming the semen of a despicable racist, a surgeon eating himSELF alive, Junior Rennie committing necrophilia, and an autistic boy using his aunt as a sexual plaything, that this is your breaking point.

I mean this in the gentlest way possible, but if you can't take that aspect of King's writing, perhaps it's best you don't read him.

Lol its not like he's dead. It's not Jimmy gold we're talking about lol.
 

carrie's younger brother

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Mar 8, 2012
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I finished Finders Keepers just a short while ago tonight. My first thoughts are that I like it even better than Mr. Mercedes. Unlike many of you, I was not a Brady fan. I liked Morris better. I'm still formulating specific thoughts about it and will post again tomorrow. Also, unlike many of you, the little things like Mrs. Beasley, the old money, etc. did not even occur to me nor do they bother me now that they have been mentioned. Stuff like that never bothers me in a work of fiction.

Final thought for tonight: I find Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers about 10 times better in story and writing than Dr. Sleep and Revival put together. I realize those two books are "deeper" than Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, but Dr. Sleep and Revival just did not do it for me at all. I found them wandering, full of partially formed characters and a letdown in the end. Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers are much more the SK type of writing and storytelling I have come to love over the last 40 years.

I can go to bed happy tonight knowing I have just finished another winner, in my opinion!
 

RichardX

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2006
1,737
4,434
I finished yesterday. Overall an entertaining read. I liked it slightly better than Mr. M and a lot better than Revival. King is certainly more at home in the realm of book collecting than he was in Brady's modern tech world. The love/hate relationship between authors and fans is something King is no doubt very familiar. Most suprising here is how long the story plays out before we get to the hardy band of regulars. I agree with some folks that Hodges, Holly, and Jerome are generally the weak link. Unintersting and not very believable as crime fighters. More a PC projection than reality based. They are often an annoying distraction. That would typically be a fatal flaw in such a series, but King manages to pull off a good story by leaving them off until the end where they serve as kind of a Wile E. Coyote to the Roadrunner by chasing after events. I do also dislike those "coincidences" that crop up like Pete living in Morris' former house and hiding the notebooks in the very place Morris decides to hide out. I can understand how that would be possible in the context of the story, but the odds just make it seem implausible and distracting. Maybe if the notebooks had been hidden in the house it would have been more plausible for a kid living in that house to have found them, but finding them by chance in a field seems farfetched. Just a minor annoyance though that I write off as dramatic license. As for Brady taking on Carrie-like powers, that holds interesting possibilities but is a jarring transition from a reality-based series to the supernatural.
 
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carrie's younger brother

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Mar 8, 2012
5,428
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I finished Finders Keepers just a short while ago tonight. My first thoughts are that I like it even better than Mr. Mercedes. Unlike many of you, I was not a Brady fan. I liked Morris better. I'm still formulating specific thoughts about it and will post again tomorrow. Also, unlike many of you, the little things like Mrs. Beasley, the old money, etc. did not even occur to me nor do they bother me now that they have been mentioned. Stuff like that never bothers me in a work of fiction.

Final thought for tonight: I find Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers about 10 times better in story and writing than Dr. Sleep and Revival put together. I realize those two books are "deeper" than Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, but Dr. Sleep and Revival just did not do it for me at all. I found them wandering, full of partially formed characters and a letdown in the end. Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers are much more the SK type of writing and storytelling I have come to love over the last 40 years.

I can go to bed happy tonight knowing I have just finished another winner, in my opinion!
Still gathering my thoughts, but I would like to add that I absolutely loved that this book was about books. Other than the fictional John Rothstein, there are plenty of real authors mentioned and that made this book more "real" for me. Also, SK fleshes out the fictional Rothstein and his cannon of work well enough to make it believable. I think this, more than anything else, made this book for me.

As for the "Scooby Gang" AWOL until the middle of the book, I will wait and see how much of a part they play in End of Watch. Once the trilogy is complete, it may seem that their absence for half of this book makes sense. And even if not, Morris, Drew and Pete were entertaining enough for me.
 

do1you9love?

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Feb 18, 2012
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Just finished a reread as well. I really enjoyed this book and agree that it was nice to have a fast moving story to read. While I thought Brady was a "good" bad guy, I thought Morris was believable and did not mind the break or the absence of Hodges, et. al. until the second half.

I have also developed a theory about Jerome.
It seemed to me on the second read that not only were Hodges and Holly bothered by the Tyrone dialect, but that Jerome was uncomfortable as well, almost like an uncontrollable nervous tic. I am speculating that somehow Jerome will need to channel his Tyrone persona in the final book to combat Brady and his new brain powers.

And for the record, I am perfectly happy that a touch of supernatural was introduced into an otherwise "regular" story. Bring it on!=D
 

fljoe0

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Apr 5, 2008
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I have also developed a theory about Jerome.
It seemed to me on the second read that not only were Hodges and Holly bothered by the Tyrone dialect, but that Jerome was uncomfortable as well, almost like an uncontrollable nervous tic. I am speculating that somehow Jerome will need to channel his Tyrone persona in the final book to combat Brady and his new brain powers.

That spoiler is very interesting.
 

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
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Just finished a reread as well. I really enjoyed this book and agree that it was nice to have a fast moving story to read. While I thought Brady was a "good" bad guy, I thought Morris was believable and did not mind the break or the absence of Hodges, et. al. until the second half.

I have also developed a theory about Jerome.
It seemed to me on the second read that not only were Hodges and Holly bothered by the Tyrone dialect, but that Jerome was uncomfortable as well, almost like an uncontrollable nervous tic. I am speculating that somehow Jerome will need to channel his Tyrone persona in the final book to combat Brady and his new brain powers.

And for the record, I am perfectly happy that a touch of supernatural was introduced into an otherwise "regular" story. Bring it on!=D
Concerning your spoiler (which I love):

Sort of like Susannah Dean/Detta Walker in the Dark Tower series!