Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into End of Watch by Stephen King which is the third and final book in the Bill Hodges trilogy. I’ve read all the books in the series but this will be my first time getting into one in a review here on the site. I really enjoyed the Bill Hodges trilogy and felt like this was a good final book to the series that closed some doors and opened others. The book continues on with Bill, Holly, and Jerome working together to battle Brady Hartsfield the killer of the Mercedes massacre and his inability even in a vegetative state to leave the trio alone.
Main Characters:
- Bill Hodges: Coming together with his crew Bill investigates a bunch of suicides that are suspicious due to a connecting factor with all of them, soon discovers a bigger conspiracy and races against the clock and himself to try and stop Brady from getting to take more lives
- Brady Hartsfield: After getting whacked over the head by Holly in a previous book is in a full vegetative state until one of the doctors on his ward starts experimenting on him with different drugs, soon discovers he has the powers to commit all the atrocities he wants from the comfort of his wheelchair
- Holly Gibney: Continuing to work with Bill goes on the hunt with him to find the source for all of these concerning suicides and why someone would want to cause this in the first place is also distracted by some personal issues in this book
- Jerome Robinson: Has a person tied to the epidemic that Holly and Bill are trying to crack so works with them to try and figure out how to save lives and stop Brady from getting what he wants
My Review
As mentioned before I definitely enjoyed End of Watch by Stephen King but out of the other three books in the series I wouldn’t say it was my favourite. I am honestly not really sure which is my favourite, it would probably be the first Mr. Mercedes but it’s honestly been a little while since I checked out the other two books, I just definitely remember enjoying the first one much more than this one. It definitely felt like in reading this book that this was a book made to wrap the series up and move on to what’s next. I don’t say that as a bad thing at all but it just felt like to me a lot of things were tossed in here to try and wrap everything up. As most Stephen King books are I found this one to be pretty theatrical but I didn’t totally love it in this one. Some of the things that came up just seemed a bit far-fetched to me, and honestly, I just may not have a creative enough mind to picture how this would all flow and go.
I gave End of Watch by Stephen King a 7/10 rating. End of Watch continues on from the first two books with Bill, Holly, and Jerome all still close. Jerome isn’t in this book as much but comes in later at the end. While focusing on Bradly Hartsfield and his continued doings the book also heavily focuses on the relationship between Bill and Holly and how things have shifted for the two over time. Bill and Holly are called in to assess a suicide scene that reeks of red flags in every corner. While the people who committed were victims of the Mercedes Massacre years before and did have plenty of trauma there was nothing to indicate them wanting to end their lives. Initially assuming it’s just a suicide Bill and Holly soon discover that something at this scene matches other things they have found in similar situations. Each person who committed suicide had a knockoff tablet sold by some odd company that was initially giving the devices out for free. Hoping to find the link between all the deaths the two race against the clock to find out why this is happening. Further discovering that the issue may also be connected to a known killer who has haunted them all for years they must step in the way of his plans to save lives, potentially risking their own in the process.
Getting into End of Watch and it has been a while since I checked out the other two books in the series I can say that I don’t really feel like you need to read the other ones to be able to enjoy and check this one out. While all the characters in the other books of course are mains in this one too the issues that they tackle with Brady this time around are fairly disconnected from the things in the past even though Holly made Brady bedridden and disabled in the previous and his disability plays a larger role in this one. As I had mentioned before I didn’t feel like End of Watch was my favourite in the series I still think it’s a fun spine-tingling horror book that is worth checking out. I enjoyed the taboo main subject in the book which is teen and general suicide which can sometimes be a touchy subject. Being a ’90s kid who grew up in the early 2000’s internet suicide games/packs were things that were really happening and were being talked about. I remember when the choking game was a thing and how we had the school resource officer come in and talk about the dangers of taking part in online things like that. In the book, teens play a game on a tablet that leads them to have terrible thoughts about themselves and tells them ways they can end their lives. So it felt relatable to me at least for the different things I experienced growing up.
I found End of Watch to be a bit more thrilling/action-filled than scary. The paranormal aspects in the book were definitely creepy and there were parts in the book where I definitely did get a bit of a chill but overall it was more a race against the clock to save people from themselves. I have to say as well that if it wasn’t for the strong characters in the book I am not sure I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. I’ve always enjoyed the characters in the series so I think without them this series just definitely is not as good. There is one big twist in the book that is kind of disconnected from the main plot and as a long-time reader of the series it hit me good! I felt like I was definitely feeling the emotions along with the characters.
Thank you for checking out this review! Have you checked out End of Watch by Stephen King before or the series as a whole? What did you think?
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