Holly

Charlotte Gibney is Holly’s late mother. At the start of Holly, she has died after a brief battle with COVID-19. Charlotte and Holly had a contentious relationship. Charlotte was an overbearing woman who treated her daughter like a helpless child well into Holly’s adulthood. She sought to protect Holly by taking control of her life, going so far as to try sabotaging her career as an investigator. Charlotte and Holly also disagreed politically; Charlotte was a staunch Trump supporter and anti-vaxxer, while Holly hates Trump and is highly COVID-conscious. These factors contribute to a thorny mother-daughter relationship that leaves behind a complex emotional legacy.

Charlotte’s presence echoes throughout the novel in Holly’s memories and dreams. Often, she feels as if her mother is speaking directly to her, undermining her choices and achievements. The imagined Charlotte fixates on Holly’s perceived fragility, warning her that she is not strong enough to succeed on her own. Holly must push past this voice to solve the Bonnie Dahl case.

Though Charlotte undoubtedly loved her daughter, she expressed that love in damaging, abusive ways. Her character illustrates The Complexity of Parent-Child Relationships and the folly of trying to control another person’s life.

Emily Harris is a retired professor of poetry at Bell College and the main antagonist of Holly. She is a cold and intelligent woman whose dignified veneer hides a dark interior. To the outside world, she presents as well-off and elderly, commanding respect for her long career at the college. Behind closed doors, however, Emily is a vitriolic racist, homophobe, and predator. Along with her husband Rodney, Emily abducts, murders, and cannibalizes five victims before being caught. Though Emily lets Rodney do the actual killing, she is the driving force behind the crimes, having encouraged her husband to cross the line from theoretical speculation on the benefits of cannibalism into reality. Emily’s primary motive is revenge against her victims, whom she sees as inferior to herself.

While readers know that Emily is one of the murder perpetrators from the beginning, Emily remains hidden in plain sight to other characters throughout much of the novel. As Holly chases down more obvious suspects, King reveals the extent and brutality of Emily and Rodney’s crimes. Several characters who encounter Emily come away with a negative impression, but none can see past her unassuming appearance. Emily plays on the assumption that old women are harmless to lure in more victims.

Ultimately, Emily is unmasked and killed by Holly. After her death, police discover her diaries, which are full of screeds demonstrating her anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ+ hatred. Emily’s character represents the nexus of several themes: the futility of fighting The Inevitability of Aging and Death and the dangers of superficial judgments in clouding Perception Versus Reality.

Rodney Harris is Emily Harris’ husband and the novel’s secondary antagonist. A retired professor of life sciences at Bell College, Rodney is known for his fanatical obsession with meat, but largely regarded with the same respect as his wife. Along with Emily, Rodney participates in the abduction and murder of five victims. Like his wife, Rodney utilizes the assumption that he is old and helpless to his advantage when abducting new victims. He doesn’t seem to share Emily’s deep hatred for minority groups, but he does express casually racist sentiments. His primary motive is the desire to fight aging.

Rodney suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, which worsens over the course of the narrative. His final confrontation with Holly disproves his delusional thesis that cannibalism has restorative effects; in his final moments, he raves nonsensically as his mentally and physical infirmities catch up with him. He is killed by Holly in a brutal manner that mirrors the violence he inflicted upon his victims.

Barbara Robinson is Jerome Robinson’s little sister and Holly’s friend. Barbara is a good-hearted and intelligent young woman with a precocious talent for writing poetry. In Holly, she uses this talent to cope with the events she witnessed in If It Bleeds.

Much of Barbara’s arc involves her friendship with her poetic mentor, Olivia Kingsbury. Olivia teaches Barbara to utilize her trauma as fuel for her writing. Under Olivia’s mentorship, Barbara applies for the prestigious Penley Prize.

Barbara encounters the Harrises briefly while seeking mentorship for her poetry. She is unsettled by Emily’s poorly hidden racism and strange demeanor. Barbara later rescues Holly from the Harris’ basement. Though her participation in the ordeal is traumatic, she ends the novel on a high note as she wins the Penley Prize.