The second half of Never Flinch was really enjoyable, but I think this one took a while for me to get into it. It’s interesting: I love Holly, but the main antagonist in Never Flinch just didn’t really do it for me until the end, and the Kate’s antagonist worked for me in the middle, but not the end. It was sort of a switcheroo somewhere in the middle.
At the start and middle, Trig’s realistic brutality just wasn’t what I was looking for in a read right now. As he devolved though, and as we learned more about it, he became much more interesting. Meanwhile, Chris and Chrissy’s buildup was a lot more psychologically interesting, but sort of fizzled out towards the end. I think I was expecting a different payoff for them.
That absolute ending though (not highlighted) was classic King.
Overall, a decent read. Not my favorite Stephen King book, but if he keeps writing them, I’ll keep constantly reading them.
Highlights
Never Flinch
by Stephen King
Trig
Let it go, he thinks. Forget it.
That is on March 24th. Forgetting lasts just thirteen days.
— Page 12 | Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 10:09:20 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 1
I will kill 13 innocents and 1 guilty. Those who caused the innocent to die will therefore suffer.
This is an act of ATONEMENT.
— Page 18 | Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 10:17:10 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Note: Whoa
The three of them have been through the wars together. Brady Hartsfield… Morris Bellamy… Chet Ondowsky… the Harrises. Those were wars, all right.
— Page 34 | Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 10:25:35 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
He did it, though. When the time came, he didn’t blow his foot off and he didn’t flinch.
— Page 84 | Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at 9:38:18 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 2
When you let your hair down, and from a distance, we could almost be sisters,” Kate said as they drove out of Portland, bound for Reno.
Which was, of course, the problem.
— Page 96 | Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at 9:43:48 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 3
Do the police know what he’s doing yet? If they don’t, they will soon. Will they offer protection to those remaining, once they figure it out? It will do them no good, because he’s not killing the guilty. He’s killing the innocent.
— Page 144 | Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at 10:22:30 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
It’s a rule of her life that when you call someone with bad news, you always get them. When you call with good news or exciting news, you get voicemail.
— Page 154 | Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at 10:26:56 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 5
Cary Tolliver wasn’t the only one responsible for putting Alan Duffrey in the frame. He had help. If “Bill Wilson” knows this, he could consider ADA Allen the guiltiest one.
— Page 237 | Saturday, August 30, 2025 at 10:17:45 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“Now those men who’ve had an abortion, keep your hands up. Those who haven’t, put your hands down.”
— Page 240 | Saturday, August 30, 2025 at 10:21:10 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
It wasn’t talcum powder or baking powder or baking soda. It was Bacillus anthracis and silica.
— Page 249 | Saturday, August 30, 2025 at 10:24:58 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 6
“Right down the hall. Is your problem about this friend of yours who died in prison?”
“That’s the one,” Trig says, thinking that if the nosy son-of-a-buck’s fate wasn’t already sealed, that would do the job. “Excuse me.”
— Page 279 | Sunday, August 31, 2025 at 10:27:42 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 7
“No more men,” Kate says, “and no more cops.”
“Who does that leave?”
“Fifty per cent of the population. You figure it out.”
— Page 308 | Monday, September 1, 2025 at 10:27:30 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“Four down, nine to go. Then the guilty one.”
— Page 344 | Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 10:22:42 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 9
But of course the older she herself gets, the younger the rest of the world becomes.
— Page 385 | Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 10:18:25 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 11
Chris is a doer tortured by jumbled thoughts and nightmares. Chrissy is a thinker who has more clarity. She is perfectly aware that Andy Fallowes, possibly along with Pastor Jim, see this divided person as a God-given tool to put an end to the Murder Queen.
— Page 500 | Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 10:09:24 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
But she smiles, because a smile isn’t just an umbrella on a rainy day; it’s also a shield.
— Page 512 | Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 10:14:42 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
You’ll never know how close you came.
— Page 522 | Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 10:18:54 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“I think the people lucky enough to go to that game are going to remember it forever.”
She’s right about that, but not the way she thinks.
— Page 541 | Friday, September 12, 2025 at 10:40:53 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 12
and ask if he’s gone to AA or NA meetings with someone who calls himself Trig.”
“Maybe I don’t have to, and neither do you. I think Trig is Alan Duffrey’s lawyer. Russell Grinsted.”
— Page 571 | Friday, September 12, 2025 at 10:52:45 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 13
It doesn’t matter if it’s booze, dope, food, gambling, or obsessive-compulsive behavior, at bottom it’s always the disease of addiction.
— Page 609 | Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 10:14:26 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, and then the drink takes the man.”
— Page 609 | Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 10:14:54 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 14
Holly has faced a loaded gun; on at least two occasions she has faced creatures for which there is no scientific explanation. It’s not courage she lacks, it’s the fundamental self-worth necessary to call someone out on their hurtful behavior.
— Page 664 | Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 10:12:14 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 15
Brady Hartsfield and Morris Bellamy were bad, but the eBayers are somehow worse.
— Page 698 | Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 10:33:29 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
By the time the song is done, Barbara knows two powerful things. One is that this is not her world; poetry is her world. The other is that she wishes she could be a Dixie Crystal forever.
— Page 714 | Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 10:04:34 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“All we know for sure is that this individual is calculating but mentally unbalanced.”
Trig thinks, That’s fair.
— Page 719 | Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 10:06:50 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 16
To her own face in the mirror, she asks it aloud: “Why does he care enough about Alan Duffrey to kill people
— Page 734 | Monday, September 22, 2025 at 9:55:51 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 17
So the ceramic horse became Trigger and Daddy started calling him Trig
— Page 793 | Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 10:16:09 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 19
DONALD “TRIG” GIBSON JUROR 9 GUILTIEST OF ALL.
— Page 877 | Friday, September 26, 2025 at 9:31:27 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 20
Kate is making notes for a speech she won’t, as it happens, be giving.
— Page 890 | Saturday, September 27, 2025 at 10:34:26 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 21
“I was positive he was guilty,” Trig says as he reaches the top of the stairs. “Positive.” But there was plenty of blame to go around. Plenty of fault. They should have had the courage of their convictions. They shouldn’t have buckled. Shouldn’t have flinched.
— Page 936 | Sunday, September 28, 2025 at 10:31:50 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 22
Hello, Ms. Gibney. I’m Donald Gibson.
Donald Gibson, the Mingo’s Program Director.
Donald Gibson, who was also on the jury that convicted Alan Duffrey.
— Page 994 | Monday, September 29, 2025 at 10:20:19 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 25
In the penalty box, Kate McKay is thinking, I need to prepare to die, but God, there’s so much work still to be done!
Nearby, Corrie and Barbara are thinking much simpler (and perhaps more practical) thoughts: If I could live. If I could see my mom and dad again. If only this was a dream.
— Page 1090 | Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 10:23:23 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Gibson stares at her extremely Caucasian face, eyes widening. He has his own gun, but Holly doesn’t give him a chance to use it. She shoots him twice: center mass, just as Bill Hodges told her.
— Page 1119 | Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 10:02:57 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
“You keep saving me,” Kate says in her husky, growling voice.
— Page 1126 | Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 10:05:29 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Chapter 26
Holly thinks: I have killed five people now, and do they keep me awake at night? They do not. With four, I was in fear of my own life. With Donald Gibson…
“I was doing my duty as a bodyguard.”
— Page 1141 | Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 10:10:59 PM
Never Flinch by Stephen King