I don't mean to go comparing this to Mr. Mercedes but I noticed all my other Goodreads friends are and I realize you kind of can't get around the comparison seeing as how it IS part of a trilogy and contains the same core characters from the first book. I also caught on to the references people related to of the theme of (view spoiler)[ book fans who have a fanatical/obsessive hold on their favorite writer and his book characters in the way Morris displayed in this story. I can see how Stephen must be in one way or another speaking towards his own fans who love but take ownership of his stories in these ways. But aside from this I did like how the story revolves around books/reading and a "favorite writer" theme. I didn't find "Red Lips" to be that "menacing" and hey that's okay. I accept not every Stephen King villain has to be "menacing/scary" etc. For me, he just has to feel "real" to me. And "Red Lips" did. Mainly because I believe King pulled it off in allowing the reader to understand Red Lips' life in prison, all those years that he suffered there. Even the part about the rape and how he had to endure the consequences of that action. (And how he himself got raped in prison!) When later asked if he would rape again and he replies "I won't make that mistake again" it was an inside reference that we the reader shared with him because we glimpsed at that period of his life earlier in the book that he's talking about. It's ways like this that Stephen makes his characters real to us, and here for me it worked. But I have to point out that the one time in the story I started to get really terrified and excited was at the very end when Hodges was in the room with Brady trying to get him to flinch. The way King wrote this final chapter, especially after Hodges left and we the reader were "left alone in the room with Brady" this to me was almost my favorite part of the book!!! Which kind of confirms and circles back to my beginning comparison back to Mr. Mercedes and my opinion that I liked the first book more. (hide spoiler)] I'm hoping the third book will be the best out of the 3!