Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Billy Summers by Stephen King

7 reviews

bajablasthole's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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readerette's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There were a lot of distractions from the story for me, though I wouldn't necessarily disrecommend the story. Basically I could have done without the whole first half with all the minutiae of Billy's daily life leading up to the hit and his "dumb self" writing. There were so many Trump references (as if King were using this book to process his despair over Trump becoming President). The only gay person identified in the story got an extremely stereotypical portrayal. I couldn't get over the unbelievable amount of bungling Billy did given his supposed reputation as an excellent assassin. And then there was Alice: the use of a horrific crime to bring her into Billy's life (couldn't possibly have given him a sidekick any other way, of course), she didn't seem to have all that much trouble with what happened to her (outside of nightly panic attacks), and the characterization of the relationship between Alice and Billy disturbed me given the circumstances under which King had them meet. Billy as a character also felt overworked to me, like in an attempt to make him seem as complex as a real human, King have him one or two too many quirks. The Easter eggs were distracting to me, but bigger fans might appreciate them.
All that frustration for me as a reader, and it seems Alice will not even publish Billy's opus because she's worried about repercussions, but for whom? Billy's dead, and she can change any names or events she wants, and leave out anything that seems overly incriminating. So... I'm confused.


The last 50 pages were pretty great, though. The ending was somewhat predictable, but not its details. In that part of the book I finally felt enough for Billy and Alice that I hoped everything would turn out for them (all the distractions mentioned above stopped and it just came down to the core of the story and the people in it). If you like thrillers and "bad people" getting what's coming to them, you could do worse than this one. But it's not The Body, which I consider a far superior Stephen King story (also far more concise).
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our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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imstephtacular's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall, I really enjoyed the story in this book. However, I was very put off by some problematic content (lots of fatphobic language, one particular scene of questionable choices around race). I wanted to like this book much more, but I could not ignore these instances. I liked the characters and the plotting overall, it’s just unfortunate that a lot of little moments built up and left a bad taste in my mouth and overshadowed the storytelling. I will say that I did like the ending of this one. King is hit or miss with endings and I thought this was handled well. 
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hannahkate's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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herbivorehaunts's review

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the beginning was alright, if not a little bit cumbersome and slow, but I'm DNFing this one once Alice was introduced. I probably won't ever finish this one but I guess never say never. If you're interested in a King story with a similar premise to the first 200 or so pages of this book I suggest 11/22/63, it's a way better novel. If you're looking to read a Stephen King for the first time might I suggest literally any other title by him. 

spoilers without context I guess but
do men actually keep their underwear until it's sliding off their body when they move or was that just an excuse to "save" the rape victim naked? What the fuck was that. Am I supposed to feel any sort of appreciation for a man who "saves" a rape victim butt ass naked, who then decides the best course of action is to (in graphic detail) examine her genitals and then put her to bed, and then go to bed next to her and wake up with a boner and from then on continously states how he doesn't want to fuck her, not really, but she is barely legal and pretty?  I might take a break from King for a bit. This book was really upsetting, but not in a horror way, just kinda felt like torture porn.
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sheryl_reads's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
SPOILERS - LOTS OF SPOILERS. AND THE BIGGEST TRIGGER WARNINGS YOU CAN THINK OF. 

The things I’m going to point out aren’t down to preferences, or being sensitive to subject matter. As you read this, I would like you to bear in mind that none of this really serves the story and could have been done in any number of different ways, which still would have worked.

  1. The main character has a ‘dumb self’ which is likened to being on ‘the spectrum’. Being autistic doesn’t make you less intelligent (or dumb as King insists on calling it. Billy Summers is meant to be a paid killer who is very well respected - best of the best sniper type guy. I’m not sure how believable it is that his associates (who presumably are good at reading people, to be successful criminals) think he’s not smart. 
  2. Just because people are ‘bad guys’ or ‘gangsters’ doesn’t mean they have to be homophobic, racist etc. It’s not banter. It’s lazy writing and King can do better.
  3. Alice’s story. I’ve put details right at the end of this review so you can avoid it if you find sexual assault triggering.  I accept the main character has to save her, thus saving himself a little. But there is NO NEED for her attack to be so brutal. And the examination of her whilst she’s still unconscious… disgusting. We all know what’s likely happened to her - there’s no need for the graphic description and further violation of that character. Frankly, I don’t understand how anyone reads this and doesn’t think ‘this isn’t right, WTF?’. 
  4. The blackface (apologies if this isn’t the correct term) - Billy decides to go visit his associates and has to sneak into their compound. He decides to disguise himself as a day labourer. Who obviously must be an illegal Mexican immigrant who is a deaf/mute… I don’t care that it’s spray tan - the character is darkening his skin to disguise himself as a day labourer (who has to be an illegal Mexican? Why? Stereotypes are just lazy)
  5. Throwing in an old rich guy paedophile when there could be all sorts of explanations which wouldn’t involve yet more sexual assault elements. I can think of so many other reasons why the hit had to be done, none of which would involve child abuse. 
  6. Randomly mentioning that Bucky, who is Billy’s go to guy for ID and jobs etc, is probably gay, even though it adds nothing to the story or character.  It’s like a throwaway thought the Billy has, but it adds nothing to our understanding of Bucky or their relationship. 

Perhaps some people would say that the book should have come with trigger warnings. And I think it should have. But I’d also say that perhaps King should just have thought a bit more about what he was writing. There’s no need for most of the things I’ve pointed out. 

I’m a long term King fan and I have to say that this might be the end of the road for me. I’m sure his future releases will be successful, and losing one fan isn’t gonna bother him. But if he genuinely thinks that this kind of content is ok… I think he’s got a problem. And I’d extend that to all the fans out there posting 5 ⭐️ reviews of this. 

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ALICE

Alice is sexually assaulted (gang raped by 3 men) and then tossed out of a van outside Billy’s hideout. To avoid attention, he takes her into his apartment and tends to her. She’s unconscious as she’s been drugged, she’s also wet and cold. Billy strips her naked and towels her off (I accept this is probably what you’d need to do) but then proceeds to examine her intimately. We already know she’s been attacked - there’s bruises on her and he’s noted blood on her uppers legs. So, we get it. She’s been raped. It isn’t necessary for us to get a graphic description - but King insists on Billy spreading Alice’s legs and giving us the details of the damage done to her vagina. Oh, and he’s also naked cos in the rain and exertion of carrying Alice indoors his underwear fell off. 
Billy also gets revenge on Alice’s attackers - and again, this is gratuitously violent. 
I understand Billy needed a redemption of sorts. But the details of the attack on Alice, and the frankly disgusting violation when she’s unconscious doesn’t add anything to the story. 
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