Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Stand by Stephen King

16 reviews

nicilaui's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book was an incredible journey and accompanied me for a whole month of my life. That's why I feel very close to the characters and will surely miss them. King can write fluently and interestingly, which is why I was able to get through this mountain of pages easily. This crusher should have been read during Corona, but even so, I was able to draw very creepy parallels to the past pandemic. The basic structure of the work was really great, but I couldn't get stuck inside the story. The narration is extremely biblical, but then again ‘cool’ and typically ‘American’. The story built up naturally one after the other, but a lot of tension was lost for me. I could guess the ending very early on in almost exactly the same way as it happened, which I found very sobering. All in all, I'm not mad about reading this book, I really enjoyed it, but it didn't grab me in any way like other books have done in my life. In the end, a lot happened, but in a way nothing happened at all (maybe that's the point). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Abandonment, Grief, Medical trauma, and Slavery

beatle426's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Death, Medical content, Grief, Violence, Sexual content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, War, Murder, Suicide, Torture, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Gore, and Child death

lilyee929's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, and Vomit

minttruffle's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual violence, War, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

rosereadsalot's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Abortion, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Addiction, Ableism, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gore

kessejeen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, War, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Ableism, and Animal death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child death, Body horror, and Fatphobia

scip's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Slavery, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Suicide, Vomit, Cursing, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, War, Ableism, Grief, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Car accident, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Animal death

Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia

tacitusreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Dark, introspective, diverse and extremely well written, this massive novel may be seem to be daunting, but whatever the case, you’ll almost certainly finish faster than you think. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Vomit, Body horror, Addiction, Cursing, Violence, and Drug use

julianam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Addiction, Gore, Homophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny

aparizo704's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I chose an interesting time to read this, considering present society is battling a “super flu” of our own. I couldn’t help likening the first two parts to forebodings of Nostradamus

(Naturally, I don’t believe COVID was manufactured as a weapon of biowarfare and turned loose by the military

). I won’t gloss over King’s use of racial slurs and the novel’s nearly complete sanitization of non-White survivors from the plot (it’s glaringly obvious), but I will acknowledge the zeitgeist of the time the book was published (no surprises - this is our parents’s generation, after all). The character tropes that eventually manifest themselves act as devices to further along the plot - chiefly to serve the main protagonists, with little exploration of the personal development afforded to most of the founding Zone members. The point could be made about any PoC almost exclusively, but the same goes for Tom Cullen and Nick. Their “before” story, would have been as insightful as Frannie, Harold, Stu, and Larry - especially considering how key they were to saving every soul in Boulder. Despite how critical I appear, I appreciated the extended edition and can’t imagine reading this through without the sections cut from King’s original manuscript. It’s a worthy cautionary tale, which suggests the answer to a question about humanity I believe we know the truth of deep in our hearts, but continue to hope for despite our record on Earth. Hoping is as natural as breathing for us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Terminal illness, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Ableism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Addiction, Death of parent, Child death, and Drug abuse