Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Shining by Stephen King

7 reviews

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Car accident, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Alcohol, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

roadesntoades's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Honestly anyone reading the Shining in 2024 knows the plot to some degree. They know that the hotel is possessed, that Danny has a gift, and Jack and Wendy are always doomed to fail. While this wasn’t my favorite King book I do like this over the movie. I like how it is never hidden what the endgame is, nor does it needlessly diverge from the plot for anything. Everything has a purpose, symbolism, or message to it that is really nice. It did feel sometimes like I was just muscling through it and other times it felt a little too slow but overall I liked it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Sexual content, Addiction, Child abuse, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Body horror, Racial slurs, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Minor: Torture, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

kups's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

There are so many questionable things in this book. The story was wonderful though and very tense, once the story started to pick up it was hard to put down. The racism in the book and the weird sexual instances were so random though. While the racism could be explained as another way that the hotel was evil, it feels unnecessary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Addiction, Torture, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Child abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Pedophilia and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide attempt

chaptersbydani's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

BANNED BOOKS CHALLENGE READ:
Word on the street is that every one of Stephen King’s books have been banned/or challenged at some point since their publication. The Shining was challenged for “containing violence and demonic possession and [ridiculing] the Christian religion” in Wyoming and Alabama.
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I’m honestly shocked that I liked this as much as I did. This book broke my reading slump and kept me up all night. This is my first Stephen King book and I totally understand why he is the icon he is.

The way he writes is just mind blowing. It’s so simple. You never feel like it’s over your head and you always feel so close to figuring everything out. But you just never quite do until he reveals it. And despite the fact that basically every character is the most awful person I’ve ever encountered (Jack being the worst), I was sucked in immediately.

And the way the text was formatted??? Cherry on top. It added so much suspense and really illustrated the flirtation/ descent into madness.

There definitely was violence and demonic possession. I didn’t see the ridicule of Christianity (and wouldn’t have cared if it was there tbh.) My only issue is that I didn’t love King’s use of racial slurs. It made sense when the hotel used them and I could halfway accept that. Capitalism is an incredibly racist system and is violent- emotionally and physically- to Black folks (understatement). It makes sense that the Hotel, the symbol of capitalism here, was verbally violent to our main Black character. The other uses just felt out of line considering the author is white.

I wish that our main Black character, Dick, had more purpose in the book than guiding Danny and saving him and Wendy. It felt like he was just a tool for Danny’s development than anything. He’s a cool character and deserved a little bit more.

I will say, this is a book that I was pleasantly surprised lives up to its hype. I’m excited to watch the movie and see how it matches up. Also apparently there’s a sequel? I’m thinking of checking that out too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

aerospace's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This book is very well written. That is both a good and a very very bad thing. This book took me 2 months, and I mean that in the best possible way. It at times made me sick to my stomach. The movie did no justice on the trauma that both Danny and Wendy went through. In the movie  it was like a light switch, bam they got there, bam he turned crazy .but no in reality of the slow process of him going insane. And that’s the thing they could even see that “this isn’t my dad it’s the hotel”. I don’t know how people write like this. Would recommend to anyone who can stomach gore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Torture, and Violence

mo_moana_k's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The amount of racial slurs in this book are incredible,  at some points there's one on every page. It's annoying and completely unnecessary.  A white man has no business using the n word that many times.  It's not even to make the reader dislike the character that says them, they're said by the protagonists too. Other than that the book was good but that really got under my skin.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Racism, and Vomit

a_robin_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Information:

• Library ebook
• October readathon 
• Reading my first ever horror reading vlog

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Review:

This was my first ever horror novel and I loved it. Everything about this was great, from the characters to the writing the the spookyness. It was a right balance between slow pace and fast pace. Just really loved this.
Didn't give it the full 5 stars, because there were minor things that bothered me.

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Review previously placed on my blog:

I'm currently reading The shining by Stephen King. I'm reading this for the October readathon. 

I'm actually loving this so far. I didn't expect that. The writing, and translation; reading it in Dutch, are very good. The story itself is very interesting. So far it has been creepy, but not scary yet, so am excited about that part. But so far it's really good and it might even be a 5 star read.

It became pretty scary, but not too much; didn't have nightmares, which is good. There were a couple of small things that bothered me a little bit, so therefore not a full 5 stars, but a 4,5 stars. Check out my vlog for indepth thoughts: Reading my first ever horror book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Racism