Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

65 reviews

lindseyrenee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, and Alcohol

field_of_books's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is my third Steven King book and I definitely think it’s my favourite! Misery is running close behind it, but this one won my heart much quicker. 

I gelled with the writing of this one within a few pages, like this story and the main character of Louis Creed was made for someone like me to read it. I’ve struggled with King’s writing in the past, sometimes with the pacing and sometimes with the writing style. But I felt like he’d taken it easier on me this time. To start with, I really liked Louis, he felt like someone easy to love. The plot picked up quickly, and stayed interesting in the downtime between big events. I had seen both the original film and the remake, so I did know the basic story. However I was still completely gripped as the story is so well written. 

The most terrifying part of this book is the grief. As the book crescendos in its biggest events, you feel the main characters’ grief in your chest. You feel the trauma leaving your eyes glazed over.

The entity involved feeds on the grief and desperation of the characters, leading them to act like almost like addicts. The way they will do anything to convince themselves they are doing the right thing bared a resemblance of an addict convincing themselves this is the last time they’ll use, or that using is the right thing to do. 

This book is beautifully written, leaving you watching the main events from the sidelines like a ghost in red running shorts. This book is timeless. 

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, and Grief

ogik's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Vomit

meowchemicalromance's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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? No

5.0

Probably King’s best.

I know SK has a fame of bad endings, but this one is just perfect, in my opinion anyway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Blood, and Body horror

billiesgotbooks's review

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Violence

finn_vibing's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Child death, Animal death, Body horror, and Grief

Moderate: Cursing

thebookgremlin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

I didn't think this book would give me nightmares.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, and Medical trauma

reusablecup's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Grief, Vomit, Violence, Car accident, Blood, Alcohol, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

ryuk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Body horror

beanjoles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

This is the first Stephen King book I’ve read (well, listened to) and I can see why he’s so respected in the genre. What a novel!
 
It’s impossible for me to separate my review of the novel from my review of the audiobook. Michael C Hall’s performance is incredible. I'm not speaking figuratively when I say that it's the best audiobook performance I've ever heard. If you're on the fence about reading this novel, then listen to the audiobook and thank me later! It's that good. 

Onto the story itself. This is definitely a slow-paced book, and had I been left to my own devices to read it on my own, I'm not sure I would have finished it. The audiobook, however, kept my full attention. 

The novel is broken into three parts. The first part is very character-driven. We are introduced to Louis Creed, his wife, and his two children. We are walked through their daily lives, their motivations, and their internal struggles. Of course, there's foreshadowing of what's to come. But King definitely takes his time in getting to the action (most of which is in Part 2 and Part 3). The result is that by the time you get there, you know these characters. You're invested. 

Despite that, Part 2 and Part 3 lagged a bit for me and I kept waiting to get to the really scary stuff. The whole book is infused with dread, tension, and low grade horror. There are certainly some parts that might be triggering to folks. But I personally didn't find it super frightening. That's probably a good thing for me, but if you want a *scary* book, I don't think this is it. 

My only real complaint about the book is the ending. To keep it spoiler-free, I will say that there is a build-up of tension that doesn't really get released at the end of the novel. It's like when you're reading an essay or article and the writing is really resonating with you, and then you read the last two paragraphs and you can tell the writer just chucked something in there to meet their word count in advance of a deadline. That's how the ending felt to me and I really hated how weak it was. But, aside from that, good book, good experience, and would definitely listen to Michael C Hall perform it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Body horror and Murder