Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Shining by Stephen King

34 reviews

bites_of_books's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

2.75

What I enjoy about King is the character work, he does a good job in creating characters and moving them through strange settings. 

Danny - Poor kid, he really deserved better. I loved his ability to keep hoping against hope that things would turn out okay. 

Jack - Alcoholic father trying to quit drinking. I struggled with him because part of me felt bad for him while the other felt like King gave him no way out so what's the point?

Wendy - The mom who isn't used to standing up for herself or her son until the literal worst starts happening. She also didn't have many resources or anything to help her gain confidence so I can see why she had trouble with it. 

The racism, homophobia, and misogyny was all used without any kind of nuance and the constant use of the n-word was really unnecessary. 

Overall, it's not that scary, at times it's a bit silly (possessed hedges?) and what is scarier is the isolation and the mental states of the characters. 

Neither the book or movie is perfect, but together they make for something a bit more interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Racism, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, and Physical abuse

tygeis02's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Drug use, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

overtheedgeofthewild's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

1.0

A slow and long-winded read that is nothing special. This was actually the first time I've read Stephen King and have never seen the entire Shining movie. It was a book club read, and I was not expecting so much endless rambling in this book. The majority of it is psychoanalysis and history for each character. Some parts are sexualized in a disturbing (and sometimes preverted) way. This would have been a DNF for me if it weren't for book club; I got so genuinely sick of "unmask, unmask." It was repeated so often it felt like King was just trying to achieve a certain word count.  And, as other reviews have mentioned, the offensive language/slurs were gross. It was overall boring, and thus difficult for my mind not to wander to literally anything else. I ended up listening on 1.75x speed (which I never do) just to get it done and over with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, and Racial slurs

spookypossum's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Violence

Moderate: Self harm and Racism

ashthecryptid's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Child abuse, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Grief

uranaishi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexism, Dementia, Grief, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

bushrasbookbabbles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

very different than the movie and while I appreciate both forms of art I understand why some changes must be made the shining just wasn’t the right book to make a movie there was too much importance on what was going on in the heads of the characters. Also king was weird again, he mentioned tits way too many times in ways that meant nothing. I was really just sad for Jack the whole time. I understood his rage and the shame and the desire to be better but also to be respected. Poor guy :/ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, Blood, Racism, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Car accident, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

aaryaisreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

kaykad's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.5

I never got around to reading this because I always thought the movie was a faithful adaptation. 

It's not. 

Many of the hauntings in the overlook are psychological; an internal monologue that's overtaken by an other, intrusive thoughts, daydreams and nightmares. We don't get any of that in the film. This is SCARY. So well paced. 

It's definitely a little misogynistic, racist and xenophobic here and there though, so, there's that. Which is also scary. 

Wanted to read a classic King beofre diving into his new book and this did not disappoint! Totally understand the friends episode where Joey puts his copy of the shining in the freezer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Mental illness, and Death

withywoods's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Sexism