Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Firestarter by Stephen King

19 reviews

scip's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Gore, Suicide, Excrement

Minor: Body shaming, Antisemitism

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Definitely better than Pet Semetary (the Green Mile will never been surpassed as my favorite King), but still struggled with some of the underlying topics.

Having an old man continue saying how beautiful a literal child is and how he loves her so much is disgusting.

Overall though, the plot was really solid and kept me intrigued. I also love that although Charlie’s power is clearly supernatural, it was some supernatural or paranormal “twist” that caused all the problems and tension in the book (King’s usual M/O). It was the government’s greed and desire for power. A theme I can always get behind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol

lochnessvhs's review against another edition

2.75

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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While the second half really made up for the incredibly slow first half, there still wasn't enough here to get me connected to this story at all. Combine that with this being King's first official publishing of his extreme hatred of fat people (an MC literally decides for a time that his best use of his psychic abilities is to help "disgusting" fat women lose weight) and it adds up to this being one of my least favorite of King's books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Violence

flamesocks's review against another edition

2.75

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury

bella613's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

jazhandz's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This book essentially has four types of scenes: action, good guys, bad guys, and weird interactions between the good and bad guys. I happen to like these four scenes and think this was done decently well, although the first half was stronger and I would happily chop 70-odd pages out of the middle. It’s fine! Perfectly serviceable King book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia

- adult/minor relationship insofar as Stephen King-typical adult men having feelings for little girls - eye horror and gore - medical experimentation - police brutality insofar as a government agency threatening civilians; it’s not the actual police but it checks a similar box imo - if you are afraid of snakes think twice about this one - King-typical racism ableism sexism etc throughout. the transphobia is only tagged bc it is, somehow, plot relevant.

superiour_medium's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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She do be starting fires

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury

hyacinthed's review against another edition

2.5

dark mysterious 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

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Complicated feelings on this one.

Strengths:

• Strong worldbuilding (as always)
• Great structure
• Solid development of Charlie/decent development of Andy
• Dude putting on lingerie and jerking it to a garbage disposal. Lit.

Difficulties:

• Literally everything relating to Rainbird. The overt racism in his characterisation (yes it was the '80s, no it has not aged well), the literal pedophilic overtones of how he thinks and speaks about Charlie.
• The homophobia sprinkled throughout.
• The constant fat-shaming of Andy after he blows up on thorazine (we get it, he's fat, you don't have to remind us once a page).
• The lack of resolution of Vicky's death - I was hoping for some kind of reconciliation/closure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Pedophilia

Minor: Homophobia

bookwormloverofbooks's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury