Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Stand by Stephen King

47 reviews

knenigans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Great story, great cast of characters. A lot of food for thought.
Would've been 5 stars if it weren't for the two rape scenes and the aggressive fatphobia. One of the rape scenes was directly plot related and was relatively vague, the other was explicit and did not contribute to the plot. While not shown, there is one section of dialog graphically describing other rapes.

Also about 0.05 of that missing 0.25 stars is because it seems like EVERY character in this book pisses themselves at least once. I'm quite sure there was more pants-pissing in this one book than all the others I've ever read in my entire life. I really hope one of the survivors turned out to be a pelvic floor therapist so they can help all these poor people control their bladders....

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Racial slurs, Suicide, and Torture

winglesswarrior's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ladawson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

muzik_izak1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

I don't have any words to express how happy I am to finally finish this book. I love King's writing but this was insanity. The sure length of the book was intimidating enough. But the story did not disappoint. From the first second of craziness to the somewhat twist ending, I was enthralled in this story. There were some boring parts, but there always are. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual content

mxpringle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Best Stephen King novel of all time. It was so masterful and complex and I think that I'll be thinking about this book for a long long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer and Drug use

artmajorese's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I had to stop 62% in. I picked it as my first Stephen King novel because it's in a couple of the top 10 lists from King fans. Big "men writing women" vibes. Plus the unique "heterosexual white man writes post-apocalyptic sex lives" vibes, which are as problematic as you might think. 

He edited it to add a bunch of extra stuff in the '90s, but didn't bother to edit out the N word. Left the whole racist tone intact. 

Pacing is kind of uneven. Not my taste for a book! Instead of anything horrifying or spooky, the tension stems from the fact that you might run smack into sexual violence around any corner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Misogyny, Racism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

snowypineapples's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a very good book, the story and plot and journey were incredible, thought provoking and interesting. However the conclusion to the plot is rather silly:

the literal hand of God appears in the sky

 
The silliness really ruined that part of the boom for me and although I loved the majority, there was lots of areas, not just that, where the boom felt like a chore to read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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: Death, Terminal illness, Violence, and Murder

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

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

jaym's review against another edition

After 25 hours of listening I decided I didn't care to hear more about human suffering.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

sneakyhobbit's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture