Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Carrie by Stephen King

57 reviews

hellandhogwarts's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Bullying, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Child death, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark sad 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: Bullying, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

casdelvo's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Rape, and Animal death

Minor: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Car accident

taviarz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Idk if I’ll ever be able to give a King book 5 stars because of the amount of slurs he uses unnecessary. That aside I’m very worried about people who say that this is a “good for her” book. It’s a tragedy and I feel sympathy for Carrie but

killing all of your classmates for revenge is definitely school shooter energy, please get help.

other than that it’s a pretty normal Stephen King book. The way Margaret and Misery were written were almost exactly the same. And he really cannot write convincing dialogue for women. But at the end of the day he’s able to pull you in and tell a good story so what can I say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Racism, Murder, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Blood, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Grief, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Rape, Death, Cursing, Confinement, Child death, Bullying, Mental illness, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

jaedia's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-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

4.5

A nice quick read and a classic for a reason, Carrie tells the legendary story of Carietta White, the daughter of a crazed fundamentalist Christian woman who is fiercely bullied at her high school and the repercussions this life has. 

Only lost points because the random mid-sentence thought brackets were very off-putting, occasionally would switch scenes with absolutely no indication towards doing so, and the numerous references to racist caricatures (while yes, a result of the time period) were unnecessary and gross. I'm aware these kinds of things come up in King's early books but they very much do affect my ratings. 

Otherwise, enjoyed the reading experience immensely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Death, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Ableism, Antisemitism, and Body shaming

macabrebookwitch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

I haven’t read really any horror novels before, so thus begins my goal of reading every stephen king book in release order. As it’s the first book, I was a little underwhelmed. I also didn’t expect to feel so bad for Carrie,

honestly like getting me to think the town deserved it. Or at least, her bullies and mother did.

I want to watch the movies now, but I’m cutting King some slack since I know its the first one. The religious trauma is strong in this one. I also feel like there are some questionable phrases and themes in this book (although I know it takes place and was written in the 70s, its not much excuse). But I trek ever onward through King’s bibliography. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Abortion, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

onyxisalive's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

There are some things about this book I really loved. Stephen King does an amazing job showing how

badly Carrie was treated by both her mother and her peers, it makes you feel really sorry for her and definitely makes you root for her

- making the book much sadder. 

Sue Snell and Tommy

were both very likeable characters-

it was so nice to see Sue try and redeem herself and get Carrie to fit in and the others to accept her. It is so sad that these attempts were inevitably destroyed by Carrie’s peers that refused to let her grow effectively pushing her past the breaking point.

However there are a couple things in this book I didn’t like one much more serious than the other. 
The pacing of this book felt a little all over the place- it starts off relatively fast paced. However when reaching to the main event of prom night it ends up dominating the majority of the book and just feels to slow. With some scenes being retold multiple times from different perspectives- it was a nice idea but ended up making it feel a bit tedious to read.

One thing however that really left a bad taste in my mouth was the way violence against children (not Carrie) were glossed over and normalised.

The violence of the sheriff (slapping) two kids that were just traumatised by seeing all the people they care about die, was completely glossed over and not even discussed- which is really disgusting- the author made no attempt to communicate this was wrong just completely glossed over it. The second is discussed, but the conclusion to this is completely disgusting. When the female teacher is violent with Chris her dad threatens to sue (obviously), however the violence of the female teacher is excused by effectively saying that it was okay because Chris has done horrible things. It is true that Chris’s violence with Carrie is inexcusable and deserves punishment, but none of that is a fitting reason that hitting a child is ever okay.

The fact that it is treated like it is leaves a disgusting taste in my mouth and is completely inexcusable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Car accident, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

ereich_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

shaneent's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was my first time reading this classic horror novel. 
Having this story being so well-known in pop culture, being aware of the iconic image of Carrie standing in the street covered in blood, it was a pleasant surprise to find that experiencing the story for the first time wasn't ruined and that the threat of Prom Night looms over the town of Chamberlain from the start. The mix between traditional storytelling and epistolary snippets, jumping back and forth in time, built a different kind of tension and horror - not a "what is going to happen?" but a "how much longer until it happens and how bad is it truly going to be?".
The style was appropriately abrasive, having thoughts and psychic moments break into the flow of the story.
Characters, at times, felt overly exaggerated, but ultimately it worked with the high drama of the story.
Overall, Carrie lives up to expectations and is a good horror read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Some outdated racist language is used as imagery on a couple occasions.

hoey_girlboss_queen's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Blood, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming