Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

76 reviews

truckasaurusb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Medical content, Death, Blood, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal cruelty

addanumlaut's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

1.75

my first stephen king book; not a huge fan of his writing style. after about halfway through the book i was bored of it and was just reading it to be done. the premise was scary enough i guess, just wish the writing could match up to it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Animal death, and Violence

cowsaymuh's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Child death and Animal death

Moderate: Grief and Violence

tgrs's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

I LOVE this book! To me,it felt more chilling than the movie! It went into more detail than the film in my opinion. I was able to feel the anguish and despair the characters experienced. I'd say it's one of King's best books!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Sexual content, and Cursing

joelypop's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

emimcmanis's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Colonisation, Child abuse, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Genocide

Minor: Cannibalism and Excrement

gethin_burke's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing and Sexual content

itsjustgrumpy's review

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

The concept of the Wendigo and the 'sematary' is great... but the slow and laboured execution and anticlimactic ending really soured this book for me. I had to listen at x1.5 to actually finish it. Meh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Alcohol

cursedepub's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

Echoing another reviewer - I had kind of brushed this book aside as I am not generally interested in animal-oriented stories in any genre, nor do I particularly care for zombies in horror. But I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by how simply GOOD this novel was. King's prose is excellent, very immersive and evocative but still neat and tight, without bloat. 

I find the greatest strength of the book to be the sheer power and punch of the story's emotional beats.  I am not typically scared by horror but I connected very strongly with the depictions of dread in the early part of the novel

(Paxcow's death and Creed's succeeding nighttime stroll, the sense of wrongness and hints of possible deception or ill intent from Jud)

. And the reveal that

Gage would die in less than 2 months

literally knocked the wind out of me - what a perfect set-up of emotional high to emotional low. The sheer human ugliness and depth of the family's

grief

afterwards is genuinely gutting. 

At the end of the day the true horror of the book is in the fact that it is a tragedy, and like all the best tragedies, you simply cannot look away.

Like Creed himself,

you try to convince yourself up to the very end that maybe things will be different this time, but you probably already know how this story will end. 

I do find the actual Pet Sematary to be kind of underutilized by simply being the "front door," so to speak, to the true cemetery. The lore and mysticism could have been better-developed. However, truly a great and standout horror novel. I get the hype now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Animal death, and Child death

pholcidae's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

Aside from the casual racism (using outdated terms for Native American people and unnecessarily bringing people’s skin colour to attention), a near-flawless book.

The story is paced perfectly and I have been reading it nonstop. The author’s use of language to create suspense and terror is reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

This was my first King novel and I think it was the perfect one to start on! Very tense and lots of fun easter eggs in there :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Murder, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Abandonment, Infidelity, and Cursing

Minor: Vomit, Cancer, War, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Excrement, Dementia, Misogyny, Sexism, Addiction, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Religious bigotry