Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

33 reviews

skylar_cr_wolf's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The book run smoothly most of the time despite that one scene.

It was the moment when the student died and the way it was described left me in a 3 month pause to read this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Gore

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Violence, Child death, and Death of parent

rwilcox's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This is my first Stephen King book. The quality of the writing is outstanding. The post was slow at first and seemed to drag on, but everything was important. It really picked up at the end. 

I wonder what happened to Ellie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical trauma, Violence, Child death, and Death of parent

alinaa81's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Death

amandalouise717's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Murder, Blood, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

kacyn21's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

It has been well over 15 years since I last read Pet Sematary and I am so happy I got to read it again. I had forgotten so much about this book and how much I actually love it. This has to be one of the few books that SK wrote that isn't long-winded and drones on the whole time. Don't get me wrong, there were some parts where this fid happen, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There's such a creepy and great atmosphere, and the pacing is just perfect. I must admit, I think some parts went by too fast while other parts (that I personally didn't think mattered much) were lingered on. You can bet that I will read this again. Oh yes, I will read this again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Animal death, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

chloseencounter's review

dark tense 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

Pet Semetery may be the scariest book by King I’ve read so far and it’s definitely the best one I’ve read since The Shining. I think often King’s novels are like the longest build up ever to the world’s saddest orgasm but I actually felt that the pay off was worth it in this novel. I’ll also say that this was some very strong character writing but despite that maybe only two characters were actually likable, though I do at least think the mental decline in Louis over time is articulated well. I was also slightly put off by the completely out of place sex scenes that added literally nothing to the story but King is nothing if not horny. Even though I love to complain about King’s books I really did enjoy this one and would actually recommend it to people especially if you’re new to King or horror in general. I still think it could’ve been edited so much shorter but for the most part it felt more evenly paced than other King novels and I wasn’t often bored. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Child death, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Blood

Minor: Chronic illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Grief, and Mental illness

weinerman's review

dark mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Sexual content

bahamyulala's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Death, Animal death, Grief, and Child death

sidekicksam's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Did I binge-listen to this in, like, 3 days? Yes. Yes I did. 

I am, slowly but surely, making my way through King's (most popular) backlist. Pet Sematary was one of those books I heard about but didn't really know what it was about. A Pet Sematary, obviously.

This was not the book I expected it to be, and it positively surprised me. I'm a big wimp so I thought I'd be super scared, but this is not that kind of horror story (though I did feel a bit odd about my cat for about 0.5 minutes). This book chills you to your bones, and though the plot twists are not entirely surprising, the way King writes the story, I still felt robbed somehow. 

This book was so addictive, I did not want to stop listening to it. The narration by Michael C. Hall (you may know him as Dexter) was an excellent choice, his mysterious voice adds that chilly layer to the story that other narrators might not have managed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident