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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
Sr. Mercedes by Павел Боянов, Весела Прошкова, Stephen King, Stephen King, Даня Доганова
31 reviews
melodyseestrees's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
If you are fond of Mr. King's other works and characters you will probably like this. If you are coming in expecting a typical thriller you will not enjoy this as much. For me, despite my casual familiarity with several of King's works I found it difficult to get up to the 40% mark in the book. To the story's credit the pace does pickup upon the changing of a key character or two somewhere around the 50% mark.
Graphic: Gaslighting, Child death, Murder, Incest, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Addiction, Classism, Animal death, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Ableism, Sexism, and Car accident
Minor: Blood, Vomit, Excrement, and Adult/minor relationship
There is an adult/minor relationship between Brady and his mother. He claims to have been a victim of a different adult/minor relationship during his psychological torture of Olivia.maddieloves_books1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Incest, Child death, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Mental illness, Racism, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Alcoholism, Bullying, Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Gore, Cursing, Ableism, Classism, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, and Hate crime
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit
maddie7217's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Violence, Suicide attempt, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gore, and Car accident
lilaceous's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
plot - ⭐️
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend -
would read again -
this novel had me cringing, and not in a fun way. weird portrayals of women, black characters, queer characters, etc. also just gross stuff happening and lots of cheap, shock-factor attempts at character development. the climax of the book did genuinely make my heart race, but the conclusion of that tension left me disappointed. in so many ways, this book wasn’t worth reading.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Racism
literarilythrilling's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Murder, Incest, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, and Ableism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
paperbackanggo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Homophobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Violence
seraxiel87's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, and Cursing
zara89's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts
trash_reader_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I haven't read many crime thrillers before. Crime novels aren't usually my go-to book, and if I had known before opening this that it was a crime thriller, I might never have read it at all, regardless of who the author is.
However.
The book is written in two perspectives: Brady's, and Detective Hodges (which I think is a really annoying name so most of the time I just mentally shortened it Hodge because that's less cumbersome). Brady's perspective was more interesting to read for me. I felt like nothing really happened when the book focused more on Detective Hodges. Well, nothing except a random affair with Janey. It might just be because I'm not middle-aged, divorced, and lonely, but I don't see how the affair between Janey and Hodges made sense enough for it to fit into the plot of the book. They literally knew each other for less than a day before jumping into bed? The banter was kind of cute(?) sometimes (like when Janey made fun of Hodges's "yeah" and I don't know, I thought the thing with the fedora was endearing), but it seemed like it was supposed to be more of comedic relief than anything else, and it just wasn't doing it for me. Especially the scene when they had first slept with each other. That entire interaction was unnecessary. If you know, you know.
Hodges involves his neighbor, Jerome, who is a 17 year old boy who does odd jobs for Hodges around the house/yard and helps him with his computer whenever he needs it. I don't see the justification of bringing Jerome into this. Well, okay, Hodges sucks at anything involving a computer, which makes sense considering he's 62 years old and it's only 2010. But even being completely unknowledgeable about computers, bringing Jerome in as far as he did into his illegal investigation made no sense. Especially when he kept telling himself, and Jerome, that he wasn't going to get him involved anymore. And then almost immediately afterwards gets him involved even deeper in something that even Hodges himself shouldn't be doing. And Hodges never tried to deny the fact that everything he was doing was extremely illegal.
I understand the desire to solve the case on his own. This was the most notorious killer of Hodges's career, and he couldn't find out who it was. Brady went home with no consequences and of course it bugged the shit of Hodges. And then he finds out Brady had been watching him? That he wanted him to kill himself? I get it. Now it's personal.
Jerome is the one who makes the connection about Brady being Mr. Mercedes. But the way he does it doesn't add up to me. A lot of people have two jobs. In this economy, you kind of have to. And back then? Yeah, it was even more necessary, especially if both jobs were only part-time gigs.
Brady works as an IT Technician for an electronics store, and he also works as an ice cream truck driver (hence the popular quote "Everyone likes the ice cream man.") Jerome realized that they were the same person and then knew immediately that Brady was the same guy who had run that Mercedes through the crowd of people at the job fair the year before, but we're never told HOW he made that connection. And that's what makes the whole revelation thing a little unbelievable to me.
Before starting this review, I had intended to mention Stephen King's treatment of his minority characters (Jerome is a young black man (with an apparently white name, according to Brady, and that seems to be the only reason Brady hates Jerome. Because he "wants to be white, with his white name and good grades." Like, what?)), but I decided against putting it into the actual review. I could go into a rant all of its own about how he writes minorities and how unnecessary and disrespectful it is, but I won't.
What I will do, however, is say that the biggest reason I had stayed with this book and the reason I had been as invested as I was in the story, was because I was interested in what Brady would do next, and if he would actually succeed in his plan to "go out with a bang."
I thought the parts of the book that were written in Hodges's POV were uninteresting and they kind of dragged for me. The whole "I'm going to do something big and kill even more people" wasn't even officially mentioned until Brady heard about the 'Round Here concert that was going to take place at the MAC. And then things REALLY sped up.
The synopsis of the book makes it seem like the entire thing is a "race against time, high speed chase" before Brady can commit to his grand scheme and blow up the theater, but that really only became a part of the plot in the last, what, 100 pages? 120 pages? The book wasn't what the synopsis had promised, and it left me impatient for when the "big bang" would actually happen. Which might have been the point, but I didn't appreciate it. Brady didn't even know he was going to blow up the concert until he heard about it. The synopsis seemed more like false advertising to me than anything else.
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Incest, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts
oonareads's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Racial slurs, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia