Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

173 reviews

klsreads's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This is an impressive meditation on everyday evil and the plight of small town America (couched in the classic spooky story). The writing is excellent, and I could really feel the characters and setting. It was somewhat creepy, sometimes gross, and very tense. I knocked 1 star because the first 50% of the book is setting and character exposé. I really wanted something to happen, but when it finally moved, it kicked off. Also, there was only 1 main female character, and she almost exclusively talked about men. Most women characters were defined by men / mothering / their sexuality. It's not surprising for the time, but it's still disappointing. I had fun regardless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

arivnnv's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia

Minor: Rape

bfab18's review against another edition

5.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence

epeolatrist's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape

Minor: Homophobia

the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

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Ported over from my now-abandoned Goodreads:

Quite frankly this is my favourite King book. It's terribly bleak, but it manages to be tentatively hopeful too. The tension and the pacing kept my attention all the time, and I inhaled the book over the course of a day or so.
I found myself really, truly rooting for every one of the POV characters. It's a product of its time, of course, and features quite a few very heavy themes and detestable side characters (what else is new?) but overall this one holds up brilliantly. I know I'll be coming back to it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape

Minor: Homophobia

Buyer beware: This book was written in the 1970's, and sometimes goes out of its way to make snide remarks about gay people. It's almost funny how much of a non-sequitur every inclusion of homophobia is; literally none of the characters are actually gay, at least as far as we see.

eldritch_ace's review against another edition

4.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail

toastrats's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Infidelity

Minor: Rape, Fire/Fire injury

mxpringle's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, Alcohol

11black_cats's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Very good take on the vampire trope, quite a slow burn in terms of horror but very tense. Quite long though 😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail

polargare's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent