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Graphic: Child abuse, Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
I enjoyed this overall, it had the spooky small town vibes I was wanting and it was interesting to see King's take on vampires. I surprisingly enjoyed the priest character, and the exploration of faith and the concept of evil. The other characters were fine, although I wish Susan had a little more to her.
The pacing towards the end was a little odd, though admittedly probably partially because I didn't expect the last 150 pages to actually be a short story and deleted scenes. The build up to the 'big thing' at the end felt a little drawn out, with the end its self feeling almost rushed. But considering its length, it rarely if ever felt like a drag.
Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood
There is no life here but the slow death of days, and so when the evil falls on the town, its coming seems almost preordained, sweet and morphic. It is almost as though the town knows the evil was coming and the shape it would take.
My third Stephen King book and one of his popular ones - had no idea what to expect getting into this one only to find out it was VAMPIRES which is great because I read Dracula and loved it (I need to get more into vampire stories I think). This was really great; a little long and strenuous but the characters King creates feel so real and their fears become my own. The sense of atmosphere built up around the town itself was so interesting and not something you come across a lot in fiction about monsters. It was really set up to be a haunted house story but ended up being about vampires which was cool. I love how the three Stephen King books I've read utilise the monsters as metaphors, usually for a loss of innocence or childhood trauma. It's super thought-provoking but I will not get into it now because I need to be in the right headspace. But yeah, this was fun!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Death of parent
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Antisemitism, War
That all said, I did enjoy reading it. The writing was enjoyable, the story compelling, and the dread creeping. A nice dark vampire horror story of a town's slow, sleepy, bloodcurdling death.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Child abuse
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Car accident, Alcohol
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Rape, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism