Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

7 reviews

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Aside from the casual racism (using outdated terms for Native American people and unnecessarily bringing people’s skin colour to attention), a near-flawless book.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

alixsbooktherapy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book had me needing therapy afterwards stephen king I'll see you at my next appointment, this book will have you questioning your decisions I now know why this known as his most frightening book I just wish it was more realistic like the cops would of showed up multiple times if this actually happened this book is not for the weak I buddy read this with Emily and holy I hope she's okay🤣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Suicide, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Death, Blood, Child death, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Body horror, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Grief, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

mickraine's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Alcohol, Animal death, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Incest and War

ddspirittt's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

0.25

It is the most expository, dull, and boring book I have ever read. I was thankful to avoid any and all plot points before picking this up, but it was so predictable! I got so excited to see where it would go because of that.

Then I read. And read. Read. And read. Read some more. Read. The end.

People keep recommending this as the "scariest" story by King. But if the emotional payoff or lack thereof is "scary" to some, then dear lord, go read some more. The action at the end was neither suspenseful nor emotional but laughable.

Part two could be interesting, but this was the biggest letdown and snoozefest of a book ever. I don't want to read King again because of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Murder, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, and Cursing

giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

An interesting read. Definitively the best SK book so far (I haven't read many from him, but at least this one doesn't have blatant racism and creepy descriptions of teenage girls). It was actually scary in some parts, that deep unsettling feeling that made you wary of the next pages but unable to put the book down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Blood, Animal death, Child death, and Emotional abuse

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

caylamaureen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

Holy smokes! I’ve been a King fan for quite some time now, but I was scared to pick this one up, I’m not gonna lie… especially after King himself said that he thought he had finally “gone too far and threw it in a drawer with no intent to publish I love a good thriller but with a name and a preface like that I thought it would be too gruesome for me.  But I have to say that King really writes in a way that no other writer does anymore and if more people could stomach these complicated topics, we’d be studying them in school hands down. The way he uses metaphors and forces us to think about the world we live in is absolutely unreal and I’m not tired of it yet! 

Okay, Pet Sematery has very little blood and gore and jump scares compared to other King novels and I was left thinking “would I even call this ‘horror?’“ To me it felt more like tragedy. Kind of like a bit of a haunted tragedy? I’m not sure… what it really, actually is at its core is thought-provoking and psychological. More than any other book I’ve ever read, you are going to be pushed right up against the glass to the questions of afterlife, the worst kinds of childhood trauma, and the complex interwoven effects of death in the family. It’s absolutely astounding to me how simply King was able to make me question everything I think I know about death (or don’t know about it) and not only that but FORCE me to think about it. Luckily for me, I love nothing more than to be forced to think about life’s tough questions and then have something to on overthinking about endlessly. So if the hard topics aren’t your thing (or are triggering!! Read the trigger warnings!!) and inevitable haunting tragedy isn’t your thing, you won’t like this book. But it is undoubtedly a literary masterpiece that I can’t stop thinking about!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Funerals, family death, pet death, grave digging, grave robbing