Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

It by Stephen King

76 reviews

chadconnecticut's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Two things about this book are true: that something being popular does not preclude it from being good, and that SK was deep in his cocaine years when this book was written, and it shows. 

There are moments of brilliance. King’s prose is lush and evocative, and his examinations of fear and coming of age are beautiful, haunting, and sad. The violence is gripping; the horror is affecting. 

Is the book too long by at least 300 pages? Absolutely. Is Richie Tozier a tough character to read from a contemporary lens (especially in an audiobook)? Of course. But the DNA of modern horror can be found all over this book, and the literary landscape wouldn’t be the same without it. 

I doubt I’ll read it a second time, but my perspective on the horror canon has been enriched for having read it. King is good. This book is good. The Scene That Will Never Make It Into Adaptations is…a choice that I wouldn’t make personally, nor do I think it would hold up in contemporary fiction, but in the context of both the narrative and the time in which it was written, it wasn’t as jarring and awful as I expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Bullying, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, and Animal death

sydgolt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

I loved it. Obviously the gross part when they were kids was vile and imo completely unnecessary. he wanted them to create some deep connection but that felt… wrong. i think that’s when they should’ve made the blood pact. i understand that horror tends to push boundaries to really evoke strong emotions in the readers but this was just not right. 

that being said i absolutely loved reading this book cover to cover. it was so captivating and intricately written, more so than the majority of books i’ve read. stephen king has easily become one of my favorite authors. i loved the characters and their friendships and how strong and unqiue each personality was. sometimes in books they over-develop the main character and under-develop the side characters but everyone got equal effort put into them which i really
appreciated. 

I’m so glad i read this book when i did cuz im starting the year with such a high point. this will definitely be in my top 5 as well!! 

5 stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Death, Cursing, Racial slurs, Suicide, Animal death, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Blood, Child death, Racism, Murder, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

nicoleannreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Homophobia, Racism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, and Body shaming

Moderate: Rape

kyliemeyerman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

After just finishing this, I really feel like I’m leaving a whole real world and want to restart the 1200 pages all over again, which is saying most of what you need to know. It isn’t perfect. There’s things I wanted more of (idyllic childhood fun and maybe some clarification on the supernatural elements) and some I wanted less of (backstory on every side character although kind of fun and stuff I never want to read about children doing). But overall, and awesome, epic, deeply emotional work. And I never got bored, which is a massive feat in such a large volume. There’s some amazing themes here tightly interwoven with an absolutely cracking horror story. I love the characters and would crawl headfirst into a spider’s abdomen to protect baby Ben Hanscom. I would recommend this to everyone - I think anyone CAN find something to love here even if it’s not their thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Medical trauma, and Gun violence

superstormnora's review against another edition

The ending got incredibly graphic and I read a review where some bad stuff happens in the sewer while defeating it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual violence

the 13 year olds all have sex with Beverly.

lilyee929's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Bullying

miawallace3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

• 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

The story/plot in this book I really enjoyed and the deep dive into all the characters made you feel so much more connected to them. But there was a lot of stuff in this book that was FOUL (unnecessary use of slurs, sexualizing 11 yr olds, child ORGY?!?!?!) but if you skip over the obvious glaring issues myself and most every other reader has with this book, it is a really good horror story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Racism, and Murder

oleaceae_18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I would call this book outdated at best. I think the premise of the book and the monster is pretty interesting, and I can see why it's a classic. But there's too much racism and misogyny for me to actually enjoy the reading experience. The female characters are written in a way that you can tell they are written by a man, too over sexualized, traumatized, and not enough depth to them.

The weird child sex part totally turned me off the book and didn't seem necessary to include.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

child sex, N word

jaimc's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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: Death, Child death, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Racism, Violence, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Excrement, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, and Classism

Minor: Cancer

malthe's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

Alright… I do think there are weird scenes in this, like THAT scene, but even those have an explanation that makes sense… but it doesn’t make it less weird.

BUT, this is the first book I’ve read after my 3 year reading slump AND I finished it pretty quick for how long it is (I would say). So it was able to keep my interested the whole way through, which is amazing. The writing can also be so so good. 

I really don’t have that many negatives, except for the weird stuff like THAT scene. If you don’t look at those, this book is so fucking good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Blood, Bullying, Dementia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment