Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Shining by Stephen King

55 reviews

briar_nettleroot's review against another edition

dark emotional 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: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

chaptersbydani's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

BANNED BOOKS CHALLENGE READ:
Word on the street is that every one of Stephen King’s books have been banned/or challenged at some point since their publication. The Shining was challenged for “containing violence and demonic possession and [ridiculing] the Christian religion” in Wyoming and Alabama.
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I’m honestly shocked that I liked this as much as I did. This book broke my reading slump and kept me up all night. This is my first Stephen King book and I totally understand why he is the icon he is.

The way he writes is just mind blowing. It’s so simple. You never feel like it’s over your head and you always feel so close to figuring everything out. But you just never quite do until he reveals it. And despite the fact that basically every character is the most awful person I’ve ever encountered (Jack being the worst), I was sucked in immediately.

And the way the text was formatted??? Cherry on top. It added so much suspense and really illustrated the flirtation/ descent into madness.

There definitely was violence and demonic possession. I didn’t see the ridicule of Christianity (and wouldn’t have cared if it was there tbh.) My only issue is that I didn’t love King’s use of racial slurs. It made sense when the hotel used them and I could halfway accept that. Capitalism is an incredibly racist system and is violent- emotionally and physically- to Black folks (understatement). It makes sense that the Hotel, the symbol of capitalism here, was verbally violent to our main Black character. The other uses just felt out of line considering the author is white.

I wish that our main Black character, Dick, had more purpose in the book than guiding Danny and saving him and Wendy. It felt like he was just a tool for Danny’s development than anything. He’s a cool character and deserved a little bit more.

I will say, this is a book that I was pleasantly surprised lives up to its hype. I’m excited to watch the movie and see how it matches up. Also apparently there’s a sequel? I’m thinking of checking that out too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bushrasbookbabbles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

very different than the movie and while I appreciate both forms of art I understand why some changes must be made the shining just wasn’t the right book to make a movie there was too much importance on what was going on in the heads of the characters. Also king was weird again, he mentioned tits way too many times in ways that meant nothing. I was really just sad for Jack the whole time. I understood his rage and the shame and the desire to be better but also to be respected. Poor guy :/ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

iamthelizardqueen's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Finally picked this up and just devoured it. Excited to watch the movie and find all the differences. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ten_telegrams'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

breama2022's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bookworm5041's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

alaskan_bull_worm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

My first Stephen King book! What do I think of it? 

I really liked the beginning and middle more than the end. I can’t really explain it, but I wasn’t as sucked in. I feel like I end up rushing near the end of a book just because it’s in sight. 
The disembodied style of the nightmare sequences weren’t as effective as they could have been. I think the looking-into-characters’-minds had the highest quality writing. (I’m not saying King was horrible in other ways. Just that you win some, you lose some.) The huge violent scenes near the end didn’t work as well with me, is what I’m trying to say. I really don’t know why. I guess my previous point was really the “why.”
I loved the parts where we get into Jack’s mind to see his slow degrade into madness (or loss of self-control, or the hotel taking over him, whichever way you see it). It was interesting to see his perception of his father shift later on. He kind of changed the story of why his father did what he did. 
I have mixed feelings about Wendy. Her personality was kind of just “mother and wife,” though she certainly was a round character. I guess it’s just that near the end we see how strong she really is (willfully, mostly) compared to her more empty threats to Jack during their relationship. I mean, Jack did lots of bad things, and she was always upset about him doing that, but she rarely did much about it. I guess I like her? 
So . . . yeah? Altogether it’s a pretty good book that I guess I’d recommend. I am likely to read more King in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

reed_ing's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

abithoughtful's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

2.5

I so wanted to love this, and I did find it reasonably enjoyable but I do feel it could have been 200 pages shorter and been just... better. I saw the film first and I definitely prefer the more in depth character study the book gives us, and I also enjoyed that the nature of the haunting of the Overlook was less abstract and more coherent, and the symbolism is much tighter, but during the last 100 pages I found myself skimming through the padding (which I think is King trying to build tension with limited success) to get to the real meat. Not enough dense emotion for my taste in horror, verbose with too much mundane filler between the scares. It was fine but if this is among King's best regarded works then I'll be sticking to other writers. Also super male gazey (Wendy is a well rounded character but her breasts are not relevant to the story, Stephen) and racist as hell.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Vomit