Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Shining by Stephen King

36 reviews

elikapaarnia's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Gaslighting

housedesignerking's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. That was better than the 1980 adaptation.

The book and its adaptation have the same synopsis: Jack Torrence has lost several jobs because of his anger and his drinking. He's given up drinking, but he still lost his job as a teacher because he punched a student. A friend of his has called in a favor to get him a job being the caretaker of a large hotel in the mountains of Colorado in its off season. Danny Torrence has a special gift where he knows things and learns things without even needing to be in the room. He can hear people's thoughts (like a hilarious moment where he knows a middle-aged woman is lusting after a 20-something male's behind), and according to a nice man named Dick Halloran, it's known to some people as "shining." At least that's what Dick's grandmother called it. They used to have lots of conversations by simply thinking to each other. The hotel is basically haunted by an evil presence, and a man named Delbert Grady did his immediate family in by way of murder/suicide.

The book is a brilliant work of fiction, but I did have an interesting time getting used to King's writing style when it comes to when a character is thinking or when Danny's supposedly imaginary friend was talking to him. In books by other authors, a character's thoughts are italicized. King chose to put thoughts and other voices between parentheses. Interesting choice. The cast did a good job putting the movie together, but the script leaves a bit to be desired. I've seen the movie twice now, so I suggested to my fiancé that we read the book. This is the first Stephen King book I've ever read, and it's so good that I enjoyed it because this could have been very unfortunate. One of the joys that a movie watcher has is being able to point out the differences between the movie and the book. There are a lot of differences. For one, Ullman is a nice man in the film, a total jerk in the book. For another, the movie's ending and this book's ending bear no relation to one another at all. Further, they left so many things out of the film. After reading this, I still consider the 1980 adaptation to be a 3-star film, but the book gets 5 stars. The last 90 pages of this were just epic!

Now, I await the 1997 adaptation to come in the post. I've heard it's closer to the book than the original.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Cursing

Moderate: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Addiction, Infidelity, Medical content, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Murder, and Biphobia

melsage1823's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Since Doctor Sleep is one of my favourite horror movies I thought it would be fun to check out the shinning duology starting with the shinning and I can honestly say I'm pretty impressed.
Before I get to what I liked it pains me to talk about my dislikes. If you are Black, Lgtbq+ or Disabled do not read this book as a mixed Raced Lgtbq+ Disabled person I couldn't be more ashamed with Mr King. There were so many unnecessary times where the N word was used, ableism was used to show how hot headed Jack is and there was the F slur in a couple of times. This is suppose to be a horror novel not a alienate your margalized. I get he wrote it at a time where it was acceptable to write those things but he should have at least released it for modern times. Swearing fine but any time a slur was spat out it took me out of the story which I'm afraid is why I have to knock a star off.

Other than that it's a brilliant novel and wasn't what I expected at all. The build up to Jack losing his mind is absolutely fantastic, you completely end up feeling sympathy for Wendy and Danny and Jack himself. It suburts the humanising an abuser trope and makes Jack a complex character with lots of depth. The pov chapter format was absolutely amazing as through having every chapter be from one characters perspective it allowed for great character development and build up which made the powerful ending even more emotional than it already was. Without going into depth spoilers this novel levels you uneasy, horrified, relived and hopefully all at the same time. The way King writes his horror allows for a clear description and picture of what's going on. I thought the lady in the Bath tub was creepy on film but reading this book proved me wrong.  After reading this incredible novel I absolutely want to read Doctor Sleep. Definitely recommend if you want to read something spooky during October.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Ableism, Child abuse, and Addiction

pjsans's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Alcoholism, Violence, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Racism, Racial slurs, Death, and Physical abuse

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

5.0

A well crafted novel. They aren’t made quite like this anymore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Cursing, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Alcoholism, Confinement, Blood, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Ableism, Murder, Death, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Addiction

Moderate: Car accident, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit, Suicide, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cannibalism, Colonisation, Slavery, Genocide, Child death, and War

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

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

Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, Sexism, and Misogyny

milohno's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Violence, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Mental illness

Minor: Death, Homophobia, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, Confinement, Fatphobia, Blood, and Cursing

vivireads99's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Addiction, Racism, Violence, Animal death, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Sexism

ninah17's review against another edition

dark slow-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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Suicide, Death, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Death of parent

he_slaughtered's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

this was unnecessarily racist and sexually explicit. uncomfortable in the way that it didn’t have to be, and shouldn’t have been. i hated the use of white characters saying racial slurs, or even anyone in the book for that matter, seeing as stephen king is a white guy. there’s some sexually explicit scenes which where wholly unnecessary, as well as perverted descriptions that don’t add anything to the story. why are there graphic descriptions of the male characters genitals (including the child’s)?? why is every male character commenting on the female characters bodies? it’s just uncomfortably sexual and perverted and racist. i’m sure there’s better horror out there that doesn’t do this. this is the first and only stephen king book i’m gonna read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Racism, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Religious bigotry