Reviews tagging 'Grief'

‘Salem's Lot by Stephen King

32 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.25

Usually I find Stephen king books a little slow to get into but the ending makes it all worth while. With Salem's Lot, I actually preferred the beginning. I loved reading about the characters and their small town lives in the 70's. I thought it was beautifully written and I would have been happy to read more about their day to day activities. Once shit started to hit the fan, I was interested but I never found myself feeling very afraid or surprised at any point which is why I didn't give it a higher rating.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Infidelity, Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, and Addiction

Minor: War, Rape, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

There's a dog deaty that some may find upsetting. A lot of people die but many are "off camera deaths" so overall this book isn't too explicit. There's a couple sex scenes but they aren't really graphic.

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Excellent writing, and the slow pace is absolutely a plus- like building an intricate domino structure before knocking it all down. Found myself particularly attached to Mark. King has a knack for portraying humanity at its most grotesque that is more fascinating than his monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Car accident, Grief, Sexual content, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Ableism, Islamophobia, Transphobia, War, Bullying, Medical content, Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Excrement, Addiction, Rape, Pedophilia, and Abortion

ryankaybee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Blood, Death, Medical content, and Murder

baudi_moovan's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Child death, Suicide, Gore, Alcoholism, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, and Domestic abuse

caitlin1066's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I didn’t really like Misery so I was quite nervous to read another Stephen King book, especially with the amount of pages that Salem’s Lot has. But I actually enjoyed it, the middle part of the book especially. Unfortunately, I do feel as though the end is rather lacklustre and the last 150 pages or so are rather boring, but it was still an enjoyable read with some scary moments in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Wew this took me (what felt like) a while. My copy also had Jerusalem's Lot, the short story, in the back, which I didn't actually read. I think I'll appreciate it more if I read it as part of Night Shift. 

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Gore, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape

gloombee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Classic King - a good simple spooky book. Had a lot of fun imagery - just didn't stand out as much as some of King's other works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Car accident and Grief

Minor: Medical content

jaedia's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

 Took much too long to get going though King's writing has a way of making nothing seem readable. There were pages that simply detailed what different families were having for dinner. While I can respect this was to effectively show the slow death of the town, some of it was just boring. Also would be remiss not to mention the sheer amount of homophobic slurs in the book. And this was clearly written when King had a very bleak outlook of the world.

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Transphobia, Suicide, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

maddycumerlato's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I started this book knowing that for many, it was considered one of King’s scariest novels to date. It definitely delivered in that respect. Never have I felt so unsettled and afraid for fictional people before.

Ben Mears and Mark Petrie (and Matt Burke, Susan Norton, Eva Miller, Weasel Craig, Matt Ryerson, among others who fell victim to ‘Salem’s Lot) will forever have my heart and hopes for safety in their fictitious universe… as crazy as that sounds.

Whenever I open a Stephen King novel, I know I can expect amazing worldbuilding, amazing characters, and amazing plot movement. Salem’s Lot gave me all three of these with no giant flaws in the way of me enjoying the HELL out of this book

(even as a person who just can’t get behind stories about vampires… I’ve tried. Not usually my thing)

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My 5 star read for this Halloween. Truly chilling, just as you’d expect it to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexual assault