Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

‘Salem's Lot by Stephen King

87 reviews

epeolatrist's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Alcoholism, and Rape

Minor: Homophobia

zeldazonks's review against another edition

dark sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

This is quintessential Stephen King; troubled writer, precocious kid, a few abused/traumatised women, an alcoholic etc. So make of that what you will. I found the start pretty slow going, but once the action kicks in I was gripped. There are aspects of King's writing that I struggle with (jahoobies and liberal use of slurs) but I also love the way he writes. I feel like you really marinate in the mindsets of each of his characters and there are certain passages of prose that blow me away. So I give King a lot of free passes that I probably wouldn't if he wasn't such a staple on the bookshelf of my youth. As far as a Stephen King novel goes, I liked it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Murder, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

x_tora's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Animal death

the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

Ported over from my now-abandoned Goodreads:

Quite frankly this is my favourite King book. It's terribly bleak, but it manages to be tentatively hopeful too. The tension and the pacing kept my attention all the time, and I inhaled the book over the course of a day or so.
I found myself really, truly rooting for every one of the POV characters. It's a product of its time, of course, and features quite a few very heavy themes and detestable side characters (what else is new?) but overall this one holds up brilliantly. I know I'll be coming back to it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Alcoholism, and Rape

Minor: Homophobia

Buyer beware: This book was written in the 1970's, and sometimes goes out of its way to make snide remarks about gay people. It's almost funny how much of a non-sequitur every inclusion of homophobia is; literally none of the characters are actually gay, at least as far as we see.

eldritch_ace's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Minor: Medical content, Child abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

toastrats's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Blood, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, and Homophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Rape

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Death of parent, Violence, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

11black_cats's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.25

Very good take on the vampire trope, quite a slow burn in terms of horror but very tense. Quite long though 😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Infidelity, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

introverted_reads's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, Gore, Car accident, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Cancer

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

I love the way King creates entire communities, with fleshed out characters and history, rather than just dumping the present on us. It's so fascinating to read even the parts that aren't filled with the supernatural. If the book is about a community you can be damn sure King knew every corner of the place inside out; it teminds me of Under the Dome in that way. It adds to the tension because you know something horrifying is coming, and there's constantly something simmering under the surface while you deal with small-town gossip and secrets.

When things start to ramp up from about half way through, you can totally see the point of the slow burn until then. You've got to know all the characters just well enough to predict and dread the impending carnage.

When things do start to escalate (and it happens fast!), you can tell that making the reader informed and the victims ignorant is completely intentional; I wanted to yell at the book every time someone said "come on in" to a knock at the door, or brandished a useless gun. It made it quite fun through the tension.

I flew through the second half after savouring the first. This is definitely a classic with a proper traditional horror feel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Animal death

Moderate: Car accident and Rape