Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

54 reviews

marleens's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? No

4.0

For some reason I had completely missed the fact that this is a thriller instead of the horror I usually read from Stephen King. Not that I don’t enjoy thrillers, but they can be a bit hit or miss, especially police thrillers like this one turned out to be. Luckily we also got the POV of the villain of the piece, which made all the difference. If we had only stuck with Hodges, I might not have enjoyed it as much. I did miss King’s usually horror writing a bit but I had a good time with this one and might continue the series later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Car accident, Violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Vomit, Incest, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

reeltomi's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Racial slurs, Violence, Animal death, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Incest

aspenleaf23's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Incest, and Racism

berlylovestoread's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Not horror but horrible characters. Racist words. Scary and creepy but not monsters -- just human monster and others trying to stop the bad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

celina246'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

if you came here looking for a SK book because you're familiar with his work, you probably know what to expect. if you aren't - it's an excellent crime thriller, grabs you and doesn't let go til the end. but it's a veeery dark ride, full of gore and hatred and shock value (only thing stopping me from giving it a 5), so proceed with caution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, and Body horror

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, and Incest

Minor: Body shaming, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Bullying, Classism, Antisemitism, Pedophilia, and Vomit

idk_indigo's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

Okay, guys... hear me out but... I think the character Jerome might be black... I could be wrong though, please don't cancel me

Mr Mercedes was my first finished Stephen King novel, and I think maybe a combination of the very white author constantly using racial slurs and the very white narrator constantly saying them, just turned me off so much. I felt like Jerome could not be mentioned once in the entire book without reference to the fact that, yes, he's black. But wait, guys, it's okay that he's black cause he's applying to Harvard and Yale. Like, everyone who meets him points this out and it's constantly brought up as, like, part of his character and I genuinely don't think "Jerome" was ever alone in a sentence without "black." Like, girl... 

Sort of similar to Hodges being fat, though there weren't so many comments about weight, but like I don't think I've heard so many fat jokes in a single book before. Like, Hodges fucking hates himself and cannot even talk to his girlfriend without being like "Woe is me, I'm so fat, how could you ever love me?" Or to his neighbor Jerome without a couple self-deprecating jokes about needing to lose 50 pounds. And like how old he is, too, but then he mentions being 62 at some point and I'm like, where is the old?? I felt sort of like Hodges was meant to be a grumpy old man character-turned heartfelt fatherly figure bc of the love from his community, which we all know I love <3 Maybe this trope doesn't work too well with the genre because I was like, girl shut up, you're ugly. And fat too, apparently. Don't care. I hated his character, he drove me nuts & was hella sexist and even openly admits to not taking women seriously because they're "crazy" and women. Then at the end he

fucking has a heart attack, probs because he's so fat

The villain/antagonist/perp (not too familiar with the genre, so what's the correct term here?) was I think influenced by like Ted Bundy and other serial killer types, complete with killer Freudian mommy issues. He was very unlikable, which I guess is one thing King did right bc I am sick and tired of these characters being "undercover misunderstood good guys." 

Overall.... idk what to tell you. I'm glad I tried out a King novel. However, I believe I will stick to girly horror from now on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Incest, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide attempt

Minor: Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, and Stalking

poorlyassembled's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Incest

pringlet95's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Incest, and Panic attacks/disorders

eadrianschmitz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I don't like the way he writes about the female characters, and if you can get over the unrealistic progression of the plot, it's a pretty good story. Two minor things from the first scene that drove me crazy: Costco doesn't have bags, misuse of the term "baby mama". Can recommend audiobook. Great narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Homophobia, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Addiction, Body horror, Classism, Genocide, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, Fatphobia, Medical content, Blood, Biphobia, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual violence, and Vomit

I don't like the way he writes about the female characters, and if you can get over the unrealistic progression of the plot, it's a pretty good story. Two minor things from the first scene that drove me crazy: Costco doesn't have bags, misuse of the term "baby mama". Can recommend audiobook. Great narrator.

popsan27's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Incest, and Racism