Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

30 reviews

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

rit's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

The first part of the book was qinteresting and cozy, but the second part was long, slow and everything happening was not interesting (to me). I've really enjoyed the first part and I forced myself to finish this book just because it's a book from Stephen King (an author that I love) but, clearly this was not a book for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

stephanieluxton's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.25

This is the 13th Stephen king book I've read and I have a lot of feelings about it.

I didn't really like it.

The premise of finding a door to another world isnt an original concept, but it's a great concept because the possibilities are endless. Maybe that's why I'm so disappointed.

Stephen king tends to write books with settings so rich they almost feel like characters themselves but I didn't feel that way in this book. It wasn't as immersive as I'd hoped.

The pacing of this story was off and it felt bloated. We don't find out about the fantasy world until we are basically a third into the book. i actually enjoyed the beginning act because there was a lot of mystery and anticipation and the relationship between charlie and Howard was wholesome, but it could have been shaved down. A lot of it wasn't necessary. Same with the events that follow Charlie's encounter with the night soldiers - it just felt so long and lackluster. This book felt like 3 different stories squished into one. 

The tone of the story was off for me. It's fantasy but I wish it had more horror elements. Charlie finds himself in dire situations but I never felt like he was in true danger. There was very little fear. Part of this might be because he is telling the story in past tense. So we know he is going to be okay or else he wouldn't be telling us the story. There was a few times when I wish the fantasy world was scarier, kind of like the world in From The Light of His Lantern by Abe Moss. There were also a few times when I thought this story would be excellent if Adam Nevill wrote it and made it spooky!

The general plotline was kind of ridiculous. No 17 year old would put himself in danger for the reason charlie goes to the fantasy world in the first place.

I did really like Charlie as a character. I enjoyed that he wasn't totally pure and good. He was capable of violence but trying to do the right thing. Not everything was super easy for him and he had to be witty. This also felt like a coming of age story as well where Charlie has to sacrifice and grow. His character development was good.

The climax was basically non-existent. The ending felt too easy. I was excited for the book to be over. There was bits of political commentary scattered throughout the book which I especially didn't like because it was totally unnecessary.

The narrator of the audiobook did a great job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Murder, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Police brutality, Drug use, Cancer, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Torture, Slavery, Body horror, Cannibalism, Bullying, and Terminal illness

Minor: Incest and War

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Medical content, Racial slurs, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol and Torture

Minor: Sexual content and Rape

elmcee's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Torture, Alcohol, and Addiction

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

wrestleacademic's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Body horror, and Animal cruelty

jennymaarika's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, Gun violence, Vomit, and Car accident

Minor: Animal cruelty

gingerhalfling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.0

Can definitely be a challenge to get through the slog in the middle. It helps of you think of it as 2 books published in 1 volume. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Endangerment of animals, specifically a dog

spaceykate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

despite my initial misgivings about this being a s.king book, i actually found myself really enjoying it. there are a LOT of references - some oblique, some literally spelled out and quoted (from fairy tales to modern movies to even a name drop of obama) - but i'm a nerd who absolutely loves linking things to other things i already know, so i got over it. although s.king reaaaaally drawing out the jack in the beanstalk and rumpelstiltskin metaphors for 600 pages did get a tick tiring.

part of me was a little "meh" about

an outsider coming in to save the royal family / the world from physical disabilities and his greatest success was not having any disabilities plus being a good ol' midwestern farm boy who was good at football, combined with certain individuals having to "overcome" their disabilities to reach true character potential... it just felt a little eeeeeh to me as someone who has struggled with hearing loss, like damn guess i need a perfectly "whole" human to save the day or to magically somehow overcome my disability to kill my demons /eyeroll

. i really liked charlie's whole "i'm a dark boy" internal narrative because 1) it was funny. this kid is like, 17. from bumfuck illinois. it's not hard to rise to the top when you've only got like 150 kids in your graduating class. and he's so fucking serious because he had to grow up too fast and it's like goddamn whiplash to read a book about a kid who would be your age in your timeline dealing with this shit but also talking about touching boobs. lmao and 2) finally! an idiot (affectionate) protag who thinks they're an antihero! much better than the alternative. it definitely endeared me to his character more that he thought he didn't deserve any of this opportunity to experience and save another world beneath ours, that his past made him unworthy and he had to hold up an imaginative bargain that was never decided upon except in his soul. 

i feel a little cheated because the cover definitely looks like a dragon eye and we didn't really get a dragon in this book (fight me, that one scene was not equivalent - it was an eldritch being) but! i forgive s.king.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Blood, Physical abuse, Car accident, Alcoholism, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty and Ableism

i need to make this absolutely clear: the dog does not die in this book. IT GETS KINDA DICEY in a few spots but the dog survives the whole book.

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? No

5.0

Fantastical. Magical. Unbelievable. Amazing. Wondrous. Delightful. While this isn’t a book I would normally chose, I absolutely fell in love with a young man named Charlie and the pet he didn’t choose but came to love anyway. Too complex for me to even give a synopsis of, I’d just say if you want to read a book about adventure, read this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Body horror, Cancer, Murder, Rape, Bullying, Death of parent, and Violence