Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

59 reviews

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

It felt good to be in the discomforting arms of Stephen King, again, and this is one of his old-school fantasy-adventure tales with the customary unexpected grit. If you have appreciated tales the like of The Talisman or The Eyes of the Dragon,--even, to a degree, 11.22.63-- this is a good choice.  If you're looking for something closer to the darkness of It or Needful Things or something heavier in character development like his Finders Keepers, Insomnia, From a Buick 8, or Hearts in Atlantis, there is somewhat less to satisfy.  This is roller-coaster King having a good time writing, throwing in odds and ends from his (our) childhood because he can, taking open shots at Disney and contemporary politics because it's fun. Enjoy the adventure, wince at the satisfying squelches of flesh, and say hello to the dog. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Bullying, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Car accident, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Torture, and Toxic friendship

mgraceoliver's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Cursing, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Torture and Slavery

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

kelisabeth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Car accident, Confinement, Fatphobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Slavery, War, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, and Violence

mitziatratum's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Ableism

bookworm247's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Addiction, Medical content, Grief, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Death

l1brarygirl's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Body horror, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Cancer, and Bullying

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Police brutality, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Cursing, Hate crime, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Grief, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Torture, Abandonment, Medical content, Cancer, Pregnancy, Slavery, Child death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

brittsbooknook's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. I've never read Stephen King as I'm not into horror but this is not horror, more dark fairy tale/fantasy.

What I liked: 
-the world building, an interesting way of looking at our fairy tales. 
-Charlie & Radar the dog! Love, love their dynamic.
-How Charlie & his fathers relationship progresses.

What I didn't like: 
-too much cussing for my taste
-some pretty vulgar phrasing at times
-the "this world's" current events/happenings being added into the story. It felt very random. It felt like they were added in so we can know the authors opinions on those things but it kept disrupting the flow of story and was distracting.

If not for my dislike reasons above I would have rated this 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Excrement, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail