Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

59 reviews

topherisswell's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Terminal illness, Body horror, Death of parent, Torture, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, and Alcoholism

Minor: Animal cruelty

anastashamarie's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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

3.5

🏰 This feels like someone gave Stephen King the "write a popular fairy tale as a modern day story" prompt that we all got in creative writing class in high school and he just ran with it for 600 pages.

🗡️ There's objectively nothing wrong with this, expect that the pacing slow. (So slow that I--as someone who strictly listens to audiobooks no faster 1.35x because I like to be immersed in the inflection and voice acting--had to bump this sucker up to 2x to be able to get through it.) 

🐕‍🦺 Charlie is a well-rounded character, whose motivations totally hit hard...as I, too, would risk life and limb to get even just a little more time with my dog. The "other" world was as immersive as I would hope. The relationships appropriately tugged at my heart strings. And yet...

🧌 This was such a standard chosen one hero's tale. Prototypical, in fact. More a homage to fairy tales than a new and original one. At such a hulking tome from a well-loved author (who has created some of my favorite stories ever), I just expected more I guess. 

🎒 Listen, I'm not my any means mad that I read this (I enjoyed it a lot and have even recommended it to a few people already), but I also don't think it added anything to my life either. This was just really and truly fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcoholism

Minor: Murder and Torture

Old sick dog's decline described through most of the book. The dog

does not

die.

ginadapooh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Cancer, Medical trauma, Slavery, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Despite some ableism found in the villains (especially in how ugly appearances are equated with ugly personalities) and some of the reversal of the curse hinges on some disabilities being somewhat reverted, this book is still a dark, exciting reminder that sacrifice and loss of innocence is essential to creating a happy ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Gore, Alcoholism, Alcohol, War, Blood, Torture, Violence, Death, Addiction, Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, and Excrement

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Medical content, Car accident, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Animal death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Bullying

Minor: Racism and Sexual content

Be prepared for decaying bodies, half-dead soldiers, and said soldiers exploding. There is also some ableism in terms of how little people are treated in the text.

selenatothemax's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Classism, Torture, and Slavery

Minor: Excrement

cc0906's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Excrement, Medical trauma, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Murder, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Addiction, Car accident, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Confinement, and Kidnapping

caidyn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It was good, but just too long. It could have been cut down quite a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Alcoholism

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

ilmariel's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Grief

tortoisemonster's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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? No

1.0

Female characters were completely flat, they’re not much more than love interests, one character offering to “lie with” Charlie in a gesture of thanks was very off. King communicates evil characters through describing them as fat and ugly which is disappointing. I find it very odd that the main character (who is Jewish as far as I remember?), in order to become the prince that saves the day, has his hair change to blond and his eyes turn blue? Not sure King’s thinking behind that uncomfortable choice. Quite unremarkable and tedious at times but an uplifting ending to a basic fairy tale story.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Murder, Grief, Alcoholism, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Gun violence, and Murder

mandaraffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Slavery, Body horror, Addiction, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Car accident, Excrement, Gore, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Ableism, Chronic illness, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, and Incest