Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

It by Stephen King

94 reviews

dkonstanzer's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The plot and characters are great, but the book itself (similar to many of King’s other works) is extremely slow-paced to the point of dragging on unnecessarily. The length allows for a great in-depth exploration of the characters, but there are certainly scenes that stretch longer than needed and add little to the plot. There is also something to be said about the author’s portrayal of women—this is a critique often heard when discussing Stephen King’s works, but while the women are certainly multifaceted and have diverse personalities, the objectification of Beverly Marsh specifically can be off-putting to those uncomfortable reading graphic sex scenes (I’d like to make it clear that I’m not referring to the objectification of her by the other characters, as men treating her as an object and her breaking free of those who hurt her is an incredibly poignant part of her character development—I’m more-so referring to the use of her by the author as a way to write unnecessary (and sometimes gross in the case of a particular scene from before the time skip to adults) sex scenes and the objectification of her body by the author himself). While a longtime tradition of horror in both written and visual media is the inclusion of naked and/or sexually exploited women without any sort of plot relevance, more recent takes on the genre have managed to steer away from it, so this type of content may be shocking to some who haven’t interacted much with older works yet (basically—this was written in 1986 and it shows). Overall, I’d call this a good read, and the author does a fairly good job of representing real-life issues in his characters’ development, but I’d recommend caution before diving in—this book is a beast, clocking in at over 1000 pages, and a number of the scenes can feel a little pointless and are hard to get through. While I’d definitely say reading is worth it (as it genuinely is well-crafted with deep characters and an interesting, well fleshed-out plot) it will take up a significant portion of time to read, and can at times be a bit of a drag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Cursing, and Antisemitism

graphic sex scene between multiple children

carltonatasha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

errie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pressready's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? No

3.75

I am taking away 0.25 from my review for the inexplicable gangbang of the tweens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

chillerunterwegs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia and Sexism

Minor: Vomit

martamae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, and Classism

merandferny's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? No

3.75

I don’t really know how to sum up my feelings on this book. There were some really brilliant aspects of it, but also parts that I utterly hated. 

I’ll start off with saying that in my opinion this was far too long. I’m not opposed to lengthy books, often times I prefer them because you get to spend more time with the characters and story, but this took a ridiculous amount of time to get to the point and often felt like the words I was reading were just there to lengthen the book rather than actually tell the story. There were also quite a few scenes that I found completely unnecessary, such as the sewer orgy at the end. That had absolutely no impact on the story and I think was just added as a bit of shock factor. 

I did like the main characters most of the time, though Richie did irritate me at times. The characterisation of It was also very interesting and I haven’t seen anything like it before. 

I think overall I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone unless they had an interest in reading works that are considered classics in the horror genre. If you’re just looking to get started with horror or want to read this because you enjoyed the movies, I wouldn’t recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

rnbhargava's review

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

4.5

This book’s reputation as one of the best of King’s works is very much so apparent. The minor faults toward the end are also apparent. Nonetheless, loved my time with this book. It’s downright briskly paced for a book that’s over 1000 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

All the known triggers for this book are valid in some manner or the other, these include racism, sexism, homophobia and all sorts of violence

abbytekken's review

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Murder