Reviews

Das Spiel by Stephen King

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aralizca's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

jamie44's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

aydon's review against another edition

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5.0

i find it so interesting how king can make these grand, sweeping and epic stories with dozens of pov characters that quite comfortably fill up 1000+ pages, and then he can go and write a story like this. jessie is stuck in this bed, with nothing but the voices in her head, painful memories, and visitors that may or may not be real. it's raw, completely fucked up, and i love it. i'm a sucker for any heavily psychological story (in other words, any story where you get to spectate a literal or unconventional therapy session). this might be some of king's best work when it comes to character and description, and after reading 31(!!) of his books, i can say that jessie might be his most well-realized yet, at least at this point of his career. my only gripe, and this could change with time or a reread, is the ending. it's surprisingly long, and some of it kinda drags. it is growing on me the more i think about it, though. i'm sure the same will go for the rest of the book, and i already love it. can't say that the ride wasn't taxing, but i hated to get off it all the same. can't ask for much more from the king

9/10

bonus dbd section: bhvr put space cowboy in the game pronto

rowanbooker's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

hailbop97's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

frankikaos's review against another edition

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4.0

I started to read the book in light of the Netflix adaptation being made and read through half of it before I decided to watch the film - I feel that that helped me gain a deeper appreciation for the source material.
Even when writing from a female perspective, Stephen King is an absolute master - yes, there are bits in the book that make you feel uncomfortable (and even a couple of parts where I had to put it down and go back to it later) but I feel that that just goes to show what a fantastic writer Mr King is.

exorcismemily's review against another edition

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4.0

Gerald's Game is...a lot. This book joins the club of great books that you only need to read once. It was horrifying, and entirely too graphic, but it was still a good story. It was actually almost a 5⭐ book for me, but I am not a fan of how it ended. I felt the same way about Dreamcatcher - I liked the book itself, but there was too much effort put into wrapping up the ending, and the final reveal seemed unnecessary. I would have been okay with it being a little more vague (usually I'm complaining about the opposite haha). Anyway, I thought it was good, but it was also disturbing, gross, and graphic.