Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Gunslinger

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

8 reviews

prinsessenora4's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Very interesting and well written. Quite slow paced (in my opinion). I liked the complexity of the characters and setting, and the deterministic feel of the story.

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lvl52_grant's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

This book is by far the oddest of the series, but sets you up for one of the greatest stories told. A mix between western, fantasy, and horror, King builds up and tears down and builds up again his protagonist, Roland the Gunslinger. He travels through a desert at the end of the world, watching people and places slowly decay, never letting anything prevent him from achieving his goal: the Dark Tower. I first read this book as a 19 year old, a number of importance to the series, but I had never read this second publishing. Some of the newer details felt odd, like sprinkling fan-service-y cameos, but it still sets up the protagonist and reader for their journey to the Tower, answering no questions and asking many.

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vermispore's review against another edition

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adventurous sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

A really good book if you like Stephan King and can tolerate high fantasy that doesn't explain much right away. Well written and a fun read, but its the kind of book you love or hate.

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ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

2.0

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theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

My spouse is going to hate when I tell him I didn’t love this book. He thinks The Dark Tower is the greatest series of books ever written, but book one didn’t do anything for me.

Was it well written? Debatable. Stephen King is a great author and I’ve loved many of his other books, but The Gunslinger isn’t one of them. You jump around a lot between the present and the past, and it was all very confusing for me. It felt like the book had absolutely no flow. Maybe the series gets better as you go but I don’t know if I’m interested enough to read 7 more—and most of them very long—books to find out.

Dystopian and apocalyptic, everyone and everything is dying. A very hard existence in an unsavoury world filled with violence and death.

I also didn’t like a single character.

And literally every character you meet dies, except for Roland, so don’t grow attached to anyone.

Jake, the boy, was a confusing addition. Where did he come from? Our time? How did he get there? Why is he there?

And Roland’s love for and eventual betrayal of Jake was just the worst.

Alice was needy and clingy and portrayed to be ugly due to a facial scar and her age. (40s???)

Sylvia was just a horrible excuse of a human.

The people of Tull all sucked.

But the battle of Tull was hands down my favourite part to read.

The Man in Black… I don’t even know what my thoughts are on him. He was very cryptic and I felt like because he only starts to speak at the end of the book I didn’t get to know him.

I’ve read it. I can say I’ve read it. It wasn’t for me. Might be an unpopular opinion, but there it is.

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