Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

36 reviews

rosiecake666's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.0

I loved the characters and plot of this. Stephen King is one of my fave authors so I love majority of his works. This has to be one of the best gothic vampire horrors I've read in a while 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Child abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and Alcoholism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

laurenkristine's review against another edition

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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Homophobia

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Excellent writing, and the slow pace is absolutely a plus- like building an intricate domino structure before knocking it all down. Found myself particularly attached to Mark. King has a knack for portraying humanity at its most grotesque that is more fascinating than his monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Car accident, Grief, Sexual content, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Ableism, Islamophobia, Transphobia, War, Bullying, Medical content, Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Excrement, Addiction, Rape, Pedophilia, and Abortion

pussyslayer3000's review against another edition

dark 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? No

1.0

Hated it. Pure disappointment. I had high expectations but it ended up being just boring as hell. Needed to force myself reading it till the ending. Literally one of the worst books I ever read, even though Stephen King is a great author. Wouldn’t recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Animal death

How he writes about women and describes minor girls is disgusting

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Wew this took me (what felt like) a while. My copy also had Jerusalem's Lot, the short story, in the back, which I didn't actually read. I think I'll appreciate it more if I read it as part of Night Shift. 

I enjoyed this overall, it had the spooky small town vibes I was wanting and it was interesting to see King's take on vampires. I surprisingly enjoyed the priest character, and the exploration of faith and the concept of evil. The other characters were fine, although I wish Susan had a little more to her.

The pacing towards the end was a little odd, though admittedly probably partially because I didn't expect the last 150 pages to actually be a short story and deleted scenes. The build up to the 'big thing' at the end felt a little drawn out, with the end its self feeling almost rushed. But considering its length, it rarely if ever felt like a drag.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Gore, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape

jaedia's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

 Took much too long to get going though King's writing has a way of making nothing seem readable. There were pages that simply detailed what different families were having for dinner. While I can respect this was to effectively show the slow death of the town, some of it was just boring. Also would be remiss not to mention the sheer amount of homophobic slurs in the book. And this was clearly written when King had a very bleak outlook of the world.

That all said, I did enjoy reading it. The writing was enjoyable, the story compelling, and the dread creeping. A nice dark vampire horror story of a town's slow, sleepy, bloodcurdling death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Transphobia, Suicide, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

kaythebee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing

georgiaaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Rape, Infidelity, and Sexual violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

mojavetent's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Cursing

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence