Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

20 reviews

thematicaudience's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

One of my absolute favorites of Stephen Kings novels, especially due to its introduction of one of my favorite characters of his, Holly Gibney. Not only that, but the mass murderer is very well written, and realistically at that. Not to mention how many twist and turns kept me engaged and loving every second of the chase.

That being said, there were a couple too many slurs being thrown around by Brady Hartsfield for personal comfort, even though they had purpose in showing his character, especially aimed at poc throughout, and disabled people later on in the novel. Holly Gibney also does not show up until about 2/3rds of the novel is done, and female love interest leading up to her arrival I did not find nearly as remarkable. Her character was bland and while I was surprised by her sudden death, I could not say I was necessarily upset by it.

 
I also am in general not a fan of sex scenes, and the ones in this were particularly hard to sit through, though skimming helped, however that may be personal preference, and they at least served a purpose.
However, ultimately, the whole thing was incredibly enjoyable and a favorite of mine. Definitely a great start to a trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Almost all horrific acts, ableism, racism, etc are done by the main antagonist or those related to him, though there are minor instances of ableism and fatphobia put forward by who we are rooting for.

theimposter's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty

booking_along'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

first read: 2016 - 3⭐️ a bit slow and unevenly paced and i didn’t love it.

second read: 2023 - 4.5 ⭐️
it’s still a bit bumbling in some places for me - i can see what i disliked in my fist read BUT  i was in the right mood this time apparently because this was great! 


i really enjoyed this! 

after that rather brutal start, the book slowly builds up and up and up and ends in such a fantastic way and even ends in a way that the reader can decide if the want to continue on with this series or not because this book actually closes in a way that works as an ending. 


i really enjoyed the characters - how dislikable the bad guy was (who gets a point of view so it’s not a “who dunne it!”) and how i slowly throughout this book i started to like Hodges. 

but i really loved the side characters in this! Jerome? great characters! and Janey was fantastic and i really love Holly! 


what i disliked was the strange sexualisation that happens in some strange moments in this book. 
the stuff with the bad guy was just …. yuck but okay he’s clearly not a good guy anyways and it adds to the whole character of how horrendously unlikable and disgusting he is. but i just didn’t need to read about it. 
the character would have been just as disgustingly unlikable and horrible without those unnecessary moments! 


but is it necessary to point out the breast of women and how they look? or how someone wouldn’t expect to have a sexual relationship with someone because they are heavier or even fat simply because they are that body type? 

why even include those things then? 



also there is a tone throughout this story that has a good amount of racist and fatphobic comments - mostly done by the bad guy but they are there. 



so i can see why i had issues with this book before because there a things in this book that are noticeable and can be grating outside of the actual main story plot and could have easily be done differently and be done better with those changes. 


but i still enjoyed this book and what the actual main plot done here! i liked how the story build up to the big finally and how it ended! 


it’s a good story, it has flaws and is not for everyone but i really enjoyed it this time around and can’t wait to continue and get more from those characters -especially the side ones!- in the next one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Fatphobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

lillyrose97'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

melodyseestrees's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

 If there is one thing Mr. King excels at it is writing absolutely unlikable characters. Even characters that should be likeable largely have aspects that can make the reader dislike them. In some chapters this worked well and framed the event how each character saw them clearly. In other chapters the reader became enmeshed in a slog of diatribe that was a true chore to get through, even in the audiobook format. 
If you are fond of Mr. King's other works and characters you will probably like this. If you are coming in expecting a typical thriller you will not enjoy this as much. For me, despite my casual familiarity with several of King's works I found it difficult to get up to the 40% mark in the book. To the story's credit the pace does pickup upon the changing of a key character or two somewhere around the 50% mark.

The pace picks up after the death of Janey.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, Racial slurs, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Fatphobia, Sexism, Car accident, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

There is an adult/minor relationship between Brady and his mother. He claims to have been a victim of a different adult/minor relationship during his psychological torture of Olivia.

isabellaoliveira's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Misogyny, and Racism

seraxiel87's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Incest, Car accident, and Alcohol

zara89's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug abuse, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

keen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Excrement

ackr3's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

A good read and something slightly different from Kings other works. I am interested in reading the rest of the series to see if we get more growth of the characters or if it'll feel like a novelization of a police procedural.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Addiction