Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

49 reviews

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.

book_garden's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Death of parent, and Murder

maddieloves_books1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

paperbackanggo's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

mlebarrow's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

ripxreads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Car accident

Minor: Suicide attempt

I very rarely post spoilers even if it’s a TW, but there was a scene in here that is making me break that rule: there is couple pages in the book that involve killing a child that has a developmental disability. It is very graphic and leading up to the death it’s rife with ableist abuse

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

mackenzievirginia's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Grief

caidyn's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Actual rating: 3.5/5

I did enjoy this book, and I'm excited for it to become a trilogy, as Goodreads proudly tells me. I can see from the ending how it's going to work, but only to a certain extent. King's going to have to work some magic to drag the story line out that far, though. I would have been fine with it ending at this book, but I'm interested in finding out just how it's all going to work out in the end. Just feels like it would have ended nicely here.

The characters were the usual King formula to me. My favorite was Mr. Mercedes, to be honest. I would love to read a book all about him. Everyone else was just kind of bland to me. I expected what they were going to do, same thing with Mr. Mercedes but reading from the killer's perspective is, to me, ten times more interesting than reading from the good guy's because all the do is hunt for the killer. The killer is doing whatever he feels like doing most of the time.

I also enjoyed Holly. She was fun, seeing her grow a backbone that her cousin Olivia never grew. Jerome was a nice character as well. A bit like how many teens are with computers these days. Hodges was okay. As I said, I expected what he was going to do each and every time because there's not much he can do besides hunt for that dastardly bad guy.

I'm more looking forward to see how they're going to be further developed because it's obvious that they're all going to be back in the sequel. The ending practically proclaimed it. It's going to take quite a bit to keep it interesting besides the plot. The plot is what caught me with this book, really. Mercedes Killer. And now he's back to taunt the officer who had tried to get him. I came for the story, not the characters, if that makes any sense.

The romance, though, was unneeded. With how Hodges was searching so hard for Mr. Mercedes, it wasn't needed to add in a romantic interest that was connected with it. There was no need for it besides to make you become more attached to him, and then to make you be sympathetic towards what happened. Still, relationships and romance have never been my thing, and I don't see a point to them unless that is literally what the book is going to solely focus on or if it's something really gradual. Which this book had none of my exceptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Car accident, and Death of parent