Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Needful Things by Stephen King

7 reviews

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Child death, Death, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, Murder, Animal cruelty, Gore, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Alcoholism, Racism, and Car accident

jordan_uhden's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Death, Violence, Torture, Child death, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

tcgarback's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: B+
Reading Experience: 📘📘📘📘(4/5)

This was refreshingly classic King, and that’s just what the doctor ordered. I loved the huge cast, small town vibes, and gradually increasing dread.

At times the satire is in full command, and other times it feels like the joke is more on King than anyone else. There’s some implausibility with the general function of the book.

You can’t think too much about the magical powers of the antagonist, or else a lot of plot holes come up, mostly around the general question, if he has the magical powers to do XYZ, why does he have to go to these lengths to get XYZ accomplished? The typical confusion you might have reading a realist book involving magic. There’s also a dullness that comes with an antagonist who can see the future and is generally omnipresent, but then makes dumb mistakes and is eventually brought down pretty easily—especially given the ridiculous resolution of the climax. Why solve the main conflict with an out-of-place plot twist only Dark Tower fans would understand, let alone appreciate, and give literally no explanation as to what’s going on?? And then the book ends three pages later…huh? Except for this failure to stick the landing, act three is solid.

So anyway, if you get over the silly stuff like that (and I found this relatively easy to do) this is deviously fun and cozily nostalgic.

But of course, because this is classic King, there is some problematic stuff to shift through: fatphobia, casual racism, and homophobia are the most obvious ones here. I also hate that the protagonist is a cop.

This one also lacks scariness, but honestly, there are very few King books that scare me.

I loved the unexpected twist on the meaning of the title at the start of Part Three. I loved the colorful assortment of merchandise and their respective human flaws (addiction, chronic pain, grief, materialism, loneliness, lust, etc).

To wrap things up, I loved that this was a nice and long deep dive into another small town falling apart, complete with a balanced ensemble cast and an increasingly complex web of subplots.

Not in my Stephen King God-tier, but not far below it either.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

hschlecht's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Sexual content, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Torture, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Drug use, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

smithreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug use, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Car accident, Excrement, and Sexual content

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Racism, and Mental illness

readwithbells's review against another edition

3.5

Genuinely a fun time, love the focus on the characters and the atmosphere for the first 4-500 pages was super unsettling I absolutely vibed. The ending is soooo stupid lmao (I’m always surprised when King’s books turn out to be Christian fiction??) and the copaganda goes hard. Also everything was going fine until we find out two characters are gay (obvi the only LGBTQ+ characters in the book) and they’re also both pedophiles 🙄 Stephen. Come on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Animal death

btrz7's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt