Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

The Green Mile by Stephen King

17 reviews

sweetlilly93's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Look, is it a perfect book? Of course not, it's written by Stephen King. 
Did the story suck me in until the very last word and had me staring at a wall for two days (in a good way)? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Torture, Excrement, and Car accident

lay_kone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Grief, Violence, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Rape, Racism, Car accident, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

megbroache's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Hate crime, Car accident, Homophobia, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Rape, Racism, Cancer, Physical abuse, and Pedophilia

btrz7's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Blood, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

a_augustine12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The Green Mile was a fantastic book. However, because it’s not typically the kind of story I read, I struggled through it. The movie is practically spot on, and I will continue to watch the movie again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, Car accident, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Body horror, Cancer, Grief, Rape, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Murder, Torture, Hate crime, and Death

gudrqa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Animal death, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

tifftastic87's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It feels slightly odd to give this a five start and then say it's not my favorite book by Stephen King, but here we are. I genuinely do think that the Green Mile is one of King's greatest books and it is a five star read for me on this second time around. This one always stands out to me because it is one of the rare cases for a King work where the movie holds up for me. That being said I do have some criticisms.

I really wish the only black character in the book hadn't been King's typically magical being and that we didn't have to have him be magical for his incarceration to be in question. I do like that King made some comments early on that minorities in prison are rarely given the same freedoms, or excuses, or even pardons that white people are. But some of the use of Coffey in this story is hard to hear because not only is he incredibly large, he's incredibly dim witted. He is simply a being of instinct with a deeper sense of the world than the rest of us. He is almost childlike in some aspects, being afraid of the dark, not being able to tie his shoes etc. It is uncomfortable at times to hear it that way. 

The other thing is that listening to it as an adult versus reading it as a teen I really wanted Paul to stand up to Brad a bit more. There never was any consequences for him and that just didn't sit right with me. But then, rarely are there consequences in life. 

Criticisms out of the way, the episodic writing really made the whole feel of the book different than most other King books. Usually we sit with the main character for half to two-thirds of the story before anything really happens and we just get to know them. But with an episodic story like this, you have to get to know them organically and to me that really felt like Paul was sitting down and telling me the story of the fall of 1932 on the green mile. It felt comforting, like a story my own grandparents would have told me around a campfire. Apart from all the brutal murdering that is. 

It really felt King did some work here to make criticisms of our prison system, nepotism, and, of course, capitol punishment. There is some light commentary on how race plays into a lot of these things and I think for a book published in 1996 by an older white man, that is maybe not as common as it would be today. While the commentary was clunky and not without it's fair share of white saviourism, it was nevertheless, at least broached. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Cursing, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Cancer, Child death, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, and Car accident

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism

mmadill227's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racial slurs, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Sexual harassment, and Rape

Minor: Animal death

leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Gore, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Confinement, Terminal illness, and Violence

littlelili1320's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

I went into this knowing very little & I was not prepared for cajun prison Ratatouille or to have any feeling of joy completely obliterated. I struggle to review some of King's books because they're overall fantastic but there's issues such as race & misogyny that aren't handled as well as they could have been. However, are they handled as well as an old white man who grew up in a state with like one black person could handle them? Probably. In his books I've read with black characters in them it's evident that he carries some white guilt & tries to be antiracist, but due to his background he tends to rely on tropes. He also wants to make things "realistic" when it comes to small town life & how awful people can be, but that can lead to slurs & the like which may be unpleasant or triggering.  I have to knock off half a star when his books are like this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, Child death, Car accident, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence