Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Carrie by Stephen King

80 reviews

jaedia's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A nice quick read and a classic for a reason, Carrie tells the legendary story of Carietta White, the daughter of a crazed fundamentalist Christian woman who is fiercely bullied at her high school and the repercussions this life has. 

Only lost points because the random mid-sentence thought brackets were very off-putting, occasionally would switch scenes with absolutely no indication towards doing so, and the numerous references to racist caricatures (while yes, a result of the time period) were unnecessary and gross. I'm aware these kinds of things come up in King's early books but they very much do affect my ratings. 

Otherwise, enjoyed the reading experience immensely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Death, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Ableism, Antisemitism, and Body shaming

sylvester749's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

 king's writing style was there from the get go (if you ignore the many other non-published non-novel writing he did before this), and its interesting to see how confident his prose is right away (including his less than savory ways of describing people). really liked the epistolary structure of it - the build up to the actual event was incredibly tense and well paced, especially since it lived up to the hype. overall very strong, very sad, and very engrossing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Bullying

Moderate: Rape, Car accident, Sexism, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

macabrebookwitch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I haven’t read really any horror novels before, so thus begins my goal of reading every stephen king book in release order. As it’s the first book, I was a little underwhelmed. I also didn’t expect to feel so bad for Carrie,

honestly like getting me to think the town deserved it. Or at least, her bullies and mother did.

I want to watch the movies now, but I’m cutting King some slack since I know its the first one. The religious trauma is strong in this one. I also feel like there are some questionable phrases and themes in this book (although I know it takes place and was written in the 70s, its not much excuse). But I trek ever onward through King’s bibliography. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Abortion, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

onyxisalive's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

There are some things about this book I really loved. Stephen King does an amazing job showing how

badly Carrie was treated by both her mother and her peers, it makes you feel really sorry for her and definitely makes you root for her

- making the book much sadder. 

Sue Snell and Tommy

were both very likeable characters-

it was so nice to see Sue try and redeem herself and get Carrie to fit in and the others to accept her. It is so sad that these attempts were inevitably destroyed by Carrie’s peers that refused to let her grow effectively pushing her past the breaking point.

However there are a couple things in this book I didn’t like one much more serious than the other. 
The pacing of this book felt a little all over the place- it starts off relatively fast paced. However when reaching to the main event of prom night it ends up dominating the majority of the book and just feels to slow. With some scenes being retold multiple times from different perspectives- it was a nice idea but ended up making it feel a bit tedious to read.

One thing however that really left a bad taste in my mouth was the way violence against children (not Carrie) were glossed over and normalised.

The violence of the sheriff (slapping) two kids that were just traumatised by seeing all the people they care about die, was completely glossed over and not even discussed- which is really disgusting- the author made no attempt to communicate this was wrong just completely glossed over it. The second is discussed, but the conclusion to this is completely disgusting. When the female teacher is violent with Chris her dad threatens to sue (obviously), however the violence of the female teacher is excused by effectively saying that it was okay because Chris has done horrible things. It is true that Chris’s violence with Carrie is inexcusable and deserves punishment, but none of that is a fitting reason that hitting a child is ever okay.

The fact that it is treated like it is leaves a disgusting taste in my mouth and is completely inexcusable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Car accident, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

jessenicolas's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is Kings first book and it isn't scary by any means. There's no monster waiting in the sewer or under the bed, it's just what one human can do to another and I enjoy it. Its not perfect but it's good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

ereich_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

jem_carstairs's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book started off quite slow but it didn’t feel like an issue, but even when I was told it would pick up in the second half it felt quite repetitive. We were given the same information from sometimes three or four different perspectives at times.

Additionally, there were a few passages I felt belonged on r/menwritingwomen

All that said, I did enjoy Carrie - it was a good introduction to Stephen King - and I probably will go on to read more by him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Bullying, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

Minor: Rape and Sexual content

egbarnes19's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, and Sexual content

danicampbell0506's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Racial slurs, Cursing, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

hoey_girlboss_queen's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Blood, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming