Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Gunslinger

Very interesting and well written. Quite slow paced (in my opinion). I liked the complexity of the characters and setting, and the deterministic feel of the story.

Content Warnings

vermispore's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A really good book if you like Stephan King and can tolerate high fantasy that doesn't explain much right away. Well written and a fun read, but its the kind of book you love or hate.

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diegor's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Sarà molto probabile che dovrò tornare sui miei passi per cambiare il voto che sto dando in questo momento al primo capitolo de La Torre Nera. Da non lettore di King il libro si è subito presentato come molto impegnativo da leggere e comprendere, di sicuro non è una di quelle letture che prende per mano e cerca di spiegare quanto più possibile in modo chiaro e cristallino.

Passato questo scoglio iniziale e cambiato approccio alla lettura, lasciarsi trasportare dalla prosa di King diventa immediatamente un’esperienza unica nel suo genere, magari non per tutti, ma certamente indimenticabile per quelli che potrebbero apprezzarla.

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lindseylosers's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Not for me.
The ending did start to pick up though and I enjoyed that. This is the first Stephen King book I’ve read and I’m not sure if this is common across all his writing but the female characters are rough. Instead of the classic madonna-whore complex, seems like King has a demon-whore complex where women are either demons or whores or both, there’s no room for traits outside of that limited spectrum. I’m not the type that has to have every female character break gender molds or be saints but the demon-whore depiction of women in The Gunslinger becomes distracting when all I can think about while reading is what Stephen King’s relationship was like with his mom.

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wager5290's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

It's the start of The Dark Tower. It stage in tremendously but is definitely a different beat from the rest of the series. Don't cast off the tower on this book alone. If you hate the main character in this book, give the next book (Drawing of the Three) a shot at least.

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zmac808's review against another edition

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Didn’t check content warnings. My own fault on this one, the story itself was highly recommended so I neglected my own due diligence.

Detailed & graphic SA with a firearm. Inserted into pregnant woman as she begs for her unborn fetus’ (demon child but even still) life.

It is entirely plot related and necessary and if you can stomach it, Stephen King is a phenomenal visual writer but I personally can’t handle it to that degree.

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ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

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theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

2.5

My spouse is going to hate when I tell him I didn’t love this book. He thinks The Dark Tower is the greatest series of books ever written, but book one didn’t do anything for me.

Was it well written? Debatable. Stephen King is a great author and I’ve loved many of his other books, but The Gunslinger isn’t one of them. You jump around a lot between the present and the past, and it was all very confusing for me. It felt like the book had absolutely no flow. Maybe the series gets better as you go but I don’t know if I’m interested enough to read 7 more—and most of them very long—books to find out.

Dystopian and apocalyptic, everyone and everything is dying. A very hard existence in an unsavoury world filled with violence and death.

I also didn’t like a single character.

And literally every character you meet dies, except for Roland, so don’t grow attached to anyone.

Jake, the boy, was a confusing addition. Where did he come from? Our time? How did he get there? Why is he there?

And Roland’s love for and eventual betrayal of Jake was just the worst.

Alice was needy and clingy and portrayed to be ugly due to a facial scar and her age. (40s???)

Sylvia was just a horrible excuse of a human.

The people of Tull all sucked.

But the battle of Tull was hands down my favourite part to read.

The Man in Black… I don’t even know what my thoughts are on him. He was very cryptic and I felt like because he only starts to speak at the end of the book I didn’t get to know him.

I’ve read it. I can say I’ve read it. It wasn’t for me. Might be an unpopular opinion, but there it is.

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