Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Talisman by Peter Straub, Stephen King

3 reviews

matthewosborne's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? N/A

4.25

There are parts of this book that I loved and parts that I found difficult to follow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Gun violence, Child abuse, Death, Body horror, Terminal illness, and Torture

impasta_syndrome's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

I read this after Fairytale, hoping for another interesting portal fantasy. Throughout the book, I felt it was overall repetitive and filled with characters I didn't connect with. I felt the side characters were more burdens to Jack. They weren't fleshed out, it felt more like they were inserted to stall Jack on his journey than show real connection and character growth. Some of the dark themes seemed... unnecessarily masochistic? TW: child molestation. We get it, the roads are dangerous, but why did we have to encounter so many people that wanted to abuse Jack? Throughout the book, Jack was looking fondly back on The Territories, but for what? It was just as terrible of place as the horrors of the real world. This is one of the first portal fantasies I have read where the portal universe wasn't enjoyable. There was no end to misery.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Pedophilia

Minor: Chronic illness and Death of parent

tifftastic87's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.5

A chosen one, a quest, an evil uncle. 

Jack Sawyer is the kid all of us in the 90s played pretend at. We were given a magical quest by a mysterious traveler and there were to be no shortcuts. Jack's road is a bit darker than I'm sure most of us pretended, it is a King story after all, but it is both a coming of age tale and a chosen one quest. Being able to flip between our world, or the 1980s version of our world, and a parallel one called simply "the territories" Jack is special because he doesnt have a "twinner" and thus is single natured. His whole goal is to save his mom, and her twinner the Queen of the Territories. Everything tries to stop him. Nothing is easy and he wants to give up many many times. But he presses on. 

I loved this as a teen, I loved it just as much as an adult. I sobbed, I laughed, I rooted for Jack and shouted at the villain. I would definitely read it a third time. 

However, there are some questionable themes. Jack is only 12 and he gets beaten, propositioned, exploited and stalked. He is set on his mission by a common trope of King's "the magical black man." These things are hard to listen to and some made me cringe pretty hard, but the story itself is worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Slavery, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Stalking, Body shaming, Body horror, Confinement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Child death, Chronic illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, War, Police brutality, Addiction, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, Rape, and Sexual violence