Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Firestarter by Stephen King

17 reviews

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Cursing, and Grief

hyacinthed's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Complicated feelings on this one.

Strengths:

• Strong worldbuilding (as always)
• Great structure
• Solid development of Charlie/decent development of Andy
• Dude putting on lingerie and jerking it to a garbage disposal. Lit.

Difficulties:

• Literally everything relating to Rainbird. The overt racism in his characterisation (yes it was the '80s, no it has not aged well), the literal pedophilic overtones of how he thinks and speaks about Charlie.
• The homophobia sprinkled throughout.
• The constant fat-shaming of Andy after he blows up on thorazine (we get it, he's fat, you don't have to remind us once a page).
• The lack of resolution of Vicky's death - I was hoping for some kind of reconciliation/closure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Murder, Suicide attempt, Torture, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Stalking, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Homophobia

bookwormloverofbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

jonssweater's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Death, Gore, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Murder, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Racism, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Eating disorder, Transphobia, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Pedophilia and Racial slurs

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I’ve had a Stephen Long phobia my whole life. This the first book I’ve read by him. It was so good! Excited to read more of his works now. Still a bit trepidatious, but much more open minded now for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Confinement, and Kidnapping

nishidake's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Grief

summboo's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Murder, and Forced institutionalization

The book did not live up to its hype in my perspective

ripxw's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Racism, and Kidnapping

tfredenburg's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

1.5

It seems that reading many of King's old works is a balancing act between great story concepts and highly-fraught execution. I cared about Charlie, and I wanted to see what would become of her, but that meant slogging through some truly horrendously racist, sexist, homophobic, fatphobic (etc.) material. And I don't mean these were small, annoying lines; I mean John Rainbird is a Native American character portrayed as predatory and frankly inhuman. It was this book that made me decide to let King's older works lie (aside from maybe Carrie, which I'd still like to visit.) I haven't read any of his newer stuff, so I can only hope this tendency has vanished.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Suicide, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Homophobia

traceyanderson's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs