Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Firestarter by Stephen King

28 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

itsbahb's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

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

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

I've had this book on my shelf for so long and I finally read it! I was debating whether to give it a 4.5 or a 5 star, but I did really love Andy and Charlie, so 5 it is :))

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Pedophilia

Minor: Racism and Racial slurs

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Cursing, Murder, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gaslighting, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia

veronikar's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Animal death, and Gun violence

chapters_and_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was my second Stephen King book, and at this point, I’m convinced I’m setting myself up for heartbreak everything I open a King book… 

I had a feeling this book wasn’t going to have a happy ending and as much as I wanted to be wrong, unfortunately I wasn’t. Despite this, I really enjoyed this book!

Charlie was honestly adorable, I loved her and the relationship between her and her dad was one of, if not the best aspect of this book. Reading about all they went through because of The Shop just made you hope for them to escape and live a happy life even more. Unfortunately, this is Stephen King, so I’m sure you can guess how that went…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Stalking, and Death of parent

epeolatrist's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Animal death

Minor: Pedophilia

phantomgecko's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

At first I thought, oh cool retro 80s setting. Except the book was published in 1980. And man, running from the government was hard then, but imagine trying to run now.

Also, the computer usage was....amusing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Animal death, and Death of parent