Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

5 reviews

luciagr5's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

Minor: Sexism, Homophobia, and Transphobia

cass_lit's review against another edition

3.5

I would like to have a talk with Stephen King’s editor, because I have suggestions. Cut the slurs. Cut any sexual comment about an underage girl (and maybe even the ones about adult women — this man called breasts “jahoovies” MULTIPLE TIMES). Cut ~150 pages because this does not need to be as long as it is. 

I felt about this the same I do about most Stephen King books. The bones are there and so good; he’s unmatched in his breadth of horror plot lines. But my god is this long book filled with writing that you’d think was intentionally trying to alienate women, queer readers, people of color… basically, Stephen King writes for straight, white, cis men and the rest of us just take what we can get from it. I loved the vampires and the haunted mansion on the hill, just hated all the characters and the way they talked and the way they were talked about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Violence, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Fatphobia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Transphobia and Pedophilia

barrybj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Rape

Minor: Terminal illness, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Rape

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Excellent writing, and the slow pace is absolutely a plus- like building an intricate domino structure before knocking it all down. Found myself particularly attached to Mark. King has a knack for portraying humanity at its most grotesque that is more fascinating than his monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Car accident, Grief, Sexual content, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Ableism, Islamophobia, Transphobia, War, Bullying, Medical content, Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Excrement, Addiction, Rape, Pedophilia, and Abortion

jaedia's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

 Took much too long to get going though King's writing has a way of making nothing seem readable. There were pages that simply detailed what different families were having for dinner. While I can respect this was to effectively show the slow death of the town, some of it was just boring. Also would be remiss not to mention the sheer amount of homophobic slurs in the book. And this was clearly written when King had a very bleak outlook of the world.

That all said, I did enjoy reading it. The writing was enjoyable, the story compelling, and the dread creeping. A nice dark vampire horror story of a town's slow, sleepy, bloodcurdling death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Transphobia, Suicide, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting