Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

23 reviews

kaimetcalfe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Gore, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Car accident, and Sexism

Moderate: Excrement, Cancer, War, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Pedophilia, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

gflechas's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? No

3.5

The book is strongly influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula, and is pretty transparent about it in the into. I walked away feeling like I listened to "Steven King does Dracula" which for me was a positive. King goes his own direction with the ideas and makes them his own. I had fun and would recommend it, though there is not the same hope to be found in Salem's Lot as was found for Mr. Harker and his band of heros.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Addiction, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Blood, Drug abuse, Rape, Violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

Review of my Reread of Salem’s Lot

By: Stephen King

            Ben Mears is a mildly successful author, who hasn’t been back to his child home, Jerusalem’s Lot, in years, but he is still haunted by sneaking into the Marsten House and seeing the ghost of Hubie Marsten.  Now, Ben wants to exorcise his demons, but this time a new demon has arrived in the Lot intending to sink his teeth into this town and make the place his playground.

            Stephen King knows how to weave a good tale as he gives his own take on the vampire story. He knows how to build the tension and make it seem like things might be fine for the characters until the horror starts happening.  Just like in Needful Things, and IT, King establishes the town and residents slowly giving the reader all the gritty details about each of the characters. In this case, it helps hint at how the vampire will lure them, relying on their selfish desires.  One character, Dud Rogers is a hunchback and is constantly mocked and ridiculed, and the vampire promises to take this away and make him more attractive.  He seduces his victims by promising to fulfill those desires.  A serpent hissing in their ear, so to speak.  If you hated, or at least are tired of the craze of romanticizing vampires this probably more of your kind of vampire.  Barlow lurks in the shadows, hypnotizing his victims, but not lusting after them like in a lot of YA vampire stories.  He sees them more as puppets and you get to see him luring them in.  That’s something I wished Dracula had more of, but Dracula in the end was a heroes’ story. All the vampires in this are scary. He also describes the victim’s humanity dying in detail that is sad for those who love them and haven’t been bitten yet.  but I do wish in one scene, where our heroes must stake a vampire that is connected to one of them in a more personal way, I would like there to have been a little more to the scene.  Like the vampire trying to convince person to join them as a vampire I normally enjoy exposition scenes when shit hasn’t hit the fan just yet, but there were a couple of times when the characters were talking and wasting time.  There was a scene where our heroes seem to have forgotten they don’t know where Barlow is, and he already warned him what he would do next now they have pissed him off. It was hard to also read about the baby that was being abused by its mother.   There is romance, but it didn’t really get me in feels, but it was cute.  It sad with what happens with the couple.  Ben Mears is likable and flawed main character that is deeply affected by trauma in his life already, but Mark Petrie is my favorite. His bravery and acceptance of the situation is admirable, and he has a confidence of having a better understanding of things without being cocky about it.   Despite him being 12 and me being 33, I related to his personality more than the other characters, though Matt Burke is a close second.   I also like Father Callahan, especially since he is a priest, who doesn’t act self-righteous and is a man with faults making a far more interesting character. This vampire story kept me turning them pages and wanting to what was going to happen next.  BTW, I personally think this is one of his good endings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Racial slurs, Violence, Addiction, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse

zone_a3's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Stalking, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Blood, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Sexual violence, Bullying, Car accident, and Alcoholism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

caitlin1066's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.5

I didn’t really like Misery so I was quite nervous to read another Stephen King book, especially with the amount of pages that Salem’s Lot has. But I actually enjoyed it, the middle part of the book especially. Unfortunately, I do feel as though the end is rather lacklustre and the last 150 pages or so are rather boring, but it was still an enjoyable read with some scary moments in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

miagw962's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

There is no life here but the slow death of days, and so when the evil falls on the town, its coming seems almost preordained, sweet and morphic. It is almost as though the town knows the evil was coming and the shape it would take.

My third Stephen King book and one of his popular ones - had no idea what to expect getting into this one only to find out it was VAMPIRES which is great because I read Dracula and loved it (I need to get more into vampire stories I think). This was really great; a little long and strenuous but the characters King creates feel so real and their fears become my own. The sense of atmosphere built up around the town itself was so interesting and not something you come across a lot in fiction about monsters. It was really set up to be a haunted house story but ended up being about vampires which was cool. I love how the three Stephen King books I've read utilise the monsters as metaphors, usually for a loss of innocence or childhood trauma. It's super thought-provoking but I will not get into it now because I need to be in the right headspace. But yeah, this was fun!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Death of parent, and Child abuse

theboywithallthekeys's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Body horror

Minor: Child death and Gore

maddycumerlato's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I started this book knowing that for many, it was considered one of King’s scariest novels to date. It definitely delivered in that respect. Never have I felt so unsettled and afraid for fictional people before.

Ben Mears and Mark Petrie (and Matt Burke, Susan Norton, Eva Miller, Weasel Craig, Matt Ryerson, among others who fell victim to ‘Salem’s Lot) will forever have my heart and hopes for safety in their fictitious universe… as crazy as that sounds.

Whenever I open a Stephen King novel, I know I can expect amazing worldbuilding, amazing characters, and amazing plot movement. Salem’s Lot gave me all three of these with no giant flaws in the way of me enjoying the HELL out of this book

(even as a person who just can’t get behind stories about vampires… I’ve tried. Not usually my thing)

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My 5 star read for this Halloween. Truly chilling, just as you’d expect it to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexual assault

finn_vibing's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Homophobia