Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Desperation by Stephen King

11 reviews

wimzie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Racial slurs, Racism, and War

zone_a3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Gaslighting

nicoletiff's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

tifftastic87'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? Yes

5.0

On an isolated desert road a couple is pulled over by the local police and take into custody. The cop himself is a little off and Mary and Peter Jackson are feeling decidedly uncomfortable. The Carver family has all four of their tires blow out on the same stretch of road, a local cop tells them someone laid a strip of nails in the road and must be out there still, he takes them to the local town for safety. Johnny Marinville, author, is on a cross country tour on his Harley when he is stopped for public urination on a stretch of desert highway. The cop, formerly Collie Entragien, is no more and what he is now is horrifying. What follows is a wild ride of survival, religion, and terror. Bloody, visceral and emotionally distressing the unlikely group must cut off the source of Officer Entragien's demise, or die trying. 

On a re-read this book hit me so much harder than the first time around. I was disgusted, horrified, frustrated and felt tears welling at multiple times. The characters all work so well together and their interactions and inner monologues really led the story. Within the genre this is a five star for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

thecoolestmoe'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent

starfiadh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The first Stephen king book I ever read and, despite reading it every year since, I never remember the ending. The relationship with god/religion is very strange and intriguing to me, and even the bad or slightly more boring characters get me interested in them at some point. Weird book. I liked it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Racial slurs, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Drug use, Sexism, Mass/school shootings, and Sexual harassment

violetturtledove's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This one gets started with the tension pretty quickly, there is a creepy and unsettling atmosphere right from the start and the characters come second. Not that the characters are bad, but there isn't the usual depth of backstory that I usually notice in King's books. There's plenty of gruesome body horror in this, and although the creepy atmosphere dies down a bit by the end, the ending at least feels satisfying (endings generally being a weakness in King's longer books).
Ultimately is I don't think it's going to be one of my favourites but i DO want to look up 'The Regulators' which is a companion book to this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs

goodolmc's review against another edition

dark medium-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

marleens's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.0

This book was a wild ride. Lots of gore and violence, but also a great setting with a lonely highway and a creepy desert town. As usual with King I loved getting all the different POVs. There were a few character interactions that I didn’t like, but most of it was great, and of course it’s always a good time when a group of strangers has to band together to defeat the forces of evil. The weird language that is often used by the evil in the book did confuse me sometimes, I wonder if I was supposed to understand it, maybe it’s references to other King books I haven’t read yet? Something else that should have bothered me was the major theme of religion. Lots of God and prayers in this book, and I would normally have stayed far away from it, but weirdly it worked well in the story and with the characters, and didn’t bother me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Xenophobia, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

tle_1994's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Murder