Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Desperation by Stephen King

8 reviews

flavoredowl's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, 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

sp0okysandwich's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

kbaxter21's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I don't know what I was expecting when I first started reading this book but I wasn't ready for it to grab hold of me the way it did and make me contemplate a lot of things regarding God and my personal relationship with faith and the things I believe in. Very spooky, sometimes very deep, but with a lot of questionable writing choices and usage of some words and dated/aged badly ideas but overall, it was an addictive and unnerving read with an emotional ending (to me). I don't know, I have a lot of thoughts but they're all over the place so I can't really explain why I honestly loved this book, but I did. I'd just say, don't read if you're not up for God phenomena, lengthy info dumps, and basically reading about God and stuff. But if you are, then this book is wild, creepy, funny, and has my favorite trope ever, the found family and worth the journey of reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage