Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Desperation by Stephen King

6 reviews

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

lolra's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

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

zakcebulski's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

I am so fucking glad that I have had a redemption arc with Stephen King. When I started reading his works I was not super thrilled with them, and admittedly did not care for a handful of his books. However, recently, I have been burning through his stuff.

This book takes place in Desperation, Nevada off of U.S. Highway 50, or... the most lonely highway in America.
The story starts off wit ha series of character introductions in a series of vignettes which introduce the main cast of the Carver family- Ralph, Ellen, David and Kristie, Author Johnny Marinville, Johnny's assistant Steve and his friend Cynthia, Paul and Mary Jackson.
The are all accosted and arrested under extremely dubious means by the terrifying Collie Entragian and are locked up in Desperation.
This plot, to me, is immediately interesting and gripping. It is up to the characters to not only escape their imprisonment, but also to escape Desperation and the Terminator-like killing machine that is Entragian.
I have to say that the atmosphere in this story is absolutely fucking amazing. I think that King did an exceptional job at making this whole town feel like a cat and mouse game wherein there is a maniacal killing machine.
The desolation of the town is due to Entragian killing all of the other inhabitants of the town. There is a feeling of mystery in this book as we do not know whether Entragian is going on a killing spree because of dual personalities, or something else. In fact, King does a wonderful job of laying down red-herring breadcrumbs that will lead to the reader wondering what in the fuck is going on.

The violence in this book is extremely vivid and is written in a way by King that masterfully conveys the brutality of each of the kills. I think that this helps illustrate truly how dangerous the killer is. I also love how it gradually becomes more and more clear that something more than meets the eye is ravaging the town of Desperation.

One of my biggest gripes with King's works is his characters. Starting off I did not like many of his fan favorite characters. The Creed family, Paul Sheldon, many of the characters in It ... however, in this book, I actually quite liked everyone. I thought that they acted more or less believable in spite of the circumstances.
I liked how each of them felt like a character who was experiencing growth. Especially Johnny Marinville. While I did feel like his change of heart was like... very sudden, I still liked that he went from a egotistical dirtbag to a guy who was willing to indulge in reformation.
The biggest issue, to me, with this book is that it felt a bit like The Stand - lite. Like, it is a fight between good and evil, but without the super virus. I liked the infection aspect of it, as it called to mind The Thing but, I just wish that that was played with a little bit more. I felt like the whole idea of God being used as a means to win was the point of the book, but, I still didn't love it because I felt the tension ebb away. I suppose I can't be too upset as King literally has a kid who is a hyper-Christian as a main character, but, I just felt like I saw the ending coming from long before it happened. 
I thought that the history of the story was truly very interesting. I liked the worldbuilding that King added to here, and, when I go and read more of his works I am interested if any of these aspects will be incorporated in to his other books. 

I am glad I overcame whatever differences I had with King and am now a fan of his! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, 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