Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Outsider by Stephen King

72 reviews

somebodys_fool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.25

Should have had my King bingo card ready for this one 😅

SK is a comfort author for me at this point. There were some parts of this book that would make it an immediate DNF if written by an author I'm less familiar with. The random Spanish words/phrases spoken by everyone else in the presence of the one Latino character? 🤨 "Considerable bosoms" and mild fatphobia? 🤔 Plot and setting exposition blurted out by characters in phrasing that wouldn't make sense coming from someone of that demographic? 😂

And yet, I listened along anyway. This definitely wasn't one of my favorites, I think he could have better developed the premise. But the idea of a  shapeshifting serial killer is pretty spooky, and I appreciated Holly's point towards the end that a supernatural explanation isn't any less plausible than whatever reason a human being might do something so horrible as to maim and kill a child. This did make me want to read more Holly content so I will likely be checking out the Bill Hodges trilogy next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Fatphobia, Racism, and Alcohol

c4rn4ge's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

jessicaapenny21's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, and Murder

witchleaves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

loudonuts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

without a doubt, THE OUTSIDER is my favourite stephen king book. so many elements of this story kept me on the edge of my seat, and just when i thought it might be over, it got worse. the story was fast-paced, but not enough that you feel like you can’t connect with any of the characters (holly is now one of my favourite women in literature). even though it does peter out slightly towards the end, the suspense and horror in this book is impressively immersive. i highly recommend you go into it as blind as possible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Grief

crbowman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

blueowl2ivy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Gun violence, Rape, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Dementia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

flower674's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I would give this book a five star rating. I thoroughly enjoyed it beside from the fact I felt after about 85% (kindle reader) it dragged on a tad. Regardless of this the story was still enthralling. 
As a neurodivergent person I particularly enjoyed the surprise of the character holly towards the later part of the book who strikes me as neurodivergent.

I found myself feeling extremely empathic towards Terry Maitland throughout the book who I felt was a very likeable character and I felt he was innocent from the beginning which I think is deliberate to build your empathy and emotional response o the novel.

I did not feel that the ending was rushed at all in comparison to some other reviews and can’t really figure out where this opinion came from tbh. I’m just thrilled that they were able to

clear Terry’s name. I did find the paranormal side of the book a bit of a surprise and not what I expected. And although I loved the story I wasn’t sure about the situation with the worms at the end and felt it might have been a little OTT?!

Regardless I would recommend this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Violence

pipinghotbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I watched the HBO mini-series before reading this book and I really enjoyed the series. That was a few years ago now, but I think I liked the series a little bit better than the book, IMO. 

Personally, I think the book worked the best before the supernatural elements played in, which is odd because I really liked that part of the show. But I do want to re-watch the show just to see how it holds up to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Gun violence