Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

15 reviews

drewanslee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, and Drug abuse

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

A bit of a slow burn, for a book called ‘The Exorcist’ i was surprised that only the last chapter actually dealt with an exorcism, but this was still a great book to read and definitely deserving of its horror classic title. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

gnraud's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.5

Very, very good book. It's very intense and it's a lot more graphic than the movie in a lot more ways. If it were a direct movie it would be NC-17.

Read it when you have plenty of time to put the book down and process what you just read; in a place where no one can glance over your shoulder and see obscenities; and nowhere near mealtimes. 

I recommend reading an ebook instead of paper, if you can. This has some pretty intense vocabulary ("inchoate presentiment", anyone?) and it would have been very helpful to be able to define them quickly. There are also some snippets of other languages (ie, Latin during liturgy) and I'm sure it would be much easier to translate in an ebook! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Deportation

stobblin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

There's a reason why this is a classic and it showed by how easy it read and how compelling it was.

However, it very much is a product of its time and while I generally appreciate darker themes and shocking scenes in novels, some parts felt shocking just for the sake of shock. 

I'm glad I've read it at almost 30 and not at the first time I picked it up when I was 19.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Alcohol

devynvictoria's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. I am not a fan of The Exorcist movie, but I was recommended the audiobook multiple times so I finally gave it a try. It was great and the narration by the author was amazing. I love how much he fleshed out the characters before everything starts to go down hill— it made you really care about what was happening to them. The downsides were that I absolutely couldn’t stand the officer, and the ending was just a really underwhelming ending for a book that had been so enjoyable up until then.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, and Vomit

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death

thespencerj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

grapes666's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I was surprised by my love for this. The author is a fantastic storyteller 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

There’s an infamous scene where a child is forced to inflict a pretty upsetting act and it’s basically impossible to appropriately and accurately describe in trigger warnings. So, WARNING WARNING WARNING

bearystarry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

Very similar to the movie, which isn't a bad thing. The antisemitism was ... gratuitous and unneeded. Other than that and a few other brief things I enjoyed this a lot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racism

looneysoysauce's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Antisemitism

thereadingdude's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Excrement, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol