Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Under the Dome by Stephen King

31 reviews

brookebatesratesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Car accident, Drug use, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Suicide, Gore, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Vomit, and Violence

anne_marie_samp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Drug use

jrocbutterfly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

A beast of a novel even for King's standard of writing long books, this one comes in at over 1000 pages. But even with its length   the momentum of the book is high paced and doesn't seem to have the mid slow that other long books can have. Though there is a supernatural or otherworldly element to the story.  The real horror of Under the Dome lies in what happens when humans are put, quite literally, with their backs against the wall.  When the outside world is unreachable people's true since of morality comes into play. The scariest part is seeing who rises up as heroes and who rises up as monsters when their is no one to hold anyone accountable.  And how humans truly can be the masters of their own downfall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Racism, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicide, Animal death, and Death of parent

It's a horror novel. Be prepared for scary things and scary people.

hocuscrocus's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.5

I finished this book out of spite, I'm not going to lie. Even when this was published, Stephen King had been in the game far too long to lean on his tired shock value routine. The acts of fictional characters do not reflect on the author, but the author's choices on how those acts are told certainly does in this case. It's lazy storytelling at best.
For a man who has made money offering advice to writers, you'd think he'd a) understand how human beings speak, b) put some respect into writing women, c) learn how to tell a shocking story without slurs, random gross out "humor," and graphically described sexual assault.
This book is a remarkably weak story hiding behind cheap, edgy humor and good worldbuilding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Excrement, Addiction, Suicide, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Child death

andrewbarzal's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Potential Spoilers:

Worth reading if you can stomach some rather intense content. The climax of this book genuinely astonished me, but unfortunately I found the ending a bit weak and drawn out. The “man behind the curtain” if you will, was a tad on the predictable side of things which made the reveal less impactful than it could have been. 

The strong point of this book for me was its characters, specifically its villains. The main bad guy in this book is FUN to read, and he has stuck with me, which is much more than I can say about the main Hero who is sort of your standard chill/cool badass with a dark past who is competent and likable. He serves his purpose in the book well enough, but I found myself wishing I was reading about more colorful characters whenever the book spent much time with him. 

I thought more could have been done with the town. The decay took place over the course of just a few days if my memory serves me, and I just would have liked a bit more sociological content. I think King took a pretty straightforward approach with how the town would react to the dome which is fine, I just wanted a bit more spice I guess.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Parts were genuinely hard to read, and the bits about Big Jim’s heart condition made me squirm and still make me squirm today!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

becky_97's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

*light spoilers below*

I went into my read of Under the Dome well aware that Stephen King is a phenomenal writer, and that thought was upheld as I dove into over 1,000 pages of well-built tension and horror in a story where, after a mysterious dome locks the townsfolk of Chester's Mill away from the rest of the world, everything starts to descend slowly into carnage and chaos.

Under the Dome is a monster of a book, but each of the well-written chapters fleshes out the cast into a believable collection of townsfolk, each of whom gets to tell their story throughout the novel. Having such a massive cast for a book seems daunting, but their stories and the stretch of their lives before the start of the fateful October Dome Day makes them feel real.

It's a brilliant book that made me sad, thoughtful, angry, and downright disgusted at times. Stephen King has such a talent for writing antagonists, and 

when a murderer isn't the most morally grey character,

you know quickly that this town is doomed.

I wish there were more to the ending. The book is well-written and drawn out, but the last few pages fly by. Overall, though, Under the Dome is another of Stephen King's masterpieces, and I imagine it'll stay with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Gore, Car accident, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Addiction

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Racism, Fatphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Rape, Racial slurs, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Addiction, Biphobia, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexual assault, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Chronic illness, Ableism, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Antisemitism

necrophilia, cancer, brain tumor,

bittie_bee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

What a very stressful ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Terminal illness, Confinement, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Bullying, Death, Murder, Rape, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Car accident, Cancer, and Child death

braveprincess11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.0

It was… fine. Gratuitously violent, wayyyy too long, and the “reasons” were ridiculous. I have never written a CW list this long, and I hope to god I will never write one this long again.

Stephen King could’ve made a point here, but he threw it all away for some

goddamn fucking aliens

so, overall, the book was just… meh 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cursing, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cancer and Vomit

seidrulf's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Car accident, Animal death, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Religious bigotry, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Cancer, Bullying, Alcohol, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Suicide