Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

9 reviews

imstephtacular's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

I keep reading Stephen King because he's a hell of a storyteller. This story is GOOD. The writing is compelling, the pacing keeps you wanting to turn the pages, and the characters give you whiplash rooting for and against them. 

That being said, I didn't love the first book in the series, but am glad I continued.

However, this book is dated in a lot of ways. There are outdated slurs of all kinds and horrible ableist language. This is hard to overlook, despite the book's publishing date. I can forgive some of it, but not all of it.

Overall, I had a great time reading this and will continue reading the series over time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Hate crime and Islamophobia

misfitnightmare's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Cringed a lot for unnecessary use of n slur in the book. Plus it seems that S. King didn't do very good research about mental disorders because Odetta doesn't have schizophrenia, she has DID. Other than that it was better than the first book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

thecandiegirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

gethin_burke's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence

littlered22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Very slow start but the ending picks up and I'm pretty excited for the next one based off the ending of this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

lvl52_grant's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

This one feels much more ... natural? modern? Than the first. The first book of the series feels odd, but this book just moves a bit better for some reason. It's when we meet two more of the party of heroes on the quest for the Dark Tower, and two of my favorite characters. It's also when we learn of the interconnectedness of our world and that of Roland, particularly with New York City. 
It's also the reason lobsters kind of scare me now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, and Car accident

bluejayreads's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

This was a weird reading experience. I’m reading this series more to talk about it with a friend than because I want to read it, and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have continued after The Gunslinger. This book does get more into the action, so it felt less like an extended beginning and more like an actual story. At some points it was even enjoyable. 

Roland spends this book going back and forth through doors that are only half there to collect the three people the man in black told him he needed. These three people are in our world in different times. There’s Eddie, a drug addict who’s on his first smuggling run when Roland meets him and who quickly became my favorite. There’s Odetta, a black amputee and two different varieties of racist stereotype. And there’s Jack Mort, whose section was fairly enjoyable even though I spent the entire time hoping that he would not have to end up joining the group. 

That’s pretty much the plot. There’s an overarching plot of Roland has an infected injury and is trying to stay alive and the three shorter plots of what’s through the doors and trying to get the three people to join him, tied together by sections of walking down a disturbing beach. It is slow-paced, but it’s interesting enough, and compared to book one it’s absolutely action-packed.

It was true of book one, and only got more extreme in this book, but The Drawing of the Three falls into one of my biggest complaints with adult fantasy-adjacent books: relying on grossness and bodily fluids to portray “realism.” There’s a lot of urine, feces, sweat, pus, saliva, and all other kinds of disgusting liquid-ish things that the human body can produce. I know that it is realistic, but personally I read for fun and prefer all the gross stuff to be sanitized by the lens of fiction. I’m aware this is a personal opinion, but if bodily fluids make you squeamish you may want to skip this one. 

I was also pretty weirded out by the preteen girl masturbation scene and the guy who orgasmed by murdering people, but it’s not like Stephen King has never written creepy sexual scenes before, so I guess that’s a risk you take when reading his books. 

When I finished this book, I was really ambivalent about reading on. Even though this series isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, it’s a little too slow and gross for me. This series was starting to feel more like an obligation than anything I particularly want to read. But my friend who’s also reading the series gave me a spoiler for future books that makes me more interested in reading on. So I guess I am continuing the series after all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Blood, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Medical content, and Murder

Sexual content involving minors, mind control, someone inside your mind without your consent

luciawolfie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

In this book the POV is switched between characters... a lot, slowing down the action in doing so. And while in some parts it is an effective tool to increase suspense, like in the plane scene, making it feel claustrophobic in a way, in some others it just frustrates the reader, like in the shot-out with the drug dealers. In that specific case, the POV changed every few lines from one character to another, and each new change begun with repeating the events we learnt about from the previous voice. It slowed down what was supposed to be an action packed scene, not in a good adrenaline-infused-slow-motion, but in a "will you get on with it already?". In the latter chapters I find that this problem is not so prevalent, probably because there are less characters to switch but also because the author does not repeat the same info while switching from one voice to another anymore.
Another reason why I felt a bit weird about this book is

why the character of Odetta/Detta. It is just weird to me. I am by no means an expert on Dissociative Disorders, but the way she is presented... it does not sit right. It is like a stereotype  of  Jekyll and Hyde but because she is a woman we have to add a Madonna-whore complex. The way she is sexualized is also a classic instance of Men-writing-women. The description is just weird... and kinda fetishizing her dark skin as well. And why was the n-word discussion necessary in the least?

I am very disappointed because otherwise I really enjoyed the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail