Reviews tagging 'Death'

Firestarter by Stephen King

27 reviews

laurzj82's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bella613's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

jazhandz's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book essentially has four types of scenes: action, good guys, bad guys, and weird interactions between the good and bad guys. I happen to like these four scenes and think this was done decently well, although the first half was stronger and I would happily chop 70-odd pages out of the middle. It’s fine! Perfectly serviceable King book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

- adult/minor relationship insofar as Stephen King-typical adult men having feelings for little girls - eye horror and gore - medical experimentation - police brutality insofar as a government agency threatening civilians; it’s not the actual police but it checks a similar box imo - if you are afraid of snakes think twice about this one - King-typical racism ableism sexism etc throughout. the transphobia is only tagged bc it is, somehow, plot relevant.

superiour_medium's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

She do be starting fires

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

mainereading's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.5

If you are a fan of Kings' other books, The Institute or The Shining, you will probably like this book. Also, if you love the TV show Stranger Things, you might enjoy any of the Stephen King books I just mentioned! I wasn't a big fan of the ending of this book. It left me with lots of questions I won't get answers to and a broken heart, but despite the ending, I enjoyed the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

ddrosche's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

hyacinthed's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

Complicated feelings on this one.

Strengths:

• Strong worldbuilding (as always)
• Great structure
• Solid development of Charlie/decent development of Andy
• Dude putting on lingerie and jerking it to a garbage disposal. Lit.

Difficulties:

• Literally everything relating to Rainbird. The overt racism in his characterisation (yes it was the '80s, no it has not aged well), the literal pedophilic overtones of how he thinks and speaks about Charlie.
• The homophobia sprinkled throughout.
• The constant fat-shaming of Andy after he blows up on thorazine (we get it, he's fat, you don't have to remind us once a page).
• The lack of resolution of Vicky's death - I was hoping for some kind of reconciliation/closure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Pedophilia

Minor: Homophobia

bookwormloverofbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I've had this book on my shelf for so long and I finally read it! I was debating whether to give it a 4.5 or a 5 star, but I did really love Andy and Charlie, so 5 it is :))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pedophilia and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism