Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Carrie by Stephen King

86 reviews

madsrosehea's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

I’ve always wanted to read this and I’m so glad I did. Such a thrilling, frightening story, Stephen King is the master storyteller 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was one of my spooky reads for 2024 and it did not disappoint. I have been meaning to read Carrie for a long time, and for one reason or another had just never gotten around to it. I’ve loved other novels by King (as I think we all do) and this one was no different. I thought that it was succinct, with a level of horror that didn’t need to overdo it to spark unease. I liked the perspective changes and inclusion of news clippings for reference points as well, even though this is something I don’t normally enjoy. While I didn’t love Carrie as much as I loved Misery (still my favorite King novel to date), this book is absolutely worth the read, and will leave you on the edge of your seat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

weebspec's review against another edition

dark emotional

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Violence, and Blood

shadymist's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Murder

bluestar_apologist's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nasab's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

أول تجربة حقيقية لي في تصنيف الرعب وأول تجربة لي مع ستيفن كينج. شجعني حجم الكتاب كونه لا يتعدى الثلاثمئة صفحة.
لم تكن لدي فكرة مسبقة عن الرواية، أو هذا ما ظننته حتى قرأت الصفحات الأولى وتذكرت وصف صديقتي المشوش لأحداث الفيلم المقتبس من الرواية قبل حوالي عشر سنوات عندما كنا في الصف المتوسط لقتل الملل أثناء المحاضرة التوعوية في المدرسة ☺️ ذاكرتي لا تكون بهذه القوة عندما أحتاجها فعلًا، ولكن لم تتأثر تجربتي لأن الكاتب نفسه كان يحرق الأحداث بين الحين والآخر.
أسلوب الرواية في عرض مقتطفات من جرائد وأخبار وكتب خيالية راقت لي جدًا وعززت من اندماجي.
لدي مشكلة الترجمة، هي لم تخطئ المعنى ولكنها لم تكن سلسة تمامًا بالنسبة لي ووجدت قراءة النسخة الإنجليزية أسهل، ولا أعرف ما السبب بالضبط.
نأتي للقصة،

بالرغم من معرفتي المسبقة بما سيحدث كنت لا أزال خائفة وأتمنى أن تنقلب الأحداث لصالح بطلتنا. 
كاري قد تبدو شريرة في ظل أحداث الحفل المدرسي وعدد القتلى والمصابين الناتجين عن أفعالها التدميرية، لكني لم أستطع منع نفسي من دعمها في انتقامها، والرغبة في أن تُلحق المزيد من الأذى على من تنمروا عليها. يبدو من العدل أن تمتلك هذه القوى المتفجرة لتسوية الأمور معهم، ولكنه من المؤسف أيضًا أن الأذى النفسي الذي واجهته يساوي الأذى الجسدي الذي عرضتهم له.
موقف سو سنيل الأخلاقي مهم جدًا لعرض التخبط الذي يشعر به الإنسان عند التوفيق بين المبادئ الشخصية والرغبة في الاندماج مع المجتمع. سو سنيل لم تكن لتتنمر على كاري من تلقاء نفسها ولكن رغبتها في إرضاء كريس (الشخص المهيمن في المجموعة) جعلتها فردًا من القطيع منعدم الرأي إلى أن استيقظ ضميرها وأدركت ما تفعله وتقوله. سو ندمت حقًا ورغبت بالتكفير عن خطئها بالطريقة الوحيدة التي تؤكد لها صدق ندمها. لم ترضى بعقاب المعلمة فقط حتى لا تخسر تذكرة الحفل، بل عوقبت وتنازلت عن الحضور بإرادتها. موقف سو سنيل يعطي أملًا بأن الإنسان يستطيع التغير للأفضل.

لم أتوقع أن تؤلمني رواية رعب بهذا الشكل العميق، شعرت بعدم الراحة طوال القراءة

سوى في مقاطع قصيرة من السعادة اللحظية التي عاشتها كاري قبل أن يتشوه كل شي في الحادثة التي هدت السد المتهالك الذي أقامته وأدت إلى فيضان الغضب الذي دمرها وجرف كل شيءٍ في طريقها.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Abortion, and Pregnancy

laurzj82's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

booking_along's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this reread ended in a bit of a surprise for me: i didn’t dislike this book this time around. 

when i first read this book some years ago, i got hung up on specific moments and situations in the that i think could have been done better -especially the bullying situation about the topic of becoming your  period and getting made fun of for that and that becoming the catalyst for it all. 

i still wish King could have picked something different as the big moment that it can all be pointed back at. 

but at the same time King did a pretty good job in rounding the entire situation out and building it around blood and the release of it. 


this time reading carrie, i just felt horrible for carrie and how horrendously hard her life would have been and how instead of trying to help or getting a child out of the clutches of a horrendous mother that clearly isn’t fit to be rising a child everyone overlook those things and instead just went right on teasing carrie as soon as they could. 

and in many ways sadly those things and reactions are too realistic. 

as i said i still wish King would have chosen a different starting point - i don’t know why but having a man write about a teenage girls body and her breasts and her sensitive reactions of her body in her period… that still gives me a bit of an icky feeling (King is not the only author i have that with, i have that with all (but especially male) authors that sexualize teenage (girl) bodies and describe how they look and how they feel) 

but as i also already mentioned i understand and see how it all rounds up and together, he could have done it differently and still got the same results BUT overall it’s not the worst (he still could have left out the scene werte carrie touches her breast and pinches her nipples for no reason at all?)


i do think that this book -even 50 years later- still packs an incredible punch and showing the consequences of bullying. sure in an unlikely and unrealistic way with the supernatural powers and all that but still, the bullying was the thing that pushed it all into horror. 

the constant harassment and battering, the mistreatment and abuse from everyone in carries life was sadly something realistic and i wish especially those moments would have become as unrealistic as the powers. 


overall the writing was good, the characters horrible but well writing and the story as a whole well done. 
small changes could have made it even better but those moments also added some shock or normality to the story overall.

also the ending was very well done and especially with king that’s something that can’t be taken for granted. 

i think it’s still a very readable and relevant sadly even relatable story for some people. 


and interestingly this book went from one of my least favorite king books to one of the good to better ones of him. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Sexual content, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Murder

nakole's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

𝓒𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓮 

By: Stephen King 

Thriller 

 

𝒪𝓋𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓁𝓁: 3.5/5

 

𝑅𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌:  This is the first Stephen King book I have read, I have a whole bunch on my shelf so that will soon rectify itself though. I have, however, seen several of the movies based on his books, including Carrie. The book, in my opinion, was better than the movie, as is the standard for book to movie adaptions. There is just more emotion when reading than can come though on a screen, especially for a book like this. 

 

𝒯𝓇𝒾𝑔𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒲𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈:  Bullying, death; blood; child abuse; emotional abuse; murder; violence; gore; religious bigotry; fire/fire injury; physical abuse; body shaming; domestice abuse; toxic relationships; child death; sexual assault; gaslighting; car accident; injury detail; grief

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

hiddenfallacies's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Carrie is a landmark achievement in horror for many reasons. It's the start of King's long and celebrated career, a novel that centers around women and places their pain at the epicenter of its plot, and it created a cultural memory that endures to this day - one that empathizes with Carrie rather than demonizes her. Told over three parts that function as three long chapters, the novel tells Carrie's story in retrospect through a collection of articles, interviews, and varying point of views. Going through the past, present, and future of the ill-fated prom night, the reader gets to know Carrie and all she has endured. Above all else, this novel is a tragedy about Carrie White's last hope to become a person and the ways in which society crushed that dream.

The first of the three parts suffers the most, lacking the natural momentum and masterful framing that surrounds the prom night itself and its aftermath in the story. This fact alone is what keeps this novel from garnering five stars for me. The novel is also littered with the artifact of being King's first, lacking some of the grammatical and structural prowess he cultivated over time. It's also important to note that there's a fair bit of racism present throughout the novel, dropped in small phrases and cultural references that leave the modern reader wondering if King meant to include them to indicate moral failings of certain antagonists or the time period itself, or if he simply was ignorant of certain biases he held himself. I believe informing potential readers of this is crucial, as I was blindsided by their sporadic inclusion while reading, taking me out of the story.

Although King has published better novels, as well as worse, I believe Carrie deserves a space not only on an essential reading list for King, but for horror as a whole. It remains culturally significant and moving to this day. May Carrie White never be forgotten. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Grief, Abortion, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy