Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Carrie by Stephen King

255 reviews

heikosstories's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

2.5

My first Stephen King novel and here are some thoughts:
- This was super racist. I don't care that the book came out in the 70s. The original passages are giving me the ick and show that Mr. King was viewing characteristics of PoC as a tool to degrade his characters. Not. Cool.
- It's not scary. It had some moments that were chilling and at times I was actually quite hooked but..not scary.
- Stephen King is not a good writer. Especially for an English teacher. His writing style is very simplistic, you can either enjoy or it not, but what bothered me was the frequent repetition of the same literary devices over and over.
- This book felt longer than it should have been. This makes sense after reading the afterword: "Carrie" was originally only 98 pages long and Stephen King was then asked to make this longer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

libertymoore's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

icephoenix44's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

4.0

its okay, i guess? i will give the movie a slight edge because i think de palma directing style really enhanced my experience on the film, and the ending is significantly more powerful than the book. the book do has a part that i liked better where carrie is not your usual petite pretty girl but instead a girl that has conventionally unattractive characteristic, which makes the bullying part more moving as body shaming is something very underpresented in media and often played as a joke.

i feel like the writing style could be a little better though. some of the parts describing the female characters felt male gazey. this is also a problem in the movie, the opening scene is... yuck to say the least.

i also dont like the attempt to replicate accents, it makes the writing more weirder and clunkier to read, instead of feeling more authentic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

also i really dont think the attempted sexual assault by billy towards chris near the end of the novel really added anything to the story, i mean yeah they are in a toxic relationship but it doesnt really adds anything and fslt like a random plot point as it was not mentioned afterwards

mightyfrenchbookworm's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

3.5

C'est le 50e anniversaire de publication de ce livre et je ne peux pas dire que ça a vieilli comme du bon vin! Certaines expressions, traduites faut dire, ne voulaient rien dire pour moi. Je tiens aussi à dire que je n'ai pas vu le film. Encore. J'ai failli abandonner quand j'ai emprunté ce livre à la couverture franchement moche, les pages jaunies et écrit en Times New roman 9 simple interligne. 

Ceci étant dit, c'était vraiment addictif comme lecture quoique portant parfois à confusion. Saut dans le temps passé, présent, futur. Saut de personnages. Sans avertissement. Ce qui est étonnant c'est que, le lecteur sait dès le départ la fin du livre. Au fur et à mesure que le livre avance, on en sait davantage, on a des rapports de la commission d'enquête, etc. Le personnage de Carrie n'est pas tout à fait facile à apprécier et c'est voulu (je crois). On veut avoir de l'empathie pour elle et ce qu'elle subit mais elle n'est pas vraiment aimable non plus. 
Bref, je suis satisfaite d'avoir lu ce "classique" de la littérature si s'en est un. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

tottles's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty

celina246's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

it’s clear why this is a classic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Grief

Minor: Racial slurs

octagon's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs

kaz_brekkerrr's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

cristina_reading24's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ed_moore's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I read Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ as I am involved in a production of the musical in a week, and was honestly surprised how quickly events unfolded in the book. Carrie is about a 17 year old girl who is outcast in school and faces abuse from her fanatically religious mother at home, yet finds she has the power of telekinesis and uses such to get her revenge on the town that wronged her for so many years. 

The primary surprise was how early Carrie’s telekinetic powers were revealed, I was expecting this to be more of a self-discovery plot point and twist in Carrie though I am content to mention it in this review as it was more or less revealed on the first page. The ending also wasn’t left for the readers to theorise as due to fictional extracts from supposed non-fiction books written about the actions of Carrie White on prom night the ending was revealed early on and continually referenced throughout. I really didn’t enjoy the inclusion of these books within books as though aware of the story, it still very much took away from the ending and diverted from the plot, and any comments that foreshadowed were intentionally far too obvious. ‘Carrie’ was not a book written to leave the reader on edge guessing whatsoever, which really defeated its main draw within the thriller genre. 

Despite my prior knowledge of the story the narrative and writing was however still harrowing. Scenes relating to the menstrual cycle and also child and religious abuse were extremely graphic, and the final sequence of events was absolutely brutal and apocalyptic, likely written in a means to mimic the biblical ‘Judgement Day’. It was also enhanced in the graphic imaginings of such as the scenes were often repeated from multiple perspectives, which increased reader exposure to violence but also failed to add much to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, and Death of parent