Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Carrie by Stephen King

24 reviews

taviarz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Idk if I’ll ever be able to give a King book 5 stars because of the amount of slurs he uses unnecessary. That aside I’m very worried about people who say that this is a “good for her” book. It’s a tragedy and I feel sympathy for Carrie but

killing all of your classmates for revenge is definitely school shooter energy, please get help.

other than that it’s a pretty normal Stephen King book. The way Margaret and Misery were written were almost exactly the same. And he really cannot write convincing dialogue for women. But at the end of the day he’s able to pull you in and tell a good story so what can I say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

sylvester749's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

 king's writing style was there from the get go (if you ignore the many other non-published non-novel writing he did before this), and its interesting to see how confident his prose is right away (including his less than savory ways of describing people). really liked the epistolary structure of it - the build up to the actual event was incredibly tense and well paced, especially since it lived up to the hype. overall very strong, very sad, and very engrossing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, and Car accident

Minor: Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

sandybree7's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

kaumlaut's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Homophobia and Racism

cammiem8's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

2.5

An iconic and well conceived story, but there are so many strange choices in the prose, format, and style that take you out of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Antisemitism

One use of the n word with the hard R that comes out of nowhere.

carrietta's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This is my favorite book. I literally carry a copy with me and annotate it when I have spare time. It's something incredibly personal, and at the same time, everyone knows what it's about. I first read Carrie at 16, after a huge fight with my mother. It was like looking in a mirror. Two years later and away from my mother, it still rings true. Some caveats- I do NOT like the way women are described in this book. It's also hard to tell what's supposed to be a character saying something to make you dislike them, and what's SK's own bigotry on occasion. This was very very written in the 70s. Also, it's written in multiple POVs, including news articles and biographies, which might put off readers coming from the movies. Other than that all I have to say is to go watch the 1988 musical adaptation if you haven't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer and Antisemitism

sassyshark's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

0.75

The book was not worth the paper it was written on—and I read the e-book.

Oh god, where to start. 

The plot, was fine. A little predictable, but I suppose that lended itself towards the psychological horror aspects. For the first half the new articles were interrupting, abrupt, waste of words, highly ineffective as a method of transition, and insultingly repetitive. In the second half they helped illustrate the story, but were still thrown in seemingly at random and rather abruptly.

It is yet another book reducing the high school experience to bullying, PE, and prom. With some trauma to add some salt to this bland book.

The characters, are all 2D. The mother was such a stereotypical, almost cartoonish, villain that she lost all humanization. Ultimately reducing the drama and unnerving feelings that should have come

when the mom and Carrie snapped, as it felt like the inevitable conclusion—not that any person was capable of thrusting someone into a phycological break. I had the same problem with Chris, she was never humanized so you feel like she was getting her just desserts.

The writing style is a thing. I felt like I was on drugs. Between the seemingly random gaggle of words King has thrown in and the hyper sexualization of any women I am throughly disgusted. Not in a good look-at-the-epitome-of-horror way, but a in a why-are-you-mentioning-her-boobs-for-the-fourth-time-in-a-page way. (Even in necessary actions, like walking, are full of cruel descriptions and hyper sexualized. For example, from page 13 “Carrie stood swaying between the showers and the wall with its dime sanitary-napkin dispenser, slumped over, breasts pointing at the floor, her arms dangling limply. She looked like an ape.“ Let’s keep in mind Carrie is 16.) Even if one ignores the befuddling misrepresentation of how periods function (people with uteri, if you are bleeding that much on your first please speak to medical professional), the spaghetti-wall approach of words will make sure you stay confused. Now I must mention, I am absolutely enamored when authors use unnecessarily ostentatious words just because they ought to be used, if they are used correctly. King flips between a third grade vocabulary and words that would make an English college professor proud, seemingly at random. But this college professor would be appalled at the blatant disregard for the words’ definitions. 

I am genuinely concerned for the horror genre if he is heralded as one of the best writers.

Furthermore King has the audacity to claim this a feminist book, because it has a strong female character. When juxtaposed with sentences like this: “She had bought a special brassiere to go with it, which gave her breasts the proper uplift (not that they actually needed it) but left their top halves uncovered.” That claim is appalling, and

mass murder

is not a “strong” way to deal with your problems.

To summarize, the plot was decent, but stuttering, the characters have personalities akin to a slightly salted wet cabbage, and King would greatly benefit from a female beta reader and a dictionary. Particularly if the female beta reader whacked him with the dictionary for every misused word or hyper sexualized action (but that would cause excessive brain damage). 

The one good thing I can say is I have never had such hate based fixation on a book. I dragged my psyche kicking, screaming, and begging to be sent to hell—as it would be less torturous—through the book, just so I could say this was not a half-baked review. And so begins and ends my foray with Stephen King.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Misogyny, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

agent_of_chaos's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

konstantina's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

2.75

Carrie has a lot of messages behind it. Religious fanatism, misogyny, bullying, and it could be considered a critique on religion (i.e. Christianity) and on bullying, but, at the end of the day, it remains a classic among horror novels, and I'm sure it would have shocked me if I was reading it in the '70s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Blood and Murder

Minor: Sexual content, Car accident, and Abortion

madsw14's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Minor: Confinement and Suicide attempt