Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

35 reviews

nyree42's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

My first ever Stephen King. Picked it up due to... you guessed it... the title, since I love fairy tales and fantasies and "other world" stories.
Well, it delivered exactly what I was looking for, and now that I know that a work of Mr. King was quite enjoyable, I will peruse his catalogue to find out if he has written anything else that might be to my taste.

As for my review... the plot of "Fairy Tale" was a bit slow at times; he is quite a verbose author who seems to like to thoroughly flesh out the character's life and the world around them, but that was fine. I still enjoyed all of it, even if sometimes I put the book down for awhile once I'd gotten to one of the more "drawn-out" parts.

It's not a "scary" tale; just creepy when talking about the villains, the evil, and the bad things that happened to people, but it remained "down to earth" and hopeful even in the face of darkness.

I will be hoping that it is adapted into a mini-series! That or two films (need at least two so that important things aren't rushed over). My preference would be a nice, "true-to-the-book" TV mini-series adaptation though. Amazon Prime or HBO, let's do this! (Sorry, can't bet on Netflix, they might ruin it.)

Reading age: would recommend for, at the youngest, age 16 and up. (Note that it contains violence, some gore/death/injury-depictions, frightening/tense situations, some sexual mentions and lewd jokes and swearing, so it's not child-friendly.) 

Since it's about a teenager, there is something that teens would get out of it; yet it's written for adults and with an adult perspective, so if you're in your 20s and up it will probably be more meaningful. I've passed my 20s and it still hit home for me, making me remember what it was like to be an adolescent - although Charlie Reade was a lot more cool than I was at that age.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and War

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Slavery, Torture, Medical content, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

ginadapooh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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: Alcoholism, Cancer, Slavery, Torture, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Despite some ableism found in the villains (especially in how ugly appearances are equated with ugly personalities) and some of the reversal of the curse hinges on some disabilities being somewhat reverted, this book is still a dark, exciting reminder that sacrifice and loss of innocence is essential to creating a happy ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Racism and Sexual content

Be prepared for decaying bodies, half-dead soldiers, and said soldiers exploding. There is also some ableism in terms of how little people are treated in the text.

selenatothemax's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery, Torture, and Classism

Minor: Excrement

cc0906's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

likethepickle's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted slow-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

4.75

Exactly what the title states. A Fairy Tale in its truest and most messed up sense. Not particularly suspenseful or spooky like others in King’s catalogue, this leans more into uncanny and macabre than the outright dark. 

The hero is very likable even knowing he has the capacity to be unlikable. The story is slow to start, but catches interest and holds it, especially for fans of fairy tales. a little meta in that sense but it works. 

Most importantly, the dog lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Slavery, Torture, Excrement, and Death of parent

tortoisemonster's review

adventurous hopeful slow-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

1.0

Female characters were completely flat, they’re not much more than love interests, one character offering to “lie with” Charlie in a gesture of thanks was very off. King communicates evil characters through describing them as fat and ugly which is disappointing. I find it very odd that the main character (who is Jewish as far as I remember?), in order to become the prince that saves the day, has his hair change to blond and his eyes turn blue? Not sure King’s thinking behind that uncomfortable choice. Quite unremarkable and tedious at times but an uplifting ending to a basic fairy tale story.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

senseioftheinternet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

• unnecessary romantic parts at the end 
• romantic aspect rather unnecessary 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Slavery, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

miraileah's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

4.5. I’ve never read Stephen King, but I really enjoyed this book! His prose is fantastically transporting, I loved reading through this journey. It took me kind of an age to read, but I say it was absolutely worth it. EDIT: 4.5 stars rather than 5 due to some weird kid activities that I just couldn’t get behind, and some weird treatment of ladies and sexuality that I wasn’t here for. But overall, not enough to take away from the experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer and Slavery