Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Stand by Stephen King

33 reviews

rebookah_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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: Death, Torture, and Murder

thebookishrose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

The Stand is one of those books that sinks it's teeth in deep and takes hold. The characters are super interesting and even the bad guys are often lovable. It's a book that makes you think. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

yellowpurple500's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

My new favourite King book.

I went into this expecting to enjoy a story about a pandemic. Nothing prepared me for the emotional journey I was taken on. I love the cast of characters and how everyone gradually links together. I love how all of kings stories have a supernatural element and I enjoyed the "is this supernatural or are we just going insane". 

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It's not an easy read but it's so worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

urnee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

abimi's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This took me a lifetime to finish. 1325 pages?! What’s crazy is I was gripped for all of them. Characters were heavily developed as was the plot, which I guess is how you end up with 1325 pages.

This book might be my true first horror read, or at least it feels that way. Other horror books I’ve read were not nearly as terrifying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, and Suicide

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Cannibalism

xcinnamonsugar's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

According to my Kobo, it took me 20 reading hours to finish this tome. I've DNF-ed books a fraction of The Stand's length without hesitation, so yes this book is engaging enough to stick to despite being over 1000 pages long (I read the uncut/extended version). 

The Stand is divided into three parts:

• Book I sets the stage. A deadly flu way more contagious and lethal than Covid spreads rapidly throughout the United States and kills 99% of the population.
• Book II focuses on the 1% of survivors. They all have recurring supernatural dreams of two people: "good" is incarnated in an elderly black lady named Mother Abagail, while "evil" takes shape in a man named Randall Flagg. All survivors gravitate toward one of these two people, making gruelling cross-country pilgrimages that claim a few more lives in the process. 
• Book III is the cinematic good-versus-evil conclusion to this epic story. Despite juggling an ambitious number of character arcs, everything ties in together nicely at the end.   

Book I was probably the dullest to get through, given that we've already had first-hand experience with a global pandemic. Reading about quarantines and an overwhelmed public system felt a little too on the nose. There are also separate chapters introducing at least twenty different characters, which can feel a little disorienting. However, I've read enough Stephen King to realise that his books tend to start off very slowly, giving even the NPCs a well-rounded backstory.

Book II is where it gets interesting, since you begin to see how King hypothesises each of the myriad characters in our society makes their choice. One of the characters, Glen Bateman, is a sociologist. His little monologues theorising how human behaviour would inevitably lead to a certain pattern of progression in these little scrappy survivor communities was one of my favourite parts of this book.

Book III was pretty intense, but all's well that ends well. Many main characters died, but I thought the ways that each of them met their deaths was rather poetic and satisfying, even if a little sad.

Knocked a star off because, for all King's storytelling prowess, I cannot in good faith give 5 stars to any book with this much graphic sexual assault and objectification of the female body. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny and Torture

beatle426's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

zoinkie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mon11's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Grief

nilescrane's review against another edition

2.0

I'm glad I've read this because it's been on my TBR for nigh on a decade. This was my first King, potentially my last; I was not the biggest fan of how he wrote his women characters, but I did enjoy the various character arcs.

Also theres a pun at the climax of this book that was so silly it really took me out of the experience. It was the audiobook listening format of looking into the camera like you're on the office.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Racism and Colonisation