Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Drei by Stephen King

14 reviews

raginsagein's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.25

So I will start by saying that this book is better than its predecessor. During the Eddie arc I was really cheering for King, thinking that maybe this one wouldn’t be racist or sexist. And then we meet Detta/Odetta/Susannah. And Detta is the worst kind of stereotype. And he mentions TWICE that she sounds like a stereotype. And my question is why have her talk like that in the first place when you simply…don’t have to. But all in all, I like the mysticism. I like where this series is headed. I think it’s a really cool and fun premise. I just…wish it was less racist for the sake of being racist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Gun violence, Racism, Racial slurs, and Addiction

axeltheredpanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

By far one of the best books I’ve ever read. The characters are incredible, the pacing is perfect, and the situations the characters are put through are extremely impactful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Addiction

Moderate: Violence, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Hate crime, and Drug abuse

Minor: Classism, Excrement, Blood, Homophobia, Death, Grief, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, and Medical content

The hard r N word is used very liberally at times and a character is a racist caricature (though this is commented on within the book and she’s that way due to certain events)

lvl52_grant's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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

4.5

This one feels much more ... natural? modern? Than the first. The first book of the series feels odd, but this book just moves a bit better for some reason. It's when we meet two more of the party of heroes on the quest for the Dark Tower, and two of my favorite characters. It's also when we learn of the interconnectedness of our world and that of Roland, particularly with New York City. 
It's also the reason lobsters kind of scare me now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Racism, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

the_devotress's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm relieved that I enjoyed this second installment much more than the first. I feel invested in Roland's journey now, and I might actually remember the events of this book when I come to read the third!

This is noticeable in a few of King's books from the '80s and earlier, but he throws racial slurs around carelessly at times, and it's something to be prepared for. He's careful to mention when a particular element of the story is a blatant and inaccurate stereotype, but that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable.

There's something quite lovely about seeing such a serious character as the Gunslinger experience life in our world for the first time. His first Pepsi, his first brain freeze, his inability to pronounce the word aspirin, all humanised him enough to make the whole story more engaging for me.

I was also much more invested in Eddie and Odetta's stories than Roland's alone, and by the third door I was completely hooked. The tension shot up and I rushed through the last 100 pages. There were some brilliant connections made and I feel set up for the rest of the series now.

And the tower is closer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Racial slurs, and Racism

carleneb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, and Gore

geeters14's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

filmmaths's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Still don't really understand the meaning/value of the dark tower, but there's more to appreciate here than just setting (which I couldn't say for my first read of the Gunslinger).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic relationship

ggcd1981's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

Este é o quarto livro (não contando os contos) que leio de Stephen King e o segundo volume da The Dark Tower Series. Vi várias pessoas dizendo que é no segundo livro que a série começa a ficar boa, mas na verdade preferi The Gunslinger a The Drawing of the Three, apesar da diferença não ser grande. No primeiro volume o mundo era intrigante e misterioso, o livro tinha problemas, mas não superaram meu interesse pelo mundo e personagens. Em The Drawing of the Three, apesar do positivo superar o negativo, os problemas da obra me incomodaram mais. Sendo breve sobre os pontos negativos:

A) Detta Walker, uma das personalidades de Odetta Holmes. Detta é um estereotipo ofensivo de mulher negra, King está ciente disso pois na obra Roland e Eddie Dean referenciam este fato literalmente dizendo que Detta age como um estereotipo. Porém o texto estar ciente disso não torna a leitura das cenas de Detta mais agradável. Ao final da obra o melhor evento é que Detta some (assim como Odetta) dando lugar a personalidade unificada de Susana Dean; B) a hiper-sexualização de personagens femininos, o que já acontecia no volume 1, mas infelizmente continua no volume 2; C) O último elemento que não gostei foi que em alguns momentos King escolheu mostrar a mesma cena do ponto de vista de várias pessoas, incluindo, por exemplo, Roland dentro da cabeça de Eddie e o próprio Eddie. As sequências em que o autor fez isso eram breves porem repetitivas e deixavam a cena um pouco maçante.

Apesar desses pontos o livro foi interessante e de fácil leitura. Gostei do conceito de 3 portas na praia que levavam para dentro da cabeça de pessoas no mundo que conhecemos: O prisioneiro Eddie Dean, A dama das sombras Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker e Morte, Jack Mort (um psicopata assassino responsável por eventos horríveis que influenciaram as vidas dos personagens do livro). Eu sempre prefiro os aspectos fantásticos do que os elementos mais realistas da história (ex. de realidade: o envolvimento de Eddie no tráfico de drogas).

Os personagens continuam sendo um ponto alto da escrita de King e ele faz com que ler sobre eles seja interessante mesmo quando você não gosta de alguns deles. Muita gente critica King por escrever demais. Para mim todos os detalhes que ele acrescenta dão profundidade ao mundo e personagens. Continuarei com a série e dou a The Drawing of the Tree 3.5 estrelas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Confinement, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt

bluejayreads's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

This was a weird reading experience. I’m reading this series more to talk about it with a friend than because I want to read it, and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have continued after The Gunslinger. This book does get more into the action, so it felt less like an extended beginning and more like an actual story. At some points it was even enjoyable. 

Roland spends this book going back and forth through doors that are only half there to collect the three people the man in black told him he needed. These three people are in our world in different times. There’s Eddie, a drug addict who’s on his first smuggling run when Roland meets him and who quickly became my favorite. There’s Odetta, a black amputee and two different varieties of racist stereotype. And there’s Jack Mort, whose section was fairly enjoyable even though I spent the entire time hoping that he would not have to end up joining the group. 

That’s pretty much the plot. There’s an overarching plot of Roland has an infected injury and is trying to stay alive and the three shorter plots of what’s through the doors and trying to get the three people to join him, tied together by sections of walking down a disturbing beach. It is slow-paced, but it’s interesting enough, and compared to book one it’s absolutely action-packed.

It was true of book one, and only got more extreme in this book, but The Drawing of the Three falls into one of my biggest complaints with adult fantasy-adjacent books: relying on grossness and bodily fluids to portray “realism.” There’s a lot of urine, feces, sweat, pus, saliva, and all other kinds of disgusting liquid-ish things that the human body can produce. I know that it is realistic, but personally I read for fun and prefer all the gross stuff to be sanitized by the lens of fiction. I’m aware this is a personal opinion, but if bodily fluids make you squeamish you may want to skip this one. 

I was also pretty weirded out by the preteen girl masturbation scene and the guy who orgasmed by murdering people, but it’s not like Stephen King has never written creepy sexual scenes before, so I guess that’s a risk you take when reading his books. 

When I finished this book, I was really ambivalent about reading on. Even though this series isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, it’s a little too slow and gross for me. This series was starting to feel more like an obligation than anything I particularly want to read. But my friend who’s also reading the series gave me a spoiler for future books that makes me more interested in reading on. So I guess I am continuing the series after all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Blood, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Murder, and Medical content

Sexual content involving minors, mind control, someone inside your mind without your consent