Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Later by Stephen King

6 reviews

solnit_and_sebastian's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

One of King's mystery novels, Later breathes life into the "child sees dead people" horror trope, adding some creepy twists along the way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Dementia

ftjulez's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

4.25

I really liked this book!! More than i expected i would honestly. up until a certain point nothing was so Stephen King-y that it made me roll my eyes (until it got really stephen king-y really fast, but there is not a SINGLE reference to menstruation or a single racial slur in this entire book!! good job steve). 

My two complaints:

This man knows NOTHINGGG about being born in the year 2000. This book was mostly taking place in like 2012 without a single acknowledgement of either red skinny jeans or the classic song party rock anthem by LMFAO. this protagonist was supposed to be i think four months younger than me and i get that he was quirky and different and not like the other boys but i still think stephen shouldve hired me as a cultural history consultant. 

My second complaint is that the Maury shit at the end came out of NOWHEREEEE!!!!! I was perfectly happy with this fatherless young man and his gayass mom and then in the last fuckin twenty pages Stephen had to go completely apeshit. IYKYK i guess but frankly i want to go back in time and unread the last little bit of the book because i dont CARE and it was WEIRD!!!! 

Oh also this is a spoiler but it was weird that the one guy mentioned that the gayass mom had cancer and six months to live and then that was never addressed again and the mom lived at LEAST multiple more years. But i guess that guy who said it was also a demon and maybe also the same flavor of demon as my best friend pennywise since this book was apparently maybe also in the same universe as the clown books so i guess maybe he told a lie? Who knows but that confused me. I wish that he hadnt used the term “deadlights” and all the ritual of chud stuff because everything else about this book made fine sense to me as a stand alone novel but then it had to be recontextualized any time that shit came up. Anyway im going to bed 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Incest, Torture, Police brutality, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, and War

spooderman's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

Minor: Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

ricksilva's review

emotional tense fast-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

Stephen King's take on a boy who sees dead people, ends up going in a pretty different direction than the film The Sixth Sense, but the inspiration for the idea is pretty clear.

Jamie Conklin can see the recently dead, and they must answer his questions truthfully. Jamie just wants to live a normal life, but when people close to him discover his abilities, they begin to think of ways it could be useful.

This had a surprising number of plot twists considering its relatively short length. What would be described as "false finishes" in pro wrestling come fast and furious. 

The story is a bit more "typical" King than I was expecting given the marketing of the Hard Case Crime imprint. I went into it expecting something with no (or at least minimal) supernatural elements, something more like Mr. Mercedes.

Still, the story and characters were great, and in spite of relying on a lot of standard King tropes, the plot kept the surprises and twists coming right up to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Dementia

Minor: Cancer and Incest

house_of_hannah's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

I did not want to put this book down ! I had actually been putting off reading it as the description felt "meh" to me, and I really am not a fan of the cover. Boy was I wrong ! 

This is told as if our MC, Jamie, is writing the story. He is 22, and is recounting the crazy and traumatic events of his childhood that resulted from his ability to see dead people, or ghosts. This style works so well, and had me completely engaged in the story. It was as if I was reading a story that a friend wrote. 

The timeline does jump around a bit, but it's not difficult to follow. The cast of characters are relevant, and they all have their own place in the story. None of them feel pointless. This book is the perfect length for the story it told. Any longer and it would have felt drawn out, or gotten dull.

Overall, this was a fun ride with some great tie-ins to King's other work (as usual). I definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a break from the bigger, denser reads.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer, Incest, Rape, Torture, Vomit, and Classism

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

 Later was my first book of Stephen King and this was an exiting experience for me. I’ll definitely read more of his books in the future since this one already gave me a good taste of his style. 

Even though I haven’t read a King book before, I still kinda know the drill of his stories and I had the feeling that this plot is quite typical for him with focusing on children and their supernatural abilities. This time, Jamie’s in the focus who can see the ghosts of dead people. But this fact does not play as big a part of the story as one would expect. There are many other topics picked upon, like literary agents and them trying to make as much money as possible with their clients even after their death – I’m pretty sure King knows a lot about this business. The story gets f-ed up quickly and the ending, even though I was not completely happy with it, was really shocking as well. 

I also enjoyed how real-life events were included into the book, like the financial crisis or the American health system. We also have some lesbian representation which surprised me. Sadly, there was some sexism and especially objectification of women – probably one of my biggest critiques – which annoyed me. 

It’s obvious that King knows his craft well: The flow of the story was so good, the writing style and its slightly cynic undertone was enjoyable to read, and the characters were great. I was surprised though that I didn’t find this book creepy, despite the fact I’m creeped out quite easily. It was more unsettling at some parts but that was it. 

All in all, Later was a nice and especially short introduction to the work of King that is unsettling, but not too creepy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia and Incest

Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Torture