Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Revival by Stephen King

10 reviews

mainereading's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is one of my book club’s choices for October. We had this as the darker, spookier read and The Phoenix Kepper by S.A. MacLean as our cosy, autumn read. This is the first book of Stephen King’s I read, and I was very disappointed.  

This book is based on Jamie Morton, he lives in a small New England town. In the early 60s, a shadow falls over Jamie whilst he was playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie looks up to see a striking man, he is the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity. Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Charles again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling “portraits in lightning.” and their meeting had profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.  

One of the things I struggled with is there was a lot of information but not a lot going on. It starts with Jamie being 5/6 years old and ends with him being in his late sixties. A lot happens, but it’s more of a biography of a kid who was groomed, became an addict, went back to his groomer, realized how messed up that was, tried to stop him from being a fraud, got blackmailed into helping him, then him getting therapy. I couldn’t figure out what type of villain Charles was supposed to be, I went into this book being like don’t trust anyone besides Jamie so at first, I thought this was going to be a typical religion is evil and the priest is a groomer, but then it shifted and he was a fraud, but was curing people. I was just completely lost. I went into this book hoping I would be freaked out because of what you hear about Stephen King’s work. However, I was really freaked out or even scared and it wasn’t gothic either – it was just long with not a lot going on.  

When there was action and things happened, I was sort of kind of on the edge of being hooked but then the next chapter would happen, and it was a whole back story to do with a family reunion that I didn’t care about. The storyline kept me hooked only because I wanted to know what the hell Charles’s endgame was. I wanted to know why he was doing this because as it went on, you realized he didn’t want to be rich and famous; he wasn’t dying so that was the question that kept me reading this book. I felt sorry for Jamie throughout the whole book with the way his life had turned out and I wanted to hug him and wanted him to be happy at the ending, which we didn’t get. 

I would say this would be the first and last book of Stephen King’s that I read; however, Misery is on the list of 100 books to read in a lifetime. So, I will be giving Stephen King another chance to impress me, but right now, it’s not looking so good.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicide, Murder

nightmare_maven's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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How was this published in 2014 and this man STILL uses slurs???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Car accident

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs

crystal689's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse

lay_kone's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail

ryleezittlau's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Death, Grief, Medical trauma

Minor: Death of parent

charmedcharlie's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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Estuvo bien tremendoooo, es una historia para releer definitivamente, los personajes me gustaron mucho, incluido el prota y en unos tiempos también el llamado quinto en discordia, estuvo triste, y bonito, y gracioso de a ratos, no dio miedo exactamente pero si me hizo sentir algo tensa y a la expectativa. Me gustó mucho, igual y me lo compré :) <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Violence, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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stephen king killin' it with the character work again! thoroughly enjoyed this read, even though it was such a slow burn. a lot of time was spent setting up the characters and carefully building the story to its horrifying conclusion. this is an example of slow burn done right; i was so invested in the characters + relationships that i didn't even mind the slower pacing. would definitely recommend to readers who enjoy a character-focused story with strong themes of faith, grief, and mortality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Car accident

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Vomit

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

imstephtacular's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War, Classism