Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

183 reviews

racoongod's review

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Infertility

tayreads10's review against another edition

slow-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? No

3.0

Really had high hopes when it started off with the story of Charlie, his dad, Mr. B and Radar. Once he delved into the fairytale world, it was really hard to finish. It got very frustratingly repetitive, dull and dragged on and on when it didn't need to. The voice actor was the only thing that kept me going.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Slavery, Terminal illness, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

liksie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

Good Book! Sadly very slow and long for a quite simple Story.  The first and the last 200 pages were really good. All in All its a great tale with highs and lows. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

This was a wild ride and a different take than most of Stephen’s books that normally orient around the horror genre. 

This took well know lore, legends and fairytales and put them in his own unique interpretation in this world of the other that just so happens to be down mr bowditches well. 

It deals with morals, good deeds, grief and patience and so much more. I loved seeing our MC Charlie connect with both radar and mr bowditch as well as getting to travel with him through his journey and experiences in this other land. 

Overall it was unexpected from king but an enjoyable read nonetheless. A unique take on so many well know fairytales and legends alll wrapped up into one creative interpretation that brought them all together in a unique story of its own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

seattle_jeff's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, Vomit, and Abandonment

automatic_rae's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

5.0

A beautiful story of love, fear, and full of hope. Masterfully written, evoking true emotion. Gripping, exciting, nerve-wracking, brilliant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

hannahakins's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

rissaread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

this was my first stephen king book and i think it was a nice introduction to his writing and his style.  i loved this book, i love the story and reading everything charlie was going through. i can of course see why people didn’t click with it, not everyone is into fantasy esque books and that’s fine. 

and yes, i can say at some points it felt as though there was unnecessary details or pieces in chapters that were definitely not needed ( like that part in a chapter about the jenny girl charlie knew, kind of unnecessary to me ) some parts did drag and i was like alright get to the point lol but i loved the story! 

i also saw some reviews here of people saying once charlie enters empis it got boring and they liked the beginning better but i completely disagree. the whole point of this story was about the other world, the world under the well and it was so fascinating to me. again, i get it not being everyone’s cup of tea but don’t pick up a book literally called fairy tale and expect a normal story about a teenager and a dog. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty and Sexual content

unicornofblue's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Sexual content, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

secre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-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

4.0

Fairy Tale is an absolute cracker of a King book and one I enjoyed immensely. I admit, I struggled a bit in the middle, but the first and last third more than made up for it. This is also a book that takes a long time to get going, although that didn't impact my enjoyment at all as King builds up the characters and their lives superbly well in the first third, despite there only being hints at the supernatural. In fact it's when the supernatural truly comes into it's own that I felt the novel wavered and slogged more. Picking back up in the final chapters with the final showdown and conclusion.

The opening third is King at his very best; Charlie is a high flying youngster with a good academic record and a likely sports scholarship to boot. Yet when he comes across an elderly neighbour in trouble, he strikes up an unlikely friendship and becomes his caretaker at the expense of his scholarship. King writes this slice-of-life beautifully; all of the characters are vivid and interesting, he builds on the back-stories and motivations and I was fully invested in the character stories. There's tension and a ticking clock, and it is superbly done.

Things start to fall apart when Charlie finds his way into a warped fairyland world though. It loses a lot of the natural drama, becoming instead a fairly bland 'teenage hero saves the day' story. There's some nice world-building here, but it never really rose to it's potential and I'll admit that I lost interest multiple times, putting it down and reading something more interesting. It probably took me a month to plough through the middle section of the novel because of this. It's not as though it's bad; it's a fairly standard dark YA retelling of a fairy story. But it's doesn't have the edge or the drive of the earlier novel. I was pretty sure I knew exactly how it was going to end from the start, even if I didn't know exactly how it was going to get there. I was pretty much dead on the nail.

It did pick up towards the end, though I'd have liked more time back in the 'real' world, particularly considering that was where the strength of the novel lies.

All in all, I enjoyed this but I don't think it can be counted as one of the best of King's works. It seemed like it to begin with, but it was also like two different novels jammed into one. One of them was stunning. The other mediocre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Death

Moderate: Death of parent