Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Shining by Stephen King

27 reviews

mattythebookworm22's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse and Medical trauma

m_hates_reading's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

3/5 meh.
Took me over a month to get through, which isn’t exactly the book’s fault, but it’s not a plus either.
Again with Stephen King, I think there’s a lot of stuff towards the start that could have just not been there.

Really hated the way Wendy was written, but that’s nothing new with King. 

I would have liked more focus on Danny than Jack; I get that the idea is you’re following the antagonist, and your meant to watch him loose his mind piece by piece, but it just rly wasn’t doing it for me. I just wasn’t invested in Jack’s story; possibly bc I already (more or less) knew the ending, but I think a good book is one you can know the ending to and still enjoy. 

It wasn’t bad, there were things I liked. I probably would have liked the book better if there was more straight-up horror from Danny and Wendy’s perspectives (217, the fire hose, the elevator…) but again, I appreciate that’s not what King was going for with the book - he was looking for reality. “Would Jack still have done it if not for the Overlook? Was he really possessed or had he finally just snapped?”. But honestly I couldn’t care less. 
Not my favourite concept wise, and I know for an absolute fact King can and has written better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

iconiclime123's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Excellent book well worth the hype. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

abithoughtful's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

2.5

I so wanted to love this, and I did find it reasonably enjoyable but I do feel it could have been 200 pages shorter and been just... better. I saw the film first and I definitely prefer the more in depth character study the book gives us, and I also enjoyed that the nature of the haunting of the Overlook was less abstract and more coherent, and the symbolism is much tighter, but during the last 100 pages I found myself skimming through the padding (which I think is King trying to build tension with limited success) to get to the real meat. Not enough dense emotion for my taste in horror, verbose with too much mundane filler between the scares. It was fine but if this is among King's best regarded works then I'll be sticking to other writers. Also super male gazey (Wendy is a well rounded character but her breasts are not relevant to the story, Stephen) and racist as hell.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Vomit

nasya_4567's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

lillyturmel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i totally understand now why stephen king hates the movie so much. the book shows the true relationships and thoughts behind the characters and shows the progression of jack perfectly. i loved it. this story is about more than a haunted hotel, it’s about the flaws of the human psyche 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

chocola's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

bailee_c's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

rosesofthespring's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Vomit

As usual, Stephen King is very weird about stuttering, so watch out for that. No one (as far as I can tell) is actually psychotic, but the content heavily revolves around hallucinations and questioning reality.

corleone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship