Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Billy Summers by Stephen King

57 reviews

abernathy_33's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Pedophilia, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

booksbri's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Rape, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Vomit

jojom77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Rape, Violence, and War

Minor: Child abuse

madalina0_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, and War

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This mostly character based crime story about a former army sniper hit man is surprisingly quite charming and tender in some aspects, tense, hard boiled and action packed in others. Excellent read. I’m glad this is my first Stephen King. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

There’s child death, rape, various abuses and war throughout the story as key elements. There’s also a pedophile that’s a target in the story. They share base information about his heinous acts to fully condemn him. This is a crime story so many characters are unsavoury in varying ways. I may have missed some triggers.

t0riblack's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

em_h_ma's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

I’d never read a Stephen King book thinking he only wrote horror story. Turns out Billy Summers is a mystery novel I came across on a YouTube channel. The girl reviewing couldn’t stop crying, I now understand why.

The ending of the book is so unfair. Billy didn’t deserve to die. I wanted his love story with Alice to come true.

Billy Summers is a former Marine turned mercenaire. It’s supposed to be his last job before retiring but things don’t go as planned.

He rescued Alice, a 21 year old rape survivor and ends up hiding at Bucky’s place.

The writing really did something to me. I couldn’t let go of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

joshkiba13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? No

4.0

"Did you know that you could sit in front of a screen or a pad of paper and change the world? It doesn't last, the world always comes back, but before it does it's awesome. It's everything. Because you can have things the way you want..." -Stephen King, Billy Summers

This book was fantastic. The premise of a hired hitman doing his final job is what interested me initially, but what I found was the story of a man finding a love for writing. Many of King's books are about English teachers and authors, and uses that I think as a way to project his feelings about the craft. The way he does it in this story was a neat way to provide readers with Billy's backstory little by little, rather than start the book from the beginning of his life. 

I came for the final job story and got that, plus a love letter to writing stories. It was a slower build up with really gripping and gratifying moments, and unlike some of his darker stuff, I left feeling inspired. A great read :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Child abuse

veronikar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, and War

simonisreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape