Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Billy Summers by Stephen King

61 reviews

t0riblack's review against another edition

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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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em_h_ma's review against another edition

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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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joshkiba13's review against another edition

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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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veronikar's review against another edition

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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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simonisreading's review against another edition

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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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finn_vibing's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Characters weren’t authentic. 
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unaesthetic_reading's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.25

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bdania's review against another edition

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

4.5

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graceorose's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.75

The concept is great, I love the characters and their development. It was just so slow for me that it was hard for me to stay engaged and interested, leading to it taking me forever to read. 
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clotalksbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective sad slow-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

4.5

I feel wrung out after finishing this. At first I thought it wasn't my sort of book, and not one I would attribute to Stephen King. Some truly atrocious things happen, just as in life, and I couldn't read about it without wincing. 

The characters though, just felt so real. It showed how if you dig deep enough you can find good and bad in everybody, and it's up to you what you focus on. 

The little mentions to COVID in the future I felt were unnecessary and didn't really add to the story, but that is my minor criticism. 

It is not a book I could zoom through even though I wanted to find out what would happen, because it took a lot out of me emotionally and I needed to reflect. So it isn't one I can honestly say I enjoyed as such, but I wanted to keep getting to know these characters. 

There were a couple of nods to this being a King novel, more noticeable towards the end. The writing as always is brilliant. 
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