Reviews tagging 'Death'

Billy Summers by Stephen King

77 reviews

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

snootle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

This felt like 3 stories in one that were disconnected. The first half of the book was slow and hard to get through, but the action picked up and had me interested. The book was maybe a little too long, with a lot of detail and filler that felt irrelevant. The ending is what pushed this to 3 stars for me,

although I found many moments in the relationship between Billy and Alice questionable and dodgy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lamianoctalis's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Wie immer ein interessanter Roman von Stephen King.
Ich muss sagen, am Anfang war ich nicht überzeugt von Billy, aber im Laufe der Zeit ist er mir ans Herz gewachsen und die Minuten flogen nur dahin. Ich glaube, das war der erste von Kings Romanen, wo ich nicht zwischendurch überlegt hab, ob ich nachts einschlafen können werde, was aber absolut nicht negatives ist. Ich habe gelacht, Tränen vergossen, mit gefiebert und war entsetzt und entrüstet. Die subtile Einbindung anderer Bücher hat mir auch gefallen, sodass ich mich echt fragte, ob noch mehr aus den vergangenen Geschichten übernommen wird.

(Das war nicht der Fall, aber das Hotel hat mich echt schaudern lassen)

Das was mir in der Vergangenheit bei Büchern von King nie gefallen und mich stets aus der Geschichte gerissen hat, waren die vulgären Ausdrücke und Objektifizierungen, die Frauen beschrieben haben (ich verstehe, dass sie ein Ziel verfolgten und natürlich die Geschichten aus einer Zeit stammen, wo noch nicht so viel darüber nachgedacht wurde), das war jedoch in Billy Summers nicht der Fall. Man merkt, dass sich Kings Schreibstil (oder der der Übersetzer) geändert hat und ich würde sagen nur zum Besseren. Personen, die man hassen sollte, hat man gehasst. Personen, die einen anekeln sollten, haben einen angeekelt und Personen, die man mögen oder sogar lieben sollte, hat man geliebt. 
Und überhaupt nicht Nebenbei bemerkt, hat David Nathan sich selbst übertroffen in der Vertonung.

Ich kann Billy Summers (insbesondere als Hörbuch) nur jedem wärmstens empfehlen, egal ob King Fan oder Neuling (oder Überwältigter von der Dicke seiner Bücher).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, and War

Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Die Protagonistin wird von mehreren Personen vergewaltigt, was der Protagonist den Tätern heimzahlt

So wie zu erwarten in einem Buch über einen Auftragsmörder, werden Personen ermordet. Der Protagonist war Soldat im Mittleren Osten. Die Corona-Pandemie wird erwähnt, aber nicht weiter ausgeführt, was auf die Zeit hinweist, zu der King das Buch schrieb.

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

nailartklaudia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

catcherntheryebread's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

I am not typically a King fan (just personal preference) but WOW. Just wow. This was a PHENOMENAL story. Had me on the edge of my seat til the last page. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

sydneet's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

I truly enjoyed this book. This was my first Stephen King book and I loved it. I admire how King writes and how he describes his characters/events etc. I grew to love the characters in this book, especially Billy and Alice. This was one of those books where you feel like you are the main character going through all the events of the book. My ONLY critique is that, in my opinion, I felt that the beginning was a little slow.  I was a little skeptical that I would get bored with the parts of the book that was “Billy’s book” but I liked it and I liked how King incorporated Billy’s past as it showed how he became the way he was. I would totally reread this and I recommend it to everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, and Murder

zoemaeboonz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

eternlbloom's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

finn_vibing's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder