Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Billy Summers by Stephen King

76 reviews

melaniejmuller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bolivianrash's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The first half was 4/5 with a riveting plot. But at about halfway is when the entire story changed and was less enjoyable. For some reason there were several misogynistic paragraphs that crept their way in the latter half of the book. It’s obvious that Alice is a character that was written by a man. The older-man-young-woman trope doesn’t sit right with me. The last 100 pages were a bore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Drug use

anderson27paige's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Listen, I may end up changing this rating to a 5 star later because this book was PHENOMENAL. However, I classify a 5 star as having no notes anddddd I do have like one little note that I can't get over, and it is merely personal taste. The pandemic and politics were mentioned a handful of times throughout this book and I detest when books do this because it completely throws me out of the book and back into the real world, it's so jarring. I read books to escape the real world. However, I understand that this doesn't bother some people and that it gives a time stamp to King's work. There was also some predictability to the book at times, but it really was a terrific read. This is my first Stephen King novel and I can confidently say I will be reading more from him this spooky season. I highly recommend this book, it was incredible and raw you walk away thinking very deeply about who we are as people and how life impacts us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, 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.

ariieesbixx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Blood

pettybitch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

This was my first Stephen King book. I’m not into horror and so I’ve never thought to look into his other writing. Billy Summers was a good story- but my interest in the plot waned at times…. And I gotta say that I’m really not a fan of how it ended!!

I also could have done without all the anti-Trump tirades woven into the story. After the 4th mention, I began a tally count. By the end of the book, I was at 12.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Pedophilia

tealdavis's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

Engaging. More graphic in specific ways than I was anticipating. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

cyndi1966's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

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

julieb3a's review against another edition

tense

2.5

Other 3 star reviews say it better than I will. Better than the average book, but not my favorite of his works. Some ideas were repeated too many times, character building in the first half is slow,

and I didn’t like the love story with Alice. At least he killed off Billy and didn’t leave them in love together on the run.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder