Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Carrie by Stephen King

260 reviews

witchintherain's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

3.75

Read this with my partner for Halloween 🎃 First Stephen King book! Glad I got to finally read this classic horror novel. I enjoyed the different perspectives and article clippings in the novel and chilling writing. However, found the sexist and fatphobic descriptions of characters and racist language frustrating to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was one of my spooky reads for 2024 and it did not disappoint. I have been meaning to read Carrie for a long time, and for one reason or another had just never gotten around to it. I’ve loved other novels by King (as I think we all do) and this one was no different. I thought that it was succinct, with a level of horror that didn’t need to overdo it to spark unease. I liked the perspective changes and inclusion of news clippings for reference points as well, even though this is something I don’t normally enjoy. While I didn’t love Carrie as much as I loved Misery (still my favorite King novel to date), this book is absolutely worth the read, and will leave you on the edge of your seat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

hotel_romeo_bravo92's review against another edition

dark sad fast-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? No

4.0

I've watched the movies and I can't believe I didn't read the book sooner.  

I'm little sad about the ending and that Carrie really never got the happy life she truly deserved.  But as for the people who tormented her, they had it coming and I love that for Carrie.  

Moral of the story, be nice to people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

royalrainboww's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

emadisonc's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It’s what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutter ball when you’re bowling with the girls in the league. True sorrow is as rare as true love.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Body shaming, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Rape, and Pregnancy

ellainalisa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Finally getting around to reading one of Stephen King’s ultimate classics, and it didn’t disappoint! Although, I must say, it wasn’t nearly as scary as I was expecting it to be. I would say more off-putting and also kind of sad. But I’m not mad about it! I wasn’t in the mood for nightmares anyway lol. I can’t wait to watch the movie(s)! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape

aloy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Racial slurs, and Racism

avana_bana's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Racial slurs and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Carrie is intriguing from the start, it doesn't take long to get pulled into the plot. We have this teenage girl who's relentlessly bullied, seemingly for no reason, and you want to know: what's her deal, and why does everyone hate her? You know kind of early on, how the story ends. So rather than a mystery, it's more of a "how did we get from point A to point Z" type of read.

The way the plot is structured is pretty cool, it's kind of like an epistolary novel, but instead of just letters, it has fictional news clippings and excerpts from books within the Carrie universe.

You get to experience things through the characters' perspectives, as well as retrospectively, through the fictional news clippings, book excerpts, and interviews of some of the characters. There's also Carrie's inner monologue, which was creatively woven throughout the story, that was my favorite element to the whole book! 

The build up to the final act is great. But then you get to the final act, and all that tension just fizzles out. It drags on and on. That is where the book fails me, I actually prefer the ending in the movie (1976 version), while I prefer everything else in the book, leading up to the end. There's more character development and background context, though it's still a quite short and fast paced book which I appreciate.

This sort of reads more like a crime thriller, with a sci-fi twist. I did know going into it that this was King's first novel and one of his less scary ones, so I'm not bothered by that.

Male-gaze-ickiness aside, this is mostly an enjoyable read, I would recommend it to those of you who like fictional crime stories and elements of sci-fi, or anyone who wants to pick up a King book but doesn't want to go for one of the scarier or lengthier ones. This is more sad than scary.

I will probably continue to read books by SK but I'm not in a rush to move on to the next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

bluestar_apologist's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail