Reviews tagging 'Child death'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

141 reviews

wrench_2710's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Excrement

drewanslee's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death

ebb_and_flow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

celina246's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

4.25

he does small town horror so well. I had to skim/skip some of the extra material after the story ended personally; One For the Road was good but it should have ended there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Bullying

carewsee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

joshkiba13's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

"On the other hand, there may be some truth in that idea that houses absorb the emotions that are spent in them, that they hold a kind of . . . dry charge. Perhaps the right personality, that of an imaginative boy, for instance, could act as a catalyst on that dry charge, and cause it to produce an active manifestation of . . . of something. I'm not talking about ghosts, precisely. I'm talking about a kind of psychic television in three dimensions. Perhaps even something alive. A monster, if you like . . . [T]here are evil men in the world, truly evil men. Sometimes we hear of them, but more often they work in absolute darkness."

This seems to be a fan-favorite among King fan groups - it certainly lived up to its reputation. People often talk about King's talent for immersing readers in a small town (Derry, Castle Rock, Jerusalem's Lot, etc), and now I get it. It was a little overwhelming at first to be introduced to SO many characters across the town (especially with names like Mark, Matt, Mike, Roy, Randy, Richie, Royal, Sandy, Susan, etc.), but it payed off in the long run. We get an overview of the town and its residents at the beginning, and return to them throughout the story as the town falls into ruin. Beautifully done (I just wish the names had been a little more distinct from each other hehe).

King always describes evil so well. Not only are the vampires in the story evil, but there seems to just be a foul air across the whole town. The Marsten house looms above them all on the hill, watching like a black sentinel. Ben's memories of terror inside the house, as well as its omnipresence during all the character vignettes, really solidified that element of the story as foreboding and creepy. But even just regular parts of the town were made freaky. For example:

"The town had a sense, not of history, but of time, and the telephone poles seemed to know this. If you lay your hand against one, you can feel the vibration from the wires deep in the wood, as if souls had been imprisoned in there and were struggling to get out."

Or . . .

"It was as if the dump had gained a heartbeat and that beat was slow yet full of terrible vitality."

I've never been scared reading a book until one night reading this one in the dark with a flashlight a mosquito flew right past my ear and made me jump. That was fun :)

I do wish the relationship between Susan and Ben could have been a little more developed

before she became a vampire - when Ben had to drive a stake into her I didn't quite feel the emotion I would have had we been a little more attached to her.

That's one con of a wide-scope story like this, I suppose, you don't spend as much time with any one character. 

It took me a while to get into this one, but once I did I was all in. A great story overall :)

This was my last stop before resuming and completing my Dark Tower journey. Excited to see the return of

Father Callahan

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

shannonredwine8's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

wondawilson's review against another edition

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism

daisy_eliza's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Deeply chilling and masterfully carved horror rendering anyone to child-like fear. The use of metaphors and similes are entrancing and fully embraces you into the world. The character of Mark, a mere boy was especially interesting, seeing him overcome adversity and being an active character in stopping evil, contrasted against the conceivable who ran at the danger and had a selfish lac of care for the town he had a duty to protect. The most notable and gut-wrenching part I thought was when Matt Burke had invited a man home who had clearly been being drained of blood, and Matt's account and paralysing fear of hearing the window being unlocked in the next room- positively terrifying!! My only slight gripe was it appeared that in the final showdown Barlow died rather easily, yet then again the build-up made that not as noticeable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

sheriffrockyraccoon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

While I have seen quite a few Stephen King film adaptations, this is the first time I’ve actually read his work. I was pleasantly surprised- I’ve often heard controversial things about King’s writing but generally enjoyed reading this one.

I was definitely spooked reading Salem’s Lot, there is a lot of suspense and action that I had to keep myself from reading ahead to see what became of it. King’s writing is very atmospheric, I was truly spooked by some of his descriptions! I did find the plot a little touch and go, the ending confused me as it included dates (October 1972-June 1975) but I was not sure what it had to do with the book. This may also just be an ebook error, though. I couldn’t tell.

The end did leave me wanting more, I wanted to know what became of Ben and Mark but I was also satisfied with leaving them determined to end the terror of the Lot. On creativity, I also am always going to be in Shirley Jackson’s corner. Yes, the book openly quotes and references Hill House, but it also felt as if it didn’t offer much more to the discussion and sometimes reduced it to plain text. Essentially, there were times I was a bit annoyed that it felt like a rip-off.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it as a fun read! I did not think it necessarily became a hallmark of vampire literature, but it was definitely scary, suspenseful, and really fun at some points. The characters are interesting and lovable, I was rooting for many of them (even the vampire kids against the bus driver!) and generally enjoyed the dialogue.

I would recommend this book to any vampire lover or new horror fan, Stephen King is of course a household name and has created so many iconic characters. It’s also always fun to read a story about evil vampires, as much as I loved Twilight as a kid!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail