Reviews tagging 'War'

The Stand by Stephen King

21 reviews

lilashelly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

I generally don't read Stephen King. I don't like his writing style, I find it to be very pretentious. But a friend at work told me this is his favorite horror book so I gave it a shot. I actually did enjoy the plot, but there's so much that feels so dragged out and a lot of filler. And I get that it was written in 1990, but a lot of the racial terms felt unnecessarily added.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

shelfofunread's review against another edition

I can admire what King is doing in The Stand and, at times, I was really enjoying this. But OMG if this book bogged down with just a ton of unnecessary detail. For ever snipped that is a moment of brilliant characterisation or powerful insight, I felt there were pages where nothing really happened in terms of either moving the action along or developing the characters. Add in that the female characters felt extremely underdeveloped and that I have over 700 pages left to go and I opted to nope out of this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and War

nicilaui's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book was an incredible journey and accompanied me for a whole month of my life. That's why I feel very close to the characters and will surely miss them. King can write fluently and interestingly, which is why I was able to get through this mountain of pages easily. This crusher should have been read during Corona, but even so, I was able to draw very creepy parallels to the past pandemic. The basic structure of the work was really great, but I couldn't get stuck inside the story. The narration is extremely biblical, but then again ‘cool’ and typically ‘American’. The story built up naturally one after the other, but a lot of tension was lost for me. I could guess the ending very early on in almost exactly the same way as it happened, which I found very sobering. All in all, I'm not mad about reading this book, I really enjoyed it, but it didn't grab me in any way like other books have done in my life. In the end, a lot happened, but in a way nothing happened at all (maybe that's the point). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

beatle426's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

zoinkie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

gagereadsstuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion

katie_helf96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

minttruffle's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kessejeen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

scip's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia