Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Misery by Stephen King

104 reviews

hocuscrocus's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I have such a love/hate relationship with Stephen King's work. This one is by far the best I've ever read. It's perfectly dreadful, and even though I'd seen the film, I still found myself nervous as to what was going to happen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs and Car accident

Minor: Rape

perth_is's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

krmreads2024'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? No

4.75

This is my favourite Stephen King's. Definitely. Misery is so tense, agonising, horrifying and empowering. It is about an author, Paul Sheldon, who ends up in a car crash, and wakes up in the house of Annie Wilkes, who is his self-proclaimed number one fan of his Misery book series. It is a tense kidnapping story of this man trying to desperately escape the violent, unhinged and unpredictable Annie Wilkes, as he is forced to rewrite a new ending to Misery. King's magnum opus of a horror novel tackles the parasocial relationship between a super fan and their idol and when expectations are shaken when confronted by the idol's true self. This parasocial relationship is turned up to eleven in the case of Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes, then flipped on its end when both become dependent on one another, in a twisted love-hate-obsession relationship. The fact that this whole book is basically these two characters interacting with each other, trying to assess what the other is thinking, is incredibly strong. It's about authorial intent vs death of the author, and the separation of art from the artist. You can tell that some of his fears and philosophies as a writer come out to most in this novel. There are also themes of addiction and renewal. There are moments of sadness, of pain, of pure horror and of levity and triumph. Such a rollercoaster of a book that you won't want to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Addiction

abbie_eibba's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Car accident, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

chsm8's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Racial slurs, Rape, Vomit, and Car accident

nneka23's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I’m glad I finished this book, but it took me a lot longer with more effort than I expected. The overall storyline is engrossing in a way that makes it hard to quit, but I definitely came close a couple times. I’m not sure why the passages from Misery’s Return needed to be included - I personally was not at all interested in reading them. I kept wanting to find out more about what’s happening to Paul, and I think sometimes that got lost in the constant inner thoughts or the excerpts from Misery’s Return. I just had a hard time fully sinking into the story. That said, it was still well-written most of the time and King definitely knows how to create an atmosphere of dread as well as tension for the reader. The last act of the book went at crazy speeds. I’m now curious to watch the movie for comparison purposes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs

makeshift_human_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-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: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Medical content, and Cannibalism

maratagon's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent

captaincrabs52's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

4.5

Some of the parts of the book got pretty boring but overall I really really enjoyed this book and everyone should read it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

humanhalfofachilleus's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

as with most Stephen King, it could have ended 50 pages earlier and the "creepiness" relies heavily on "gross-out" rather than true terror or horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault