Reviews tagging 'Grief'

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

30 reviews

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Cursing, Blood, and Homophobia

Moderate: Grief, Child death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Sexual content, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Stalking

augustinedreams's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It was a good book, but lasted way too long. Also once again Stephen King brings things into the story he doesn't have to (ie sexual assault & domestic abuse). This is a book about vampires not abuse.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Violence, Addiction, Death of parent, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Torture, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual assault

kaimetcalfe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Gore, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Car accident, and Sexism

Moderate: Excrement, Cancer, War, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Pedophilia, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Review of my Reread of Salem’s Lot

By: Stephen King

            Ben Mears is a mildly successful author, who hasn’t been back to his child home, Jerusalem’s Lot, in years, but he is still haunted by sneaking into the Marsten House and seeing the ghost of Hubie Marsten.  Now, Ben wants to exorcise his demons, but this time a new demon has arrived in the Lot intending to sink his teeth into this town and make the place his playground.

            Stephen King knows how to weave a good tale as he gives his own take on the vampire story. He knows how to build the tension and make it seem like things might be fine for the characters until the horror starts happening.  Just like in Needful Things, and IT, King establishes the town and residents slowly giving the reader all the gritty details about each of the characters. In this case, it helps hint at how the vampire will lure them, relying on their selfish desires.  One character, Dud Rogers is a hunchback and is constantly mocked and ridiculed, and the vampire promises to take this away and make him more attractive.  He seduces his victims by promising to fulfill those desires.  A serpent hissing in their ear, so to speak.  If you hated, or at least are tired of the craze of romanticizing vampires this probably more of your kind of vampire.  Barlow lurks in the shadows, hypnotizing his victims, but not lusting after them like in a lot of YA vampire stories.  He sees them more as puppets and you get to see him luring them in.  That’s something I wished Dracula had more of, but Dracula in the end was a heroes’ story. All the vampires in this are scary. He also describes the victim’s humanity dying in detail that is sad for those who love them and haven’t been bitten yet.  but I do wish in one scene, where our heroes must stake a vampire that is connected to one of them in a more personal way, I would like there to have been a little more to the scene.  Like the vampire trying to convince person to join them as a vampire I normally enjoy exposition scenes when shit hasn’t hit the fan just yet, but there were a couple of times when the characters were talking and wasting time.  There was a scene where our heroes seem to have forgotten they don’t know where Barlow is, and he already warned him what he would do next now they have pissed him off. It was hard to also read about the baby that was being abused by its mother.   There is romance, but it didn’t really get me in feels, but it was cute.  It sad with what happens with the couple.  Ben Mears is likable and flawed main character that is deeply affected by trauma in his life already, but Mark Petrie is my favorite. His bravery and acceptance of the situation is admirable, and he has a confidence of having a better understanding of things without being cocky about it.   Despite him being 12 and me being 33, I related to his personality more than the other characters, though Matt Burke is a close second.   I also like Father Callahan, especially since he is a priest, who doesn’t act self-righteous and is a man with faults making a far more interesting character. This vampire story kept me turning them pages and wanting to what was going to happen next.  BTW, I personally think this is one of his good endings.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Racial slurs, Violence, Addiction, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse

emma_ann's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Animal death, Suicide, Child abuse, and Child death

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I thought the town and the characters within the town were fascinating. With that said, the main character was bland… and this book was wayyyy too long. I loved Dracula so I had a bit of hope. This book isn’t terrible, but it definitely isn’t the bed vampire read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Homophobia, Sexism, Child abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Medical content, and Addiction

Moderate: Sexual content, Infidelity, and Grief

Minor: War and Vomit

Just assume this book has it all.

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

3.5

I'm a fan of the few Stephen King adaptations I've seen, but this was my first time reading him. He has a very prominent reputation positive and negative, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It ended up a pretty mixed bag. 

I enjoyed the plot and—while at times meandering—his prose was great. I liked the focus on classic vampire lore and how it connects to the characters' tenets of literature and religion in the modern world. But there were things that bogged it down as well. 

To start, there were so many characters referenced it felt like I was expected to learn the names and personalities of the entire town. I liked the main players, and thankfully I got over the confusion once the plot got going and focused more on them. There were a couple relevant female characters, but I wish they had a larger role in the story overall. And of course the casual use of homophobic slurs/mentions of rape/slut shaming really date the book. And I honestly expected it to be scarier. 

I'd heard about his lackluster endings more than once, but I quite enjoyed this one. I thought it worked for the story being told, if a bit simply. And I know horror endings are though to land. 

Overall a good book with flaws. I'm definitely willing to try more of his work, so if anyone has suggestions of where to start, please feel free. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Alcoholism, and Animal death

Minor: Blood, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, and Rape

carrionkid's review against another edition

4.0

I actually liked this book a lot however it definitely was written in 2 different periods of time because in the first half, there's 7 uses of queer/queerboy and 6 uses of fag/faggot and by page 300 there are NO SLURS WHATSOEVER so I guess Stephen king had a moral crisis about using slurs somewhere in between halves of this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, and Alcoholism

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.25

Usually I find Stephen king books a little slow to get into but the ending makes it all worth while. With Salem's Lot, I actually preferred the beginning. I loved reading about the characters and their small town lives in the 70's. I thought it was beautifully written and I would have been happy to read more about their day to day activities. Once shit started to hit the fan, I was interested but I never found myself feeling very afraid or surprised at any point which is why I didn't give it a higher rating.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Infidelity, Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, and Addiction

Minor: War, Rape, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

There's a dog deaty that some may find upsetting. A lot of people die but many are "off camera deaths" so overall this book isn't too explicit. There's a couple sex scenes but they aren't really graphic.

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic relationship