Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

7 reviews

emmiemopho's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

my “Whyyyy stephenn???” List:

Bag of Bones 1998 

-referring to a child as being an exotic taste

-“Breasts” 

-His classic racism towards Japanese people 

-The way he mansplains what masturbation is 

-Blue balling 

-His sex scenes take me out 

-The question of “did I rape the 5 year old?” In his sleep and wasn’t necessarily upset about it 

-The list of all the things you can (and shouldn’t) call a black man 

-At first screws his wife and then R’s her corpse in dreamland 

-V.C. Andrews is regarded as his professional enemy (interesting) 

-Mal-formed Dwarves might turn him on? Was that a joke? Why was that placed during a fantasy thought??? 

-He always has a tangent about fat people 

-Women in need of help are to be sexualized completely. 

-“Stroking” 

-Just some other proof the main character is him: MC talks about naming the book he’s writing “bag of bones”. 

-Regains a trust point: MC does not like black people being called bad words-although is this black people generally done or is it specific to the band he likes so much? So maybe not so much of a trust point.

-Over half way and he mentions something the little girl says sounds Vietnamese & exotic

-Whenever someone mentions how young the MC’s crush is, he imagines her in a vulgar way and seems to have an obsession with her being just above legal. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Gaslighting, Death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Infertility, Physical abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

Minor: Blood and Fatphobia

lay_kone's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Rape, Classism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Racism

woodselisa76's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the first book I've read where I wanted to throw it across the room more than once. The first book where I wanted to stop and keep reading toward the end at the same time. I loved Mike, Mattie, Kyra and Jo's characters. The Epilogue tied the end up and I loved it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual harassment, Cancer, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Death, Abortion, Sexual content, Suicide, Cursing, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Pregnancy, and Racism

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

4.25

Review of Bag of Bones

By: Stephen King

            It’s been four years since author, Mike Noonan, lost his wife, Jo, and he hasn’t been able to write a new book.  He finally gets the courage to return to the lake house, Sarah Laughs, that they bought years go.  He realizes the place is haunted by Jo and the black singer the house is named for Sarah Tidwell.  Mike meets Mattie, a young mother, whose husband died years ago, and her computer tycoon father in-law wants Mattie and his son’s daughter, Kyra, by any means necessary.  Mike finds himself mixed up in this custody battle and this situation might be connected to the hauntings in his vacation house.

            This is quite a spooky and emotional read following similar themes to Lisey’s Story.  Both stories are about widowers and being haunted by the memories of their dead spouses.  In Bag of Bones the roles are reversed from Lisey’s Story where the one left behind is the writer.  This story deals with so much more than grief. There is a plot about racism that is horrifying and sad to read as once again King doesn’t sugar coat anything.  Like in most of his books, the story highlights the ugly side of humanity through racism and a custody battle.  We also get a chilling ghost story that made me fear for the lives of our characters.  Once again, King does include content that not everybody will comfortable like hearing characters use the “N” and “W” word, a rape, scene, and an age gap relationship.  Romance does come off as authentic, to me at least, but the huge age gap is weird to me.  The relationship between Mike and Kyra Noonan is sweet and endearing and we right amount of Kyra for het to not be annoying.  Max Devore was a great and hatable villain, though the custody battle wasn’t as intriguing as the ghost story.  Since the story zooms in on Mike and his relationship with the Devores, the secondary characters aren’t as developed, but I did we want to understand them better.  King may include content that makes him a polarizing author, but he knows how to tell a rather good tale.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Cancer, Suicide, and Racism

newsteadlibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Gore, Child death, Sexual assault, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death

Minor: Homophobia

shrektien's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

I’ll be honest, this book holds a ton of misogyny/unsettling thoughts from men about women shed in a positive light or a “that’s just how we are” light and it was hard to read sometimes. Huge fan of King but this one I could’ve skipped. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Murder, Kidnapping, Rape, Violence, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, and Death of parent

alisonnicholslol's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Highly recommend! Very likable characters, made me cry.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Child abuse, and Car accident