Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Stand

I don't have any words to express how happy I am to finally finish this book. I love King's writing but this was insanity. The sure length of the book was intimidating enough. But the story did not disappoint. From the first second of craziness to the somewhat twist ending, I was enthralled in this story. There were some boring parts, but there always are. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Content Warnings

mxpringle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Best Stephen King novel of all time. It was so masterful and complex and I think that I'll be thinking about this book for a long long time.

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artmajorese's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

1.0

I had to stop 62% in. I picked it as my first Stephen King novel because it's in a couple of the top 10 lists from King fans. Big "men writing women" vibes. Plus the unique "heterosexual white man writes post-apocalyptic sex lives" vibes, which are as problematic as you might think.

He edited it to add a bunch of extra stuff in the '90s, but didn't bother to edit out the N word. Left the whole racist tone intact.

Pacing is kind of uneven. Not my taste for a book! Instead of anything horrifying or spooky, the tension stems from the fact that you might run smack into sexual violence around any corner.

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thestudioussister's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-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? Yes

4.0

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mswarning's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

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

3.75

Omg I finished this M-O-O-N, that spells monster, of a book. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. As someone who did not read a book over 500 pages until mid September, I deserve a gold star for reading a book this long. Holy shit.

I know this tells you nothing of what I thought of the book itself. Well, I added a lot of notes while I read this book. Allow me to share:

2%: "The n-word usage is not my fave." - SG
2%: "This one is sooo long. Hoping I can finish in 18 days 😬 " - Instagram
5%: "I'm not super into this narrator." - SG
30%: "I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Waaaaay too many characters and POVs. And I'm so-so on the narrator." - GR
30%: "I'm listening to the extended uncut version, btw. I'm sure the original one is better." - GR. At this point, I was still naïve AF.
30%: "Took awhile to get into it, especially with so many povs. 12 days to finish now. 🤞" - Instagram
43%: "M-O-O-N spells slog." - GR
53%: "The first 40% was way too long. I can't believe I didn't know that this book is over 1100 pages. 😂" - GR
69%: "I have to finish in 5 days, which I think is doable. If I had to do this over again, I would stick to the print." - GR
69%: "Semi-regular 'The Stand' update. Feeling less irritable about the length now. Pretty confident I'll finish in 5 days. I can't say it's been a pleasurable experience racing to the end. I can tell this book sits better on the buildup of anticipation with dread steadily increasing - as all good King books do. Get a copy without a due date and stay away from the audiobook. Or if you do get it, prepare to increase the speed or you'll feel it suck the life out of you. I miss listening to music or letting myself think in silence. I feel guilty when I watch TV, that I should be listening to this book. Ugh." - Instagram
82%: "I might make it? The book is due in 3 days. Less than 9 hours left [in the audiobook]." - GR
95%: "I'm gonna make it after allllll." - GR
100%: "Finished with 5 hours to spare! I feel like all of my complaints were 1) the audiobook narrator and 2) the loan period. So don't make those mistakes, and you'll be fine." - Instagram

Highlights: Walking at the lake this past weekend listening to the book aloud because my bluetooth headphones had no battery left. The, uh, sex scenes and n-word usage while doing so was a bit sketchy. I had to pause the book or turn down the volume as I passed people.

Overall, I still ended up liking this book. You can tell how naïve I was about the length. I mean I knew it was 47 hours long, but I didn't really know ANYTHING about what that meant. I kept thinking I knew where this book was going or how it would end. I think that's the point, you're prepared for certain tropes or plot twists because authors tend to pull the same shenanigans. I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't say it's my favorite King book, but I think it's definitely my favorite King reading experience. Because of all my thoughts and feelings and the fact that I documented it all here.. and on GR and Insta. 😂

I still stand by all the updates/comments I made while I listened to The Stand. It's too long. As time went by and all the characters met up, I kind of forgot about the slog of the beginning. Part of that is recency bias, I think. But I understand why it's so long. I can appreciate it more on this side of it, even if I hated it while it was happening.

And yeah, check out the content warnings. There are a lot.

Content Warnings

justinecass's review against another edition

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The number of racial slurs in this book coupled with the derogatory language towards people with disabilities was actually wild. I couldn't listen anymore. Not to mention the way King writes women characters is the actual worst. The fact that this was republished 10 years ago and none of this language was corrected blows my mind. Let's just say The Stand did not age well.

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melissamarisacelina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

I liked the characters but the story was a little wonky for me. I would give this book five stars if it was more like the first 300 pages. It was dark, apocalyptic, and it felt so real.

Halfway however, it became a completely different book, it made me feel blind sided. I kinda kept going bc I know this is Stephen kings best book… it started to get a little better before it got a lot better towards the very end.

Overall, I enjoyed it.

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