Reviews

The Stand by Stephen King

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curiousintrovert's review against another edition

5.0

One of my all time favorites. Epic is an understatement. King creates relatable characters with humor and humanity. Even though this is a very long book there is an economy of language. You'll see.

mcfade28's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

At 1326 pages, there is no doubt this book is overly long, with meandering sections that could have been greatly condensed. And yet, it still feels like a masterpiece.

Stephen King tells the story of society after a devastating pandemic. Reading this after having lived through covid 19 is an interesting experience, and despite writing this novel in the 70s, King's depiction of the disease spreading felt all too realistic.

There are a lot of characters here, but I found I really liked 95% of them, even the villians felt well drawn.

4.75 stars for me. Despite the length, it just felt like the book never got old.

unfranchisablereadr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

5.0

I couldn’t think of any reasons to deduct points from the 5 stars. This will likely be the longest book I read all year. I really enjoyed the different perspectives and how they all converged together. SK also wove in several real life historical events & I loved seeing those used in a different narrative. If you want to read this, I recommend doing both the audiobook and ebook together. The extended version is a chonky boy and took me the better part of a month to read.

jmm's review against another edition

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3.0

Why would you spend 1000 pages of world building if you have the bad guys blow themselves up in the end?

I enjoyed the first and second part, but was kind of let down by the third one. It felt like he really struggled to resolve the conflict he was building up to.

amylikestoread's review against another edition

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2.0

First DNF of 2020. I made it to just about page 900 and I just couldn't force myself to make it to the end. The first 300 or so pages are 4 stars and then it goes downhill from there. I probably should've gone for the abridged version.

grahamclements's review against another edition

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5.0

If ever there was an epic read, at 1325 pages, this is one. A marvelously engrossing story of survival and then good versus evil. Loved the characters. Loved the fact that two of the major characters had disabilities, with one given the role as a leader. It's the best of the three novels I have read of King's. It took me two months to read and I am going to miss reading it.