Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Stand

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Stand by Stephen King

54 reviews

xcinnamonsugar's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

According to my Kobo, it took me 20 reading hours to finish this tome. I've DNF-ed books a fraction of The Stand's length without hesitation, so yes this book is engaging enough to stick to despite being over 1000 pages long (I read the uncut/extended version).

The Stand is divided into three parts:

Book I sets the stage. A deadly flu way more contagious and lethal than Covid spreads rapidly throughout the United States and kills 99% of the population.
Book II focuses on the 1% of survivors. They all have recurring supernatural dreams of two people: "good" is incarnated in an elderly black lady named Mother Abagail, while "evil" takes shape in a man named Randall Flagg. All survivors gravitate toward one of these two people, making gruelling cross-country pilgrimages that claim a few more lives in the process.
Book III is the cinematic good-versus-evil conclusion to this epic story. Despite juggling an ambitious number of character arcs, everything ties in together nicely at the end.

Book I was probably the dullest to get through, given that we've already had first-hand experience with a global pandemic. Reading about quarantines and an overwhelmed public system felt a little too on the nose. There are also separate chapters introducing at least twenty different characters, which can feel a little disorienting. However, I've read enough Stephen King to realise that his books tend to start off very slowly, giving even the NPCs a well-rounded backstory.

Book II is where it gets interesting, since you begin to see how King hypothesises each of the myriad characters in our society makes their choice. One of the characters, Glen Bateman, is a sociologist. His little monologues theorising how human behaviour would inevitably lead to a certain pattern of progression in these little scrappy survivor communities was one of my favourite parts of this book.

Book III was pretty intense, but all's well that ends well. Many main characters died, but I thought the ways that each of them met their deaths was rather poetic and satisfying, even if a little sad.

Knocked a star off because, for all King's storytelling prowess, I cannot in good faith give 5 stars to any book with this much graphic sexual assault and objectification of the female body.

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nicilaui's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book was an incredible journey and accompanied me for a whole month of my life. That's why I feel very close to the characters and will surely miss them. King can write fluently and interestingly, which is why I was able to get through this mountain of pages easily. This crusher should have been read during Corona, but even so, I was able to draw very creepy parallels to the past pandemic. The basic structure of the work was really great, but I couldn't get stuck inside the story. The narration is extremely biblical, but then again ‘cool’ and typically ‘American’. The story built up naturally one after the other, but a lot of tension was lost for me. I could guess the ending very early on in almost exactly the same way as it happened, which I found very sobering. All in all, I'm not mad about reading this book, I really enjoyed it, but it didn't grab me in any way like other books have done in my life. In the end, a lot happened, but in a way nothing happened at all (maybe that's the point).

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scipio_africanus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

Damn good story. My first time reading Stephen King, and he didnt disappoint. From the synopsis I went in expecting it to be overly sentimental, corny, cartoonish, or just plain weak the way The Postman ended up being but was pleasantly surprised with the direction King took the story and the characters. I see why King is so successful. Great writing and a great time. Will def be exploring him more.

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huffkjames's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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dflemmons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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catherineelms's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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glysing's review against another edition

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slow-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? No

0.5

Worst book I have ever read. Very good proof of why men are unable to write women’s perspectives. And also a school book example of a book where every single woman character is a sexobject or a mother. Over all a confusing storyline that feels like a series who got to seasons enough. Do not recommend to anyone ever.

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