Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Stand by Stephen King

4 reviews

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

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

2.75

I do not see how people say that this is the best King novel that there is. I read the uncut version as is recommended and I can tell you that his publishers were correct for making him cut as much as they did. 

This book starts off so strong. I was gripped from the beginning and couldn't put it down. I wanted to know what happened to each of the characters. Everyone was interesting and dynamic. The book moves along at a nice pace until it doesn't. It comes to a screeching halt

the second that they find mother Abigail and start the Safe Zone in Colorado.

The character development stops, the plot does a hard pivot into something that is weirdly political and horrible to sit through. The lull in the middle is so hard to get through. It was just an absolute slog that added nothing to the story. 

Then, the story picks up again finally and there is movement again towards some kind of resolution.

After Nick's death

it feels like things are finally moving but it really doesn't kick off again. The whole back half of the book is a drag. It never got moving for me again. 

There also are some frustratingly huge issues with the ending.

If the end of the Vegas group was just Trash blowing them up with an atomic bomb, which would have happened anyways, why send the four to Vegas? I know that it was explained as "God requiring a sacrifice" but that just felt like such a stupid cop out to what could have been a really cool final battle. For a book titled "The Stand" there is no actual stand against evil. It is in fact the opposite. Evil consumes itself and there was no reason for Good to be involved in any way. If people had just ignored the Vegas group, the ending would have been the same with a lot less character death.

It was just incredibly frustrating to put in so much time to get such a poorly written and plotted ending. 

This book really highlights the best and worst of King. 

• Pro: Characters are amazing and really fleshed out. You end up feeling connected to each of them and rooting for them 
• Pro: It has a great premise and he has great world building at the beginning of the novel 
• Con: The ending blows and falls flat 
• Con: It is so long and needed some heavy editing. I know that people say that it "fleshes out the world" but you know what I didn't need?
  Chapters of council meetings that had literally no hold on the plot.

If you are a die hard King fan and you want to complete all his works, then this book provides some really great highs and I recommend it for the great characters. 

If you are not a huge King fan and are not sure if you are willing to put in the work, just stay away. The pay off is not worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Gore, Vomit, Body horror, Rape, Pregnancy, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Car accident, Drug abuse, Excrement, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Medical trauma, Violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Medical content

rosereadsalot's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Abortion, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Addiction, Ableism, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gore

artmajorese's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content, Colonisation, Homophobia, Rape, Physical abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Bullying, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence

cinnamonpizza8's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

1/12/2021: This book was good, I'm still letting it sink in so I haven't decided if it has eclipsed It as my favorite Stephen King novel. King gives incredible world-building, manages many complex characters, and layers a multi-level, intertwined journey-focused novel that blew my mind at parts and seemed unnecessarily uncomfortable at other parts. It is the perfect book to be reading right now if you would like to be unsettled about the state of the world and ponder how good versus evil influences the structure of society. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia