Reviews - The Running Man | The StoryGraph

2.13k reviews for:

The Running Man

David Hájek, Stephen King, Richard Bachman

3.7 AVERAGE

triforcespower's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

bobrien's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 ⭐️’s

mccluskey's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ethanjpatton's review against another edition

3.0

Maybe it's just that this dystopia felt too similar to real life, but rather than thrills, this book mostly just bummed me out. I read it parallel to The Long Walk, which I much preferred.

Planning to rewatch the Arnold movie sometime soonish and look forward to seeing the Edgar Wright take on it.

catsflipped's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Have you ever watched the TV show Hunted? Well this is Hunted on steroids. The game is rigged, no-one has ever lasted 30 days and the cost of failure ........ Death.

All Ben Richards wants to do is provide for his family, what better way than to become a game show contestant? But when the whole country - maybe even workd want to see you die what real hope do you have of success.

Written by Stephen King under his Richard Bachman pseudonym this book take you into a dystopian USA. As you would expect is is so well written, hard to put down and ends with a twist.

rocknrowley's review against another edition

2.5

fast-paced

cutekitten_12's review against another edition

5.0

emotional 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: Yes

This is the first Stephen King book that I read that wasn't a horror/thriller book. It's a story of Ben Richard who takes part in the show 'The Running Man' to pay for the medical treatment that his daughter needs. Along the way he finds that a lot of people would love to cash in on the reward that is being offered to anyone that can kill him. He also encounters several people that decide to help him. I found the book to be amazing and very dystopian.

He's a man that wants to win, for all the right reasons, and people that don't want him to. It's about a world of the have and have not's, how they are treated, and what happens at the end is heartbreaking. No one wins, no one loses, and the price to win is very high.