Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Stand

Ooooh boy, where to start.

The Stand begins and ends with characters. While there is a plot and all the characters are moving to advance it, the whole point of the book is humanity and how it responds. I think this is largely shown through Glen's perspective and is even foreshadowed through him. But that is me getting ahead of myself. The story is very character driven and if that isn't for you, you probably won't enjoy this because literally all it is, for the first about 700 pages is just the characters walking. You can really feel the inspiration of The Lord of the Rings in a lot of this because it is the characters walking, doing introspection, and feeling the eye of the big bad watching them.

Each of the characters kind of represent a different part of humanity.

Stu, often called the reluctant hero, though all he did was

break his leg instead of dying in the nuclear blast

, is quiet, thoughtful and methodical. He is no more than averagely intelligent, but if given a problem will sit with it and fiddle with it long enough to come up with a solution. That solidness and perseverance is what saves him in the end.

Fran, who starts off as wonderful headstrong woman that approaches most shitty situations with a giggle and a determined stance, is essentially reduced to a human incubator near the end of the book. (I wouldn't call this a spoiler, since she is pregnant from our first introduction to her.) Which is perhaps the biggest thing that brings the rating down for me. She was one of my favorite characters in the initial story telling and I think if King had pushed for another 500 pages, or made this the series it desperately needed to be, I think she wouldn't have been done as dirty. But on the whole she is kind of a let down, simply becoming the symbol of hope that humanity can survive.

Nick, dear Nick, he is the heart of this little survival community. A deaf and mute man, who was abused and tortured for most of his short life overcomes astounding trauma

only to be cut down too soon. But what is a King novel if my favorite character doesn't die?

. Nick brings the community together, he has a sense and a need for order and drives everyone to form a more organized society. He's the first to expose us to the dreams of Mother Abigail and the Dark Man.

Larry, Larry is human arrogance and self indulgence at it's finest. That being said he's one of my favorites, and I loved watching his growth. I think out of all the characters his arch was the most satisfying. "You ain't no nice guy," he gets told in the beginning and that thought along with his mother calling him a taker drives him to become a better man. He leads a whole group West, after not even being able to take care of himself and almost giving over to depression and self loathing. Watching him form bonds and love for himself was one of the best parts. Without being able to acknowledge our own needs and desires and when it is best to tamp them down to serve others, we are nothing in a community.

Lloyd may not be a bad man himself, but he certainly has aligned himself with one. Nothing more than a two-bit criminal who likes weed and guns, and is a little slow on the uptake. Lloyd finds himself in a shootout that lands him in prison just when Captain Tripps is starting to claim its souls. He is pretty good at taking direction, being a second hand man and doing what needs to get done. His morality seems to align with who is the most powerful in the room at the time. He comes off kind of childish in a bit of a dark way.

The Walkin' Dude, Randy Flagg, the Dark Man, the Tall Man etc. He rounds out the first six characters we are really introduced to, that we really follow. He is an ancient darkness. King essentially uses "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Stones as his introduction. If you have never heard the song, then please go listen to it, seriously. But also, the lyrics are after this paragraph because why the hell not? Flagg is not necessarily the devil or even a devil, you can decide that for yourself. But he certainly makes many feel that he is. His goals are not entirely clear, but it is clear that he likes power. He may be the personification of the quote "absolute power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." He has certain abilities that make him King's version of Sauron perhaps.

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long years
Stole million man's soul an faith

And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

Stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed Tsar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

I shouted out
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politnesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, mm yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, mm mean it, get down

Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Aah yeah

Tell me baby, what's my name?
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name?
Tell me baby, what's my name?
I tell you one time, you're to blame

What's my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name?
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name?

None of these characters are near each other, when Captain Tripps, Tube Neck, or the Superflu break out, and many don't find each other at all. We get to follow them as they watch their friends and family die, get kidnapped by the US government, or get put in a position of authority because they are the last one left. We watch them scrape and scramble and fight for their last bit of sanity and then we meet the Trashcan Man.

I felt so much pitty for Trash. He was abused by his father, watched his father get killed by his stepfather, got sent to an institution where he received shock therapy that fucked him up even further and then went to prison where all the tropes happened to him. Trashy is not bright, he is not quick witted or sharp, but man is he good with fire and bombs. We get to watch him travel west, blowing things up and losing more and more of his mind as he vows "my life for you" to Las Vegas where he will join Flagg. At this point Flagg has collected Lloyd and has started out a base of operations that serves to remind us that evil is not some big and dark thing, it is largely government. Vegas runs on a strict set of rules, show up to work on time, put in a solid 8 hours or more, don't overdo it on drugs, sex or alcohol. Capitol punishment for rules breakers.

Our other main four characters also begin their journeys, though to what they aren't sure. Except Nick, Nick is the only one that knows straight away where to go. He dreams of Mother Abigail and heads her way.

Mother Abigail is the other reason this isn't a five for me. This is more of King's magical black minority trope. She is the only explicitly not white character in the book and therefore, is magic. She is 108 years old and is deeply connected to the Christian God. Her light and goodness brings everyone to her homestead in Nebraska and she leads them to Boulder where they make their new community. Honestly, the story could have happened without her IMO. She is touted as Flagg's opposite but is not shown to actually be that. She somewhat personifies our desire to believe that there is something bigger leading us, the reason why religion evolved in the first place. She brings community, which religion can do for many, and a sense of purpose, which many also find in religion. But she doesn't really do anything, which IME is actually pretty accurate too for religion.

Stu, breaking free of a government research facility stumbles first on Glen. Glen is a sociology professor and brings a lot of insights into humanity. He personifies our need to classify, identify and extrapolate from past actions to what may happen in the future. He is a kind man serves as a sort of father figure that the group really needs.

When Fran is deciding to leave Maine she is joined by the 17 year old brother of her best friend. Harold is kind of a quintessential nice guy character. He is hyper intelligent, in that obnoxious way that men and boys who believe themselves to be so much smarter than the average person are, and thinks that means the world owes him something. If r/Iamverysmart where a thing in 1990 you could have found screenshots of Harold's long Facebook ramblings posted there every week. Harold, well read as he is, has the idea to head to the very disease center that Stu was held at, and Fran joins him. Since, it was Harold's idea he now believes the world owes him and it owes him Frannie. While Harold's interactions with Fran, and especially when they meet up with Stu, are annoying to read simply because if you are a woman you have likely heard men like Harold say these exact same things, Fran's views on it are much worse. At first she is frustrated by Harold and disgusted by him, but then his ideas ability to lead them to the center make her feel like she owes him and that just gets annoying. She starts feeling like she has done him wrong, or done him a disservice by not loving him. Maybe a lot of us have felt that way about someone, but it is so hard to read when we you know how scuzzy the other person involved is. So, Harold and Fran join Stu and then Glen.

Kojak, honestly is the best part of this whole doorstop of a book. He starts out with Glen, and when Glen joins Stu, Fran and Harold to go West they can't bring him on the bikes. This dog, this fucking dog, follows them. I won't spoil it, I'm not even gonna put it behind a block because you need to experience what Kojak experienced but he went through hell to get to Boulder.

Tom, M-O-O-N that spells Tom Cullen. I love this man. Next to Kojak he is the best part of the book and honestly, they are the two true heros of the story. Because the book should probably be called "How Frannie Goldsmith had a baby in the Pandemic and gave hope to the rest of society" and without Tom and Kojak her future husband would not have survived. Ugh. Anyway, Tom is such a special character. He is developmentally delayed and cannot read, which makes it difficult for Nick, who communicates through writing, to befriend him. But they become best friends and it is the most wholesome and heartwarming thing in this whole book. Which makes what Nick does to him even harder, but then Tom wouldn't have been the hero if Nick hadn't done it. Tom represents what is good and kind about all of us.

Tom and Nick come across Ralph. Ralph is a jolly man who comes up with the idea for a CB radio to be able to contact all the other people coming in to Boulder, or The Freezone.

Nadine, ugh Nadine was such a waste. Typical virginal school marm achetype, but with the twist that she's got a dark secret given to her by a Ouiji board. She saves Larry from Joe, a wild boy, and he gets them to join him. He finds one of Harold's signs and they all follow Harold west. Simply because she is beautiful, Larry falls for Nadine and is rebuffed. Things grow distant after that because she is the only one that doesn't want to talk about the dreams, WHICH NO ONE FINDS SUSPICIOUS?

Joe/Leo is wildly important for a bit and then just kind of fades away which I was annoyed by. I liked his character a lot and he reminds me very much of Wrath from Full Metal Alchemist. When Nadine first finds him he is a wild thing of a boy who doesn't talk, only grunts and wields a kitchen knife. He wants to kill Larry many times before they meet him, but when Larry plays the guitar Joe is overwhelmed with excitement and then is able to mimic Larry's playing. Larry starts the process of bringing Joe back to his old self, something that Nadine could not do.

So that rounds out all the important characters. We follow them in town for a while and then plot points start happening. Harold and Nadine go darksided and people die. Mother Abigail sends the men west, because it has to be the men when it is a Christian god, and then ... the ending would have happened whether or not the characters were there. That is the most frustrating part! Like, they didn't need to be there!!! They could have stayed home. It is built like this epic journey and they didn't even need to be there to throw the ring into the fires of Mordor, because one of the orcs accidentally blew up the mountain.

None of the female characters are really important. They're just ...

All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid
Nymph then virgin, nurse and a servant
Just an appendage, live to attend him
So that he never lifts a finger
24-7, baby machine
So he can live out his picket fence dreams
It's not an act of love if you make her
You make me do too much labour

The only nurse in town plays nurse even when the only doctor is a cow vet. All the women magically cook, none of the men ever do even though it is all canned goods. The women learn to garden and farm, the woman gets used as a sex toy so that the evil plot against the committee can happen sooner. Women are done so dirty in this.

What makes me love it though, is the true representations of humanity and what it does under pressure. That it could also be called "Dogs, why we don't deserve them" or "Stop overlooking those you think you are above" just as much as it could be called "Frannie's gonna have a baby that symbolizes hope." It is anti-government, anti-military, anti-capitalism and illustrates positive male friendships in a really wholesome light. As frustrated as it made me at times the warmth between Nick and Tom, Nick and Ralph, Ralph and Tom, and Stu and Glen brought tears to my eyes more than once.

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Wow... after starting this book coincidentally after the COVID-19 pandemic started and putting it down because it got a little too real, I am done with it!
What. A. Ride.
To me, Salem's Lot will always be my favorite book by King, but, goddamn, I can absolutely see why people say this is their favorite by him, and their favorite novel ever.
I thought that this was such a fantastically written book. It has all of the camp, and humor you want from King while balancing it and sometimes overloading it with tons of tragedy and sadness.

King stated that this book was written as his attempt to write something in the same line as Lord of the Rings and I think that while that is a tall order, this is a strong effort.
Let me start by saying that of all of the King I have read, I enjoyed this cast the most. I felt like everyone within this book had a good amount of background, and felt very fleshed out. This book has some of my favorite characters of all of King's work that I have read. I mean, Nick Androse? Aka the KING? Mother Abigail? Tom Cullins? Stu? Frannie? KOJACK? What a fuckin' cast. Holy hell. This book is an absolute masterclass in writing a diverse cast. Every character is introduced in such a way that you see them truly grow. Seeing Nick or Harold, or Frannie or Larry or shucks even Nadine from the beginning of the book to the end is such a treat. You can actually visualize the experiences of these characters. They grow, they mature, they endure, their emotions deepen, their love grows, their hate metastasizes- it is such an amazingly written cast. I adored seeing people like Stu and Larry really come in to their own and be the leaders they knew they could be. Seeing Harold devolve in to a quick-witted, lethally intelligent villain was tragic, but fascinating.

I thought that the foils to the heroes being Randy Flagg and his group were stellar- he is a villain that you hate, and you know you hate him and what he stands for, but, I will be damned if I didn't love when he was on page just to see what happens next. He is truly the embodiment of evil- and I think the lore behind him and this being his introduction really sets a strong stage for him to be on. I love the idea of this near omnipotent being having been introduced in this book.

I thought that the plot was absolutely terrifying. A virus that kills 99+% of those infected is so fucking scary. Their deaths are absolutely horrific, which is already scary enough, but, then you have the aftershocks of it, and how those who didn't die are left to grapple with reality. I love the way that King writes this book where you almost feel a level of dependence- of malcontent, like you should turn away from hope because it is such a bleak reality. But, then the groups get bigger and bigger and towns and establishments are set up. The way that the virus spreads with something a banal as a reference to people "getting sick" and then them dying and dying and dying and fucking dying- it is so terrifying to read through. This is so great, because this gives King the ability to write the reinvention of humanity. I thought that I was going to get bored reading about civil politics and generators, but, I truly found myself feeling excited when the characters succeeded. I also love how King sews seeds of discontent as well as character backstories in their actions and dialogue rather than an exposition dump.
I love the variety of characters. We have well read and educated characters, characters with disabilities, pregnancies, different racial backgrounds and even a guy from a different plane of existence.
This is the story of good verses evil, and I think that King adds enough to it to make it an absolutely addicting read. Every time I was not reading this book I was wanting to, every time a cliffhanger ended my reading session I was always wondering what was going to happen next.

When it comes to graphic displays of violence, and death- there are not many authors who I can recommend for gore hounds who just need to know how someones skull is blown away by a bullet, or something alike.
I always have commended King for his graphic descriptions of violence- and this book is no different. I think that he absolutely has a knack for writing a well done action scene.

Now, over the course of 1,100+ pages there is going to be room for some things that just... didn't work for me. The biggest thing about this was the ending. Absolutely the ending. I just thought that Trashcan Man coming back with an atom bomb and detonating it was so marred with plot convenience that it made me roll my eyes. It just struck me that King looked at his page count and thought "oh shit, I need to wrap this up...".
I have made peace, however, with King's dialogue which I am still not a fan of, but, am no longer going to rail against, as I know that dialogue filled to the brim with references to old songs and repeated utterances of phrases over and again is just something that is going to happen.

I thought that this book being a focus on the human condition was such an interesting read. I found so much to love about this book. I laughed with these characters, and I loved reading about their experiences. I hated others, even ones I was probably supposed to like. I found that King amazingly well, wrote a story that preyed upon the primal fear of instability, and the fear of a loss of faith. This is a potent read, and, perhaps I am delving in to it too deeply, but, I thought that the commentary of blind faith or being a Svengali, or the lack of trust and faith was such an interesting subtext to read.
This book is well worth a read, and I am excited to go back through it.

Content Warnings

lineyrose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

Content Warnings

tatitos's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

dont_stop_meow's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.0

How has Stephen King not been cancelled? I don't agree with cancel culture, but in today's culture, how has Stephen King not been called out for the sheer number of blatant n words he uses? I'm baffled that nobody has cried out for this book to be removed from shelves, not just for the use of racial slurs, but also of homophobic terminologies.
This will be the last Stephen King book I'm tempted to read. He's gross and I'm done with him.

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cinnamonpizza8's review

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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.

Content Warnings

sparky_young_upstart's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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