Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Stand by Stephen King

23 reviews

emilyrose724's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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ladawson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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mxpringle's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Best Stephen King novel of all time. It was so masterful and complex and I think that I'll be thinking about this book for a long long time. 

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artmajorese's review against another edition

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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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mswarning's review against another edition

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

3.75

Omg I finished this M-O-O-N, that spells monster, of a book. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. As someone who did not read a book over 500 pages until mid September, I deserve a gold star for reading a book this long. Holy shit.

I know this tells you nothing of what I thought of the book itself. Well, I added a lot of notes while I read this book. Allow me to share:

2%: "The n-word usage is not my fave." - SG
2%: "This one is sooo long. Hoping I can finish in 18 days 😬 " - Instagram
5%: "I'm not super into this narrator." - SG
30%: "I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Waaaaay too many characters and POVs. And I'm so-so on the narrator." - GR
30%: "I'm listening to the extended uncut version, btw. I'm sure the original one is better." - GR. At this point, I was still naïve AF.
30%: "Took awhile to get into it, especially with so many povs. 12 days to finish now.  🤞" - Instagram
43%: "M-O-O-N spells slog." - GR
53%: "The first 40% was way too long. I can't believe I didn't know that this book is over 1100 pages.  😂" - GR
69%: "I have to finish in 5 days, which I think is doable. If I had to do this over again, I would stick to the print." - GR
69%: "Semi-regular 'The Stand' update. Feeling less irritable about the length now. Pretty confident I'll finish in 5 days. I can't say it's been a pleasurable experience racing to the end. I can tell this book sits better on the buildup of anticipation with dread steadily increasing - as all good King books do. Get a copy without a due date and stay away from the audiobook. Or if you do get it, prepare to increase the speed or you'll feel it suck the life out of you. I miss listening to music or letting myself think in silence. I feel guilty when I watch TV, that I should be listening to this book. Ugh." - Instagram
82%: "I might make it? The book is due in 3 days. Less than 9 hours left [in the audiobook]." - GR
95%: "I'm gonna make it after allllll." - GR
100%: "Finished with 5 hours to spare! I feel like all of my complaints were 1) the audiobook narrator and 2) the loan period. So don't make those mistakes, and you'll be fine." - Instagram

Highlights: Walking at the lake this past weekend listening to the book aloud because my bluetooth headphones had no battery left. The, uh, sex scenes and n-word usage while doing so was a bit sketchy. I had to pause the book or turn down the volume as I passed people.

Overall, I still ended up liking this book. You can tell how naïve I was about the length. I mean I knew it was 47 hours long, but I didn't really know ANYTHING about what that meant. I kept thinking I knew where this book was going or how it would end. I think that's the point, you're prepared for certain tropes or plot twists because authors tend to pull the same shenanigans. I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't say it's my favorite King book, but I think it's definitely my favorite King reading experience. Because of all my thoughts and feelings and the fact that I documented it all here.. and on GR and Insta.  😂 

I still stand by all the updates/comments I made while I listened to The Stand. It's too long. As time went by and all the characters met up, I kind of forgot about the slog of the beginning. Part of that is recency bias, I think. But I understand why it's so long. I can appreciate it more on this side of it, even if I hated it while it was happening.

And yeah, check out the content warnings. There are a lot.

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flamesocks's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


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ktdakotareads's review against another edition

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

4.0


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michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

⚠️ TW: racism, ableism, sexism, suicide, drug use, death, violence, murder, rape, cannibalism, graphic content ⚠️ Wow this is one hell of read and I was obsessed with it, when I was reading I couldn't put it down and when I did I couldn't stop thinking about it. It is one of those that is so hard to review without spoilers. This book is about a pandemic caused by a virus called the superflu that wipes out the majority of the population and how the survivors live in a post-apocalyptic America. However, not everything is as it seems and as always there is good and evil in the world fighting side by side to rein supreme but with new societies of both popping up they will not only need to rebuild their societies and lives but will need to take on biblical feats fuelled by ominous dreams whilst fighting for what they believe in. This book is incredible. It is a rollercoaster that plumbs the hopes and fears of the world with unnerving accuracy into every chapter (possibly even more so post-c*vid) and makes you really think about moral and ethical matters. This is one huge chonky boy of a book but I definitely recommend giving it a read. The book follows multiple povs and a lot of characters from all across America and it can be slightly overwhelming at times to keep track of them but it really is worth your full undivided attention because King works his magic and weaves an incredibly compelling and page turning story. And just like when I read 11.22.63 I would be quite happy if this book had another few hundred pages (yes, even though this is the long version), especially at the end iykyk 👀 Overall, I highly recommend reading this book and it is definitely one of my favourites so far this year!

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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


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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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