Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Stand by Stephen King

26 reviews

doctoracula's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

At time the story felt dated but overall the adventure of the book was engaging. I found it eerily similar in some ways to COVID in the earlier parts of the book which then evolved into a more apocalyptic story. Some chapters felt drawn out but that wasn't frequently the case in almost 48 hour audiobook!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Murder, Sexual content, Rape, Toxic relationship, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Death, Violence, Addiction, Cursing, and Domestic abuse

nicilaui's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Abandonment, Grief, Medical trauma, and Slavery

dflemmons's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Sexual content, Trafficking, Death, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cannibalism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Murder, Pregnancy, Gore, Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Fatphobia

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

gagereadsstuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Confinement, Murder, Stalking, Alcohol, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Ableism, Body shaming, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, War, Cannibalism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Gun violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Drug abuse, and Trafficking

Minor: Abortion

secretbadass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Uff da, where to start with this book. I read the uncut version and although I did enjoy the plot and story it was just too long (1141 pages). I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book but it fell off a bit at the end. The plague parts were great, good descriptions and visuals with some disturbing bits and getting to know the characters through their various survival situations was interesting and flowed well. But once all the characters came together things got a little boring and VERY cumbersome. I also ended up not liking one of the main characters (and catalysts) which doesn't help with overall enjoyment. Definitely not bad but read the shorter edited version :P

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Rape, Racial slurs, Grief, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Suicide

katie_helf96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, War, Child abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Violence, Death, Slavery, Gore, Child death, Rape, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, and Grief

saj04's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Sexual violence, Vomit, Violence, Body horror, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Rape, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

kessejeen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, War, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Ableism, and Animal death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child death, Body horror, and Fatphobia

lucyford's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Such a fun read even though it took me about 9 months to finish it. I really enjoyed every chapter and all the character dynamics as well as the whole downfall of society as glen explained it. Such great writing by Stephen King, I was very impressed and there was never a boring moment in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexism, Racial slurs, Grief, Car accident, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Racism, and Alcohol