Reviews

The Stand by Stephen King

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alisonkinkead's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

kittycat2302's review against another edition

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5.0

This was incredible. I was fully hooked when I thought it was "just" a plague contagion outbreak story... and then it was so much more. Stephen King's brilliance is his ability to make you immediately know and care about a character. Every death, every life, every moment mattered so much in this book. Very grateful to the friend who not only encouraged me to read it, but purchased it for me!

murderbotsbestie's review against another edition

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2.0

Ok, so I know I'm in the minority here, but I thought this book was a let down. I mean, it had so much potential. A flu wipes out 99% of the population, the survivors choose between good and evil. The leader of evil, Randall Flagg must do a final showdown in Las Vegas with Mother Abigail, the 108 year-old leader of the good side. Great premise right? Well... First off, characters. We get introduced to 400 characters throughout the book, and none of them left much of an impression. Every other page I kept saying "WHO THE EFF ARE YOU?!?" I couldn't get Larry and Lloyd straight in my head and I constantly forgot who Stu was. You see for 99% of the characters, I just didn't care. Take Larry for instance. He was an unlikable creep who was obsessed with getting laid. At least Lloyd's story was interesting. And Harold. God did I hate Harold. And the weird control he seemed to have over Frannie. He's sex obsessed, mentally disturbed and I hated him from minute one. And yet Frankie seemed to tolerate his inexcusable actions. She had sex with him, even though she didn't like him and wanted to let him down easy. But I never feel like it's her fault though. Women are constantly told if a guy is nice to you, have sex with him. Boys will be boys. Don't be a bitch. She's grown up surrounded by that, and the only thing I feel is anger towards society and Harold. The only characters I did like was Nick, who was a sweetheart and both sane and likable, which is huge for this book. I empathized with him, admired him and enjoyed reading about him. I also like Joe/Leo. He was a fascinating character and I loved him. All I wanted to do was protect him. Glen wasn't bad either, especially at the end. And DANYA. Holy shit this girl was badass. She survived being a literal sex-slave and infiltrated Randall's camp. EVEN WHEN FACED WITH DEATH SHE HAD SNAPPY COMEBACKS! I loved her openness about bisexuality and she's 100% my favorite character. Danya is such a strong person who also has complex emotions and sadness. There were two other characters who I enjoyed reading about, Randall and Nadine. It was fascinating to see into their minds and visualize them. I loved how slowly, Nadine was revealed to be psychotic. And the scene where we met Randall was great. But these don't make up for the middle. It was completely boring and went on for forever. All that happened was sex and walking. Like, it's the apocalypse. Can you focus on something other than your dick for one minute? I hated every minute, skimmed most of it and considered quitting every page. And the ending was awful. It finally started heating up around the 800 page mark, but it was totally different than what it promised. But the final few chapters were a huge letdown for me. ABIGAIL DIDNT EVEN FIGHT RANDALL HERSELF! I was super pissed about that. And the way it all ends was super anticlimactic. And I practically dozed off reading about Stu. The only thing I liked what the last few lines if the book. Overall, huge letdown. The only good thing we're a few characters and a couple chapters. The writing was pretty good, but I thought it lacked emotional punches in a few places by overelaborating. A lot of times, he didn't need to go down a path and keep writing. 2/5 stars

same_sch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What a magnificent book. The length and personal situations made me read half of this book 8 months after reading the first half, but my God, what a brilliant story. I started reading this book thinking that it would just be about a group of people facing an illness and how to deal with it, but I was wrong. This novel delves into good and evil, the decisions we make and their consequences on ourselves and others, the different human emotions such as regret, hate, love, fear, resentment, obsession, among many other things. It is also important to mention the magnificent villain that Randall Flagg is and how he is presented with his strengths and weaknesses.

frankikaos's review against another edition

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4.0

What begins as a "normal" tale of post-apocalyptic survival quickly becomes a supernatural tale of good vs evil.
I loved this book because Stephen King has a knack of building up every character- good or bad -so that you genuinely give a damn what happens to them- again, good or bad -and he isn't afraid of throwing a few twists and turns in there to keep you on your toes.

evy_rinne's review against another edition

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3.0

Long form reviews aren't really my thing anymore. Here are some thoughts:

- Great, dynamic and unique characters with believable and humanistic traits
- Creepy and unsettling main villain
- Vast, expansive and detailed environments
- Engaging and exciting action sequences
- Heartbreaking moments of loss and tumult
- Unnecessarily long and over stuffed
- Third act feels - somehow - rushed and uneven given the massive build up over the first two sections
- Lack of closure of any kind
- Character deaths seem to take place more out of convenience and a desire to do away with them rather than meaningful moments of plot or thematic relevance.

Closer to a 4 than a 3, but sticking with a 3 due to the rating system available.

lancefestivalen's review against another edition

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2.0

Precis när berättelsen börjar bli intressant slutar boken.

Jag vet att jag var kluven redan när jag läste boken som tonåring. Det börjar bra med att alla dör, förutom några här och var. En mystisk man (alltså, bokens omslag och översättningen av Randall Flaggs epitet "the dark man" till "den svarte mannen" är katastrofal. Men, men...) dyker upp och samlar ihop folk, medan ytterligare andra söker sig till en lika mystisk, men uppenbart god kvinna. Och ungefär där börjar det spåra ur.

Det vi får oss till livs är en ganska enkel saga med starka influenser från en närmast religiös uppfattning om ont och gott, kombinerad med lite Sagan om Ringen-smaksatt fantasy, men som samtidigt utspelar sig i ett samtida USA.

Jag betvivlar inte att King har en ganska väl uttänkt mytologi kring allt detta i ryggsäcken, men det känns inte alltid så när jag läser boken. Det blir för enkelt, på något sätt.

Spoiler

Harold Lauder hade potential, men den kastas bort. Likaså den tragiska och labila karaktären Soptunnan.

Ja, egentligen slarvar han bort Randall Flagg också, som mest framstår som ganska endimensionellt ond, trots att det hintas flera gånger att hans bakgrund och person inte är så okomplicerad som det verkar.

Kanske är det en mognadsfråga. För som jag inledde den här texten tar boken slut precis när jag tycker att det börjar bli intressant på allvar. Jag vill veta vad som kommer att hända med de samhällen som börjat byggas upp här och var.

Kommer

Spoiler

Boulder

att implodera under pressen att införa en alltmer repressiv ordningsmakt under den nya polischefen? Vilka öden och äventyr kommer

Spoiler

Stu, Frannie och deras barn

att möta under sin resa? Kort sagt: vad är det för samhälle(n) som kommer att växa fram ur askan efter Pestens Tid?

Det saknas kanske inte svar. "Walking Dead" har gjort ett försök, även om den serien lade till zombies för att hålla det intressant(?). Och Cormac McCarthy:s "Vägen" är ett annat exempel, fast med en atomvinter som fond istället för den lite miljövänligare dödsinfluensan i Kings bok.

Kanske är det ändå bättre än alternativet. För det vete sjutton om jag skulle stå ut med en fortsättning om det ändå bara leder till ännu ett "gott mot ont"-epos med Randall Flagg som antagonist. De andra två exemplen är - när jag tänker på saken - väldigt nyanserade i jämförelse.

exorcismemily's review against another edition

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5.0

This book makes you experience every possible emotion you can experience. It's just a good story of humanity, and I was interested the entire way through. I'm also really proud of myself for finishing this in 2 weeks because I had aimed to finish it in a month. I really enjoyed it, and it's definitely something I could see myself reading again one day. I still have questions about things, but I feel content right now. 4.5 ⭐

doctoracula's review against another edition

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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!

Content Warnings

cheneghan's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

5.0

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