A review by daveydundo
The Stand by Stephen King

4.0

A lot of people consider this book King's finest work. I came in with extremely high expectations and perhaps that set that bar too high? For me it's not his best work and not even top 5. However, it's still a fantastic story and like just about every other SK book (except From a Buick 8) it's scary as hell - with a few scenes that bled over into my dreams. Unlike most other lengthy King tomes, I had a difficult time getting "hooked" by the story and the characters. It took me ~900 pages to finally feel that captivating feeling where you can't put the book down. Also, as a major fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, I felt underwhelmed by some of the story that dealt with the survival after the event. Lastly, having lived through COVID much of the viral transmission doesn't hold up well and actually pulled me out of the story a few times. All-in-all it was entertaining and scary but didn't measure up to my lofty expectations.