chromiummoth 's review for:

The Long Walk by Stephen King

3.0

dark emotional tense 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

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This is my first Stephen King book and with all the hype around the movie coming out, I figured I'd give this a go. I find myself rather disappointed with how much people talk up King's novels. Part of it was how I listened (through Spotify) and the audio cutting off and leaving off words, but that's not the books fault. The plot just wasn't for me; I took it as an allegory for war or capitalism and it wasn't done in an exciting way (maybe Squid Game burnout). The characters were all rather nasty and unlikeable (and all the homophobic/racist/sexist comments really didn't help). It felt like them all talking in circles until their ultimate demise and it wasn't even that interesting and the deaths seemed to come out of left field for some characters (although perhaps that's the point?). If I had been reading and not listening, I imagine this would have been on my DNF.