A review by lilashelly
The Stand by Stephen King

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I generally don't read Stephen King. I don't like his writing style, I find it to be very pretentious. But a friend at work told me this is his favorite horror book so I gave it a shot. I actually did enjoy the plot, but there's so much that feels so dragged out and a lot of filler. And I get that it was written in 1990, but a lot of the racial terms felt unnecessarily added.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic