A review by eswee
The Stand by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Wow, what to say about these 1100-something pages in just a couple of words? First of all, I was surprised about how fast I read this, which already tells you my next bit. It was good. The pacing was nice, not too many slow parts. Some gaps though, but nothing too bothersome. The book is separated into three parts, and the three parts all were different, yet the same and bound together. In the first part of the Stand you learn about a superflu that is rapidly spreading and killing people. Sounds familiair? Yeah, it kinda did. But this was written in the late 80's. There is one chapter to specifically explain, in a way it fit's both the story and makes you realize how easy such a superflu spreads. Even with the every day knowledge of 2020/2021 it was eery to read. We meet up with some people that don't seem to die while everyone else does and foul mouthed as Stephen King can be, he didn't hesitate to even let a couple of kids die in awful ways we all sometimes think about and now see happening before our eyes. Even though some people might have problems with this, I really felt it added to the story. This superflu doesn't shrink back for important people or sad people, it just kills everyone. Except those few that survived. Who start having dreams, and start following them, finding eachother and setting up a new community. Of course there are a lot of bad things, and there are threats to the community. The last part is about the battle between good and evil, and again we follow a couple of people on their quest. Because this is such a long story there is also a lot of detail, but not much of it feels too overdone. I did notice this is not a story to read just 30 minutes a day from, it's meant to give you that feeling, soaking up in it and it's better digested when you read a fair bunch of it at a time. Overall, I think it's a good story. I might even reread it someday!