A review by rhogregoire
The Running Man by Stephen King, Richard Bachman

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

 I have pretty strongly mixed feelings on this. I liked the story, but I didn't like the amount of explicit racism in the worldbuilding. It's used as a backdrop for the lower classes, and dialed way up even from where it is today. For a book that's critiquing capitalism and class, I don't think it added anything to the story to have the lower classes so steeped in racism. A generous view would be to say that it's intending to illustrate how the class system is unfair even when the lower classes might be "undesirable" or bigoted people, but that's a pretty elitist and white view of how American class works. 
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