A review by heathero621
The Stand by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This is a novel about this manmade flu virus that breaks out and kills most of the world.  The survivors tend to go into two groups, one is a good one and the other one is a bad one, led by a bad leader.  This novel is a classic and it is one that is on my TBR of books to finish.  The book that I got was the unedited version that clocked in at 1439 pages!  In the forward King talks about how his editor made him edit it down by 300 pages.  I think that King should've edited down by at least 700 pages!  It was interesting reading this book about this flu because it was eerily similar to COVID-19, but on a much worse scale.  The book was too long for me.  There were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of them, especially the men (there were more men in the story than the women).  I found the book to be boring at times.  It was also a little dated.  It wasn't scary at all and I was thinking that it would have some scariness to it.  I've read a good chunk of his books and this is may be my least favorite that I've read.  I think The Shining was so much better.