A review by the_bookish_rose
The Stand by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I can’t believe I actually finished The Stand as quickly as I did, given how many pages are in it. At a whopping 1,153 pages, this novel really felt like I was reading three separate novels at the same time, but I’ll try to wrap up my thoughts quickly. 

For the first 300-500 pages, I thought the tale was going more in a mystery, apocalypse way, with the superflu wiping out 99% of the population and following the survivors. However, the story gradually shifted to the theme of “good vs evil” with religious ties, and I lost some interest over that. By the end of the book, I almost forgot the superflu was a major theme in the beginning part of the novel, as it seemed like many of the characters had moved on from that and were fighting the main bad guy. 

One aspect I really LOVED about the Stand was the character development; it was truly one of the best, well written aspects of the novel. Though many of the “bad” characters were downright awful people (I.e torturing people and killing for no reason), each character felt fully fleshed out and going back to the beginning, I actually was rooting for many of the good character’s changes in character. I also really liked that the book included disabled characters in its main cast- though some of King’s language would be considered outdated by twenty-first century standards, I really appreciated the humanity given to Nick and to Tom and how they were able to shine throughout the story with their disabilities.

The ending was a little bit disappointing after the entire journey I went through reading about the good guys trying to wipe out the bad guy’s camp, and the very last section felt unrelated and just thrown in for no reason. If there’s a sequel to this tale, I’d love to keep reading it, as the main characters were my cup of tea to read about and I’ll miss some of them.

Recommendations: I would recommend this with a lot of disclaimers, warnings, and general guidelines. Please be sure to check out the trigger warnings online before reading this one, as there’s many to list out. My biggest recommendation for reading this would be is if you are a huge bookworm like me and have loads of reading stamina (or free time 😅) then go check this one out. Also recommended if you like horror in the flavor of superflu epidemics and good vs evil. 

Thanks for reading this far down, and happy reading!