Stephen KingFiction · Horror·b. 1947
The Stand
Synopsis
A weaponized strain of influenza escapes a military lab and, within weeks, kills more than ninety-nine percent of the human race. The handful of survivors — scattered, traumatized, and unsure why they were spared — begin to dream. Some are drawn toward Mother Abagail, a 108-year-old woman who becomes a gathering point for those trying to rebuild. Others are pulled toward Randall Flagg, the "dark man," who is assembling a very different kind of society in the west.
As the survivors coalesce into two communities, an old conflict between good and evil reasserts itself on a depopulated continent. Stephen King's sprawling epic follows dozens of characters across a ruined America toward an inevitable reckoning in Las Vegas.
The Stand is King's most ambitious novel — a post-apocalyptic saga of plague, faith, and moral choice that has become a touchstone of the genre.
How it reads
- I added this book to my "to read" shelf back in 2017, around the time I started reading King, but always shied away from it because of its length. Its length scared me so much that even though everyone suggested that I read The Stand before, or in between, The Dark Tower, I decided against it. But after reading The Dark Tower, I thought it was finally time to read The Stand, and so that's how I finally started to read this book. The first 20-something percent of the book was like torture for me. I knew what the book was about when I set about reading it, but I never thought it would be like THIS. The first parts of the book which mostly dealt with how the virus was spreading, were so similar to what we've been going through in the last year that it felt quite eerie. Every time the virus was transmitted from one person to another, from one state to another, I felt anxious, at times I even felt I'd have a panic attack if I read any further. That's why it took me so long to read those parts. Anyways, after the story started to focus on the survivors of the plague rather than the deaths, it got way better. I loved the book, everything was perfect. I couldn't see how it was going to end even when I merely had 30 pages left to read. It was amazing. The ending was bittersweet, very similar to the Dark Tower's ending. I honestly loved everything about the book (even those first chapters in hindsight). A lot of characters were quite easy to relate to. Some of them reminded me of other King characters. For example, Larry Underwood reminded me so much of Eddie Dean (The Dark Tower), Tom reminded me of Sheemie from the Dark Tower, and The Kid somehow reminded me of Patrick Hockstetter (IT). Even though I never saw many of the events coming, nothing felt out of place, it all made almost perfect sense. I also loved the ending. I really don't know what else to say, this book was perfect.
- <div><strong>Stephen King at his best</strong>.<br><br>One of the greatest books I’ve ever read. 46 years after publication this book still is relevant, a story that might always resonate. The audiobook is also fantastic (Grover Gardner should win some sort of lifetime narration award, outstanding performance). Its a doorstop, it took me 39 days to complete, though I’m sure I could have done it under 30 days if I wasn’t working. <br><br><br>Edit: I will be reading <em>The End of the World as We Know It</em> as a follow up down the line.</div>