The Stand by Stephen King

Title: The Stand
Author: Stephen King
Release Date: 1 January 1978
Rating: 4/5 stars

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there…and still on your feet.”

I’m not afraid to admit it: I’m a scared cat.

I’m scared of most insects (especially spiders), heights, and Stephen King books so thick they could easily be used as a murder weapon.

I’m incredibly proud to pronounce that I’ve conquered one of those fears!

The Stand is easily the longest book I’ve ever read. The only book that comes close is Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas. This book consists out of a whopping 1325 pages and be assured, I enjoyed each one.

While reading this book, the thought occasionally occurred to me that the first edition of The Stand was much fewer pages and I’m struggling to pick out what King added and what was original content since everything felt important for the plot.

I think one of King’s strongest abilities as a storyteller is to craft characters who actually feel like real people. Every one of his characters seems like someone who you could easily run into at the grocery store or at the mall. They’re all imperfect and very much human.

Another fun fact about me: I’m a sucker for apocalypse stories.

I loved how King described the spread of the plague, how he nonchalantly describes the sickness’s symptoms in unsuspecting characters while they were living out their normal lives. It builds up a nail-biting tension, like watching cracks slowly and surely spread through a dam wall.

I did feel myself losing a bit of interest after the climax of the plague, since the downfall of the entire world was what drew me to the book in the first place. However, the characters and their respective stories keep me engaged. This book is also clearly a product of its time, with casual racial slurs and very traditional views of men and women being depicted, which was uncomfortable to read. King also fixates on the word ‘breast’ when trying to describe female characters, which I found to be unnecessary and repetitive. I’m not sure if this is a characteristic of his writing style, though, since I haven’t read enough of his books to know.

I found the battle between religion and rationality to be incredibly interesting. I would describe myself as an agnostic (just like one of the characters, Nick), and seeing how these characters try to make sense of an unexplainable situation was fascinating. I think we can all recognize ourselves in their struggles to comprehend what is going on; is there a higher being or is it all just coincidence?

I also like the depiction of good vs evil to be quite intriguing. Upon reading the ending, one realizes that evil can only momentarily be defeated, and that the battle between light and dark is cyclical and never-ending. Just like in real life, no person is 100% good or evil and that perhaps everyone contains a bit of both.

For anyone looking to read a Stephen King book and not wanting to be scared out their mind at night (and also if you don’t mind the size of this absolute brick), I would definitely recommend this read!