the stand book review

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by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 3, 1978

Striking a far less hysterical tone than in The Shining , King has written his most sweeping horror novel in The Stand , though it may lack the spinal jingles of Salem's Lot . In part this is because The Stand , with its flow of hundreds of brand-name products, is a kind of inventory of American culture. "Superflu" has hit the U.S. and the world, rapidly wiping out the whole of civilization—excepting the one-half of one percent who are immune. Superflu is a virus with a shifting antigen base; that is, it can kill every type of antibody the human organism can muster against it. Immunity seems to be a gift from God—or the Devil. The Devil himself has become embodied in a clairvoyant called Randall Flagg, a phantom-y fellow who walks highways and is known variously as "the dark man" or "the Walking Dude" and who has set up a new empire in Las Vegas where he rules by fear, his hair giving off sparks while he floats in the lotus position. He is very angry because the immune folks in the Free Zone up at Boulder have sent a small force against him; they get their message from Him (God) through a dying black crone named Abigail, who is also clairvoyant. There are only four in this Boulder crew, led by Stu Redman from East Texas, who is in love with pregnant Fran back in the Free Zone. Good and Evil come to an atomic clash at the climax, the Book of Revelations working itself out rather too explicitly. But more importantly, there are memorable scenes of the superflu spreading hideously, Fifth Avenue choked with dead cars, Flagg's minions putting up fresh lightbulbs all over Vegas. . . . Some King fans will be put off by the pretensions here; most will embrace them along with the earthier chilis.

Pub Date: Nov. 3, 1978

ISBN: 0307743683

Page Count: 1450

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1978

SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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by Max Brooks

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

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by Kathy Reichs

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The Literary Edit

Review: The Stand – Stephen King

Prior to reading The Stand, the only other book of Stephen King’s I had read was On Writing – part guide, part memoir, it had been recommended to me on a residential writing retreat I attended a couple of years ago. And whether it was the length of On Writing, or my pre-conceived notion of horror as a genre, to say I was surprised to discover that The Stand is an epic 1439 pages long would be something of an understatement. Already anxious at reading a book so far out of my comfort zone; its enormity did nothing to abate my nerves. Indeed neither did the fact that in 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookshops and beg them not to buy it.

At number 53 in the BBC’s Top 100 , The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror that was published in 1978. One of over fifty novels written by King, he acknowledges in its introduction that while it isn’t his favourite, it is the the one that fans of his work seem to like the most; which of course goes a long way to explain its entry in the BBC’s Big Read.

And so it was that with a 3am five hour wait at Kuala Lumpa airport en route back to London, and a seriously distorted body clock, that I began one of the longest – and least appealing – novels from the Big Read. The book opens with a couple and their young baby fleeing their home, and it quickly becomes evident that a deadly plague is taking over America wiping 99% of its population.

What follows is an epic tale of good versus evil, where the moral are led by 108-year-old Mother Abagail; the bad by Randall Flag: the dark man. There is a intricate cast of wonderful characters – from deaf and mute Nick Andros, to pregnant Frannie Goldsmith – whose lives change forever at the hand of the plague. Friendships are formed, leaders are elected and betrayals are suffered as the group of unlikely friends deal with death and disease in droves.

As with many books I read, this one ended with a tearful episode on a bus. With biblical references throughout, themes of redemption, atonement and survival, The Stand is quite magnificent. A brilliantly compelling, page-turning read it reinforces the age-old saying that one really should never judge a book by its cover.

About The Stand

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen.

About Stephen King

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Image © The Artful Elle.

2 comments on “Review: The Stand – Stephen King”

I had never even heard of The Stand before, it sounds like an interesting read. I am yet to read a Stephen King, but have a copy of IT on my bookshelf. The only reason I haven’t read it is because it’s +1000 pages.

It’s very long but well worth it – definitely one of my favourites from the BBC Top 100 so far! xx

Book Discussion – The Stand by Stephen King

Join us in our book discussion of The Stand by Stephen King

For my first guest post, Jay agreed to write up his thoughts after finishing Stephen King’s epic novel, The Stand . Many thanks to him for putting up with my blogging needs : ) Read on for his views on the book and add yours in the comments!

The Stand Book Discussion

About the Author – Stephen King is a n American author with over 50 novels to his name. His vast catalog of work also includes short stories, novellas, and non-fiction. He started writing horror and suspense stories while living in Maine as a young kid and never stopped.

The Stand is King’s fifth novel, but his first novel outside of the horror genre. This book also soured his relationship with his first publisher, Doubleday. The Stand was originally written with 1,200 pages of text but Doubleday would only accept an 800 page version. They also wouldn’t meet his demand for a subsequent three book $3.5 million deal.

King ultimately signed with New American library, his paperback p ublisher, and went on to write even more books and make even more money. Ironically, y ears later King released the full version of The Stand with his original publisher, Doubleday and it is now considered one of his greatest works .

About the Book – The Stand begins right after a plague hits the United States. Within the first 100 pages, the plague kills off 99% of the population and those still alive must figure out how to cope with the tragedy and decide whether to work together or betray each other. The book goes on to weave a tale of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, God vs. the devil that reaches epic proportions.

Let’s Discuss:

What makes The Stand so good?

To start , King shouldn’t just be thought of as a horror writer. He is so much more, and if you need proof of that, read this book. I have read a few dystopian novels in my day, but this is easily the best.

In my opinion, Randall Flagg is one of the most interesting villains ever written . I think a proper antagonist needs to be mysterious but not entirely inaccessible. I honestly think for the first 800ish pages I didn’ t learn a lot about Flagg. I only read sec ond-hand accounts of what he had done, rumors about him and small snippets of what he’s like. It isn’t until the last third of the book that I started to get to know him. Before that last section , I was intrigued by him and looked forward to eventually read ing more about him . Then, when you finally get to hi s part , you don’t want to stop. King writes him perfectly.

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of most of the “The Good Guys , ” at least the story of Mother Abigail and how she, a 108 year old woman , survives the plague and gets on with her life was always interesting. However, t he two good guys I love the most are Nick Andros and Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N : that spells “ book discussion ” ). One is deaf and can’t speak (Nick) , the other is slightly mentally handicapped a nd can’t read (Tom) yet they work together and survive. It’s fascinati ng to read about them and how they get on in the world and the paths their lives take. I would get excited reading about each of their journeys and began rooting for them most of all .

What would you have changed to make the book better?

First of all , town meetings. OH MY GOODNESS… Somehow, King m ade town hall meetings in a novel more boring than actual town hall meetings. I get they are important to the story and it’s a part of King’s message about how government can be corrupt at any level, but not only did he beat a dead horse, he waited for it to decompose and then beat the ground . I found myself skimming through a lot of those sections, which I am sure means that I missed some things, but I do n’t care.
Secondly, a lot of King’s protagonists fall into stereotypical categories such as having a troubled past, trying to change their future, proving they are a good person, overcoming some disability, etc . As a result, some of the heroes are annoying and I didn’t care about them. Now, I may be in the minority with this, but Stuart Redman and Frances in particular fall into this category for me. T hey may be the two most important charact ers in the book for plot development, but I just didn’t care. They were cliché and honestly, a part of me wanted King to kill them off.

What sticks with you after you finish The Stand?

Without spoiling anything (and don’t Google this until you read the book!), “The Hand of God” will stand out to you. I know there were people who complained about this, but th e book is somewhat religious. King grew up a Methodist, and while he doesn’t see eye to eye with the Church, he still believes there is a higher power . This book is based on the power of faith, believing in some thing bigger than yourself and doing the right thing. Mother Abigail is a messenger from God and her faith i s staggering. While a lot of the main characters are not religious by any means, it’s amazing how some of them end up developing and growing in their faith.
Tom Cullen also stay ed with me . He had some of the strongest emotional parts in the book. For a character that I thought I’d have nothing in common with (since he can’t read and is handicapped) I related more with him than anyone else. Compar atively , he doesn’t get a lot of tim e on paper, but when he does King makes the most of it. I remember little tidbits of his story better than some other characters whole overarching themes.

I remember reading a certain section of the story when he finally says, “ M-O-O-N, that spells Moon, ” and the implication and importance that it has on his life and ot her characters’ lives made me put down the book and t hink how something so simple can change so much. I n the future, after you finish reading this book, when you walk outside at night and look up to see a full moon, in your head you will say, “ M-O-O-N, that spells moon, ” and won’t be able to help but smile and remember the importance of simple things and how much they can change.

Answer the questions or add your own thoughts about The Stand in the comments!

I have had this on my to-finish-reading list for a few years! Maybe this is the motivation I need to get back to it!!

Yes! I had no interest before he read it, but his recap actually makes it sound worth diving into. It is pretty intimidating though, haha.

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ARMAGEDDON, COMPLETE AND UNCUT Date: May 13, 1990, Sunday, Late Edition - Final Section 7; Page 3, Column 1; Book Review Desk Byline: By ROBERT KIELY; Robert Kiely is a professor of English at Harvard University. Lead: LEAD: THE STAND The Complete and Uncut Edition. By Stephen King . Illustrated. 1,153 pp. New York: Doubleday. $24.95. Text: THE STAND The Complete and Uncut Edition. By Stephen King. Illustrated. 1,153 pp. New York: Doubleday. $24.95. What is longer than ''Moby-Dick,'' ''War and Peace'' or ''Ulysses''? If you guessed the Bible or the Manhattan telephone book, you would not be wrong (though there are small-print Bibles that are under a thousand pages). There are, of course, other longer books, but not many are novels and few of those have been able to sustain a hold on the popular imagination. ''The Stand ,'' unabridged and 1,153 pages long, may prove the exception. In 1978, Stephen King, the author of ''Carrie'' and ''The Shining,'' published ''The Stand '' and almost immediately added thousands of new readers to his already huge following. At that time, Mr. King's publishers thought the book would be better and certainly more salable if it were cut - in fact, cut by 500 pages, nearly half of its original length. Now the novel has been reissued with the missing 150,000 words reinstated, plus a preface by the author and 12 black-and-white illustrations by Bernie Wrightson. It might seem unfair or irrelevant to dwell on size when assessing a novel, yet in this case it is impossible to do otherwise. One simply cannot ignore the bulk of this volume. Besides, a preoccupation with size and weight, particularly an American preoccupation with size and weight, is, as Mr. King insists, central to ''The Stand .'' As it is linked with images of the land, of the spaciousness and diversity and opportunity of the nation, this is a familiar American theme. Mr. King has not only read his Melville but also his Whitman and Dos Passos. Like his predecessors, Mr. King is aware that there is menace as well as promise in the immensity of the United States. What appears modern (or post-modern) in Mr. King is that both the menace and the promise have been tainted by a cheap tedium, a repetition of bravado and monotony of violence. This is not another book about a still raw, untried, half-hidden America, but a nation exposed over and over to itself, as in an enormous mirror, part trite situation comedy, part science fiction, part cop show. In ''The Stand ,'' Mr. King comes across as the people's Thomas Pynchon. His characters are ''toilers in the vinyl vineyards,'' just plain folks who drink Gatorade and V8 but who also may happen to have jobs on top secret Government installations in the barren recesses of Nevada. The general outline of the plot is fairly simple. An accident occurs in an Army lab doing research on biological warfare. A virus breaks through the isolation barrier and rapidly causes the death of nearly everyone working in the plant. There is one survivor, however, who walks past the failed security apparatus, races home to his wife and child, bundles them into the car and speeds toward the Texas border. By the time they reach a gas station in Texas, he is very ill and his wife and daughter have died a horrible death that leaves their bodies bloated, blackened and stinking. Of course, the handful of people at the gas station are also contaminated and they, in turn, pass on the virus to others in a macabre chain of association that is described in loving detail, like a parody of the circulation of money (the perennial bad penny) or a mammoth game of pin the tail on the donkey. From Texas to Maine, Los Angeles to New York, in a gruesome variation on the refrain of ''This Land Is Your Land,'' the superflu spreads, causing its victims at first merely to sniffle and sneeze but soon after to expire in paroxysms of pain and burning fever. (The AIDS epidemic had not been identified when Mr. King originally wrote this book. What in 1978 might have looked like a fantastic exaggeration, in 1990 still appears statistically exaggerated but, sadly, not so fantastic.) Hundreds of pages of text are devoted to vignettes - some poignant, nearly all disgusting - of Americans in all regions and walks of life being stopped in the tracks of their ordinary existence by the dread and incurable disease. Two things make Mr. King's rendering of this phenomenon peculiar, one might almost say original. The first is the sheer number of cases reported and described. At first, you read along expecting things to change, a cure to be found, an escape to be discovered, but after 300 or more pages it becomes clear that variations on one theme - not progress - are the novelist's plan. The second thing that makes these vignettes, and indeed the entire novel, peculiar is that the characters and situations are virtually all reproductions of American cultural icons. ''L.A. Law'' meets ''The Wizard of Oz''; ''On the Road'' meets ''The Grapes of Wrath''; ''Rebel Without a Cause'' meets ''Walden''; Li'l Abner gets lost in the House of Usher; Huck Finn finds Rambo. The New England we see is Norman Rockwell's; the West is John Wayne's. They are often pointed out, lest the reader miss them. ''She looked like a woman from an Irwin Shaw novel'' or ''It's like Bonnie and Clyde'' are common interjections from the narrator and the characters. At the same time, neither comic parody nor a Joycean complexity is at work here. The reproduction of the familiar seems instead a kind of corporate raid, a literary equivalent of a megamonopoly in which the new owner parades brand names to show off the extent and importance of the newly purchased domain. Everything is processed through a gigantic American meat grinder. Just as foreign monuments become a ''Leaning Tower of Pizza'' or ''the Forbidden City Cafe,'' so the names and words of writers from other parts of the world are reproduced, respelled and repronounced. An admiring general turns Yeats into Yeets: ''He said that things fall apart. He said the center doesn't hold. I believe he meant that things get flaky. . . . That's what I believe he meant. Yeets knew that sooner or later things get . . . flaky around the edges even if he didn't know anything else.'' The few healthy characters seem not just to have survived the plague; they have also survived a rough-and-tumble translation from another medium. There is a Woody Allen look- and sound-alike: a New York songwriter with a sassy mother, who nags and pampers her successful and neurotic son during one of his rare visits home. There is a Jane Fonda character from Maine who is gutsy, beautiful, bursting with aerobic energy and slightly pregnant. And there is the hero, a strong, silent Texan, an amalgam of Gary Cooper and Kevin Costner. When the virus eventually peters out, after having done away with what appears to be most of the population, these and a few others gradually converge on the road, with their battered motorcycles, jalopies, slick sports cars and stolen bicycles, or just tramp exhaustedly from empty town to empty town in search of life and some place to start over. Boulder, Colo., turns out to be the point of convergence for these friendly and cinematically familiar survivors and some dozens of others like them. No sooner do they find one another than they begin planning a government. Someone suggests a meeting in which they all ratify the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Another objects that this is unnecessary since ''we're all Americans.'' But, it is quickly explained, government is really an ''idea,'' and the reality of a democracy no longer exists: ''The President is dead, the Pentagon is for rent, nobody is debating anything in the House or the Senate except maybe for the termites and the cockroaches.'' It is all too shockingly and heavy-handedly clear that such statements - literally accurate within the plot of the novel - could (like the deadly virus) serve as metaphors for the dangerous and deplorable state of things in this country. However, rather than analysis or narrative development, there is a prophetic and programmatic explanation: a satanic figure, who has gathered his evil forces in Las Vegas, Nev. (where else?), has been haunting the American dream with fearful nightmares. He must be stopped. A few handpicked heroes, macho males from ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' or ''The Longest Day,'' scramble over dangerous, desolate terrain to get him, but are saved the trouble when he and his minions melt, like the Wicked Witch of the West, in a nuclear accident. In short (well, not so short), this is the book that has everything - adventure, romance, prophecy, allegory, satire, fantasy, realism, apocalypse, etc., etc. Even Roger Rabbit gets mentioned. ''The Stand '' does have some great moments and some great lines. A desperate character trying to save his mother reaches an answering machine: ''This is a recording made at Mercy General Hospital. Right now all of our circuits are busy.'' And there is a wonderful description of ''mankind's final traffic jam.'' But the overall effect is more oppressive than imposing. In many ways, this is a book for the 1990's, when America is beginning to see itself less and less in the tall image of Lincoln or even the robust one of Johnny Appleseed and more and more as a dazed behemoth with padded shoulders. Americans seemed delighted but in an odd way humiliated when Vaclav Havel, a tiny man from a small country, entered the great halls of Congress and delivered an uninflated Jeffersonian address. ''The Stand ,'' complete and uncut, is about the padded shoulders and the behemoth and the humiliation. Unfortunately, it also reproduces at length all the empty excesses that it appears to deplore.

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A Book And A Teacup

A collection of my thoughts on all things book, all enjoyed with a perfect cup of tea., book review: the stand by stephen king.

This post may contain some affiliate links, which means if you purchase an item through the link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me cover the costs of running my blog.

Given the current climate, this may seem like an odd choice of book to read, but I like a challenge! I read the extended version on kindle so it was roughly 1325 pages long, but a print edition may be different. I believe the first version of the book was published in 1979 in the UK, with the version I have read first being published in 1990 in the UK.

I’ll try and keep the first portion of this post spoiler free, in case you want to read the book and not be coloured by my judgement of the intricacies of it. I personally went into this book with only a vague notion of what it was about and found it a thrilling read. This is a long read, there’s no doubt about that. King explains in the preface the reason there are two versions in the first place is solely down to the length of the book and the cost to produce it versus the sale cost at the time of production. I’m glad they went on to produce this longer version, as the added detail really gives a depth to the story and characters you rarely see in novels. I would say it is well worth springing for the uncut version.

The book has been hailed as a masterpiece by many. As a King fan already, it was this that tempted me to pursue it. He states in his preface that he personally does not see it as such, but I have to disagree with him. I certainly think it is one of his best works based off the few other books of his I have so far read. I found it rich and engaging, and was not bored at any point. A proverbial page turner. I was eager to catch up with each characters journey and felt I could relate to all of them in some way.

Having said all of the above, I have only rated it four out of five stars. This is because, and I have found this as a consistent theme throughout Kings books, I don’t think he writes female characters very well. This could be because I am reading his books as a woman, and he is writing them as a man. It is difficult to write from a perspective you have never had. I find he tends to make his female characters needy and weak. Perhaps not always obviously, but I find in this book even the strong female characters end up being carried in some way by the male characters. I actually find it harder to relate to his female characters than I do to his male ones.

This is not a book for the faint hearted. It is brutal in places and graphic. King does not shy away from describing the very worst in us, and it is that which makes this book a chilling, but believable read. I found it even prompted me to question myself. Who would I be in this situation? How would I act? What path would I take? A good novel should always make us take a look at ourselves and the world around us and wonder. Are we doing/being the best we can?

You can pick up a copy of the book here .

SPOILERS BELOW

And now, onto the spoilers. Below there will be more in depth discussion about the characters and themes of the book, if you are interested in how I interpreted it.

The book is split into thirds. In the first, we see the spread of the plague, and are introduced to our main characters. This is where King goes into real detail on the spread of the disease and the way it decimates the country, even as the government are trying to cover it up. He sets the tone for the book with the first few chapters, and after Stuart and his friends discover the deformed corpses of a mother and her toddler daughter, and the dying father, we can clearly see this book is taking no prisoners. It chills me to my core to know that that one man, just trying to flee and save his family, caused the destruction of the entire world as we know it. You ask yourself, would you do the same?

“In the course of the meal he infected Babe, the dishwasher, two truckers in a corner booth, the man who came in to deliver bread, and the man who came in to change the records on the juke. He left the sweet thang that waited his table a dollar tip that was crawling with death.” Stephen King The Stand – Chapter 8

King, very aptly in my opinion, describes the spread of the disease across America. This was a bit of an eye opener for me given the current situation. This part of the book is useful in understanding how the corona virus managed to get from a market in Wuhan to your local hospital in a matter of a few months. It caused me to look at the world a little differently and pay attention to my interactions, even in lockdown. Kings virus is much more contagious and deadly than the corona virus, thankfully, but they spread in much the same way. There are also some parallels in Kings book between the governments handling of the virus and the early handling of our pandemic. Fortunately for us, our world leaders seem to be much more open with the information these days, but no one can deny that this pandemic was downplayed by all governments in the early stages, much like it is in Kings book. It leads you to ask the question, what would have happened if the disease was worse?

During the destruction of the world, we are introduced to the main characters, of which there are quite a few. I think the characters are what make this book live up to is masterpiece status. King takes real time to develop and instil in them qualities (both good and bad) we find in ourselves. He takes them from their mundane lives pre-plague, through the horror and loss to the empty and dangerous world beyond. Each character reacts and adapts differently and its easy to see elements of yourself in all of them.

This post will be longer than the book its self if I go into all my thought and feelings on each character. There are many and it not until quite late in the book that their paths all converge. The reader gets to know them so well it is almost as if they are real people to me. I sometimes find myself wondering about them as if I knew them. The journeys they take are fraught with twists and turns. In my opinion, none more so than those of Harold and Larry.

“And when the end comes, and when it is as horrible as good men knew it would be, there is only one thing to say as all those good men approach the Throne of Judgement : I was misled.” Stephen King The Stand – Chapter 64 (Harold’s last note)

I actually found myself grieving for Harold. I sympathised with his character an awful lot. He represented a lot of the traits we often find undesirable in ourselves and others, but he seemed aware of this. He wanted to change. I found his descent into “evil” quite profound. I understood why he ended up doing the things he did. It made me wonder if we really do know ourselves. I think of myself and an inherently good person. Doesn’t everybody? But that does not mean I always do good things, or react to situations in a ‘good’ way. It doesn’t mean others think I am good. There is no question that Harold commits evil acts, but there is a question over whether he, himself, is evil. I think not, personally. He is a product of his environment and his past, as we all are. He struggles with the hated in his heart right until the very end, and he almost changes his mind. Almost. I think King really tackles some huge issues in this book and leaves me pondering some deep philosophical questions.

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just… come out the other side. Or you don’t.” Stephen King The Stand – Chapter 44

I dislike Larry to start with too. He is selfish and arrogant and struggles with this throughout the book. This is once again something I think we can all relate too. As difficult to admit as it can be, we all behave like this sometimes. I know I can be very selfish at times. Larry seems to me like the ideal character to join the ‘evil’ side. I spend quite a bit of the book waiting for that to happen, but it doesn’t. He turns himself around, but he still does ‘bad things’. Just as with Harold, he struggles with himself right up to the bitter end, but unlike Harold, his demise comes of altruism rather than hatred. His struggles are not really any different to Harold’s, just he just makes one choice that saves him, by denying Nadine, where Harold “succumbs to his destiny” with her.

King grapples with the idea of good and evil throughout the book, in fact the plague at the beginning seems almost unimportant to the story other than to create the field upon which this great battle between good and evil will take place. I read this book as someone without religion, and it has clearly been written from a christian standpoint, but I don’t think that matters. Despite the fact I do not believe in a god or a devil per se, (both of which feature quite heavily throughout the narrative) the concept of good versus evil is a recurrent theme thought most schools of thought.

There are stark similarities between both of the new civilisations, I personally think. To someone on the ground, they probably wouldn’t seem very different at all. In fact, Las Vegas would seem better run and better organised. Most of the people there are just that, people. What makes them so evil compared to everyone in Boulder? What makes the children in Las Vegas evil, and the ones in boulder good? I would argue that the only difference is which place they felt could offer them the best chance at survival.

Saying that, once you delve into the intricacies of their societies, you begin to see where the differences are. Those in Las Vegas are controlled by fear, and are living in a dictatorship. Whereas those in Boulder are (given the illusion of) democracy. I would argue that it isn’t a complete democracy as they attempt to engineer the situation to elect those they think will be best suited to the rolls of leadership. There is a question over the morality of this I think. Of course, everyone in Boulder thinks they are doing what is best for the colony, but surely everyone in Las Vegas believes that too. There are certainly good things about the Las Vegas society, and bad things about the Boulder society, so how can one be wholly good, and the other wholly evil?

Harold clearly thinks he is justified in blowing up the newly formed government albeit for somewhat selfish reasons. Is what “God” did to the people in Las Vegas any different? Did all those people, some of them children, deserve the fate they got, even as they were beginning to revolt against their totalitarian leader? Did God even do anything? Could they not have brought about their own destruction in some way. There is deliberate irony, I think in the fact it was Trashcan Man, who was the most devoted of all ‘The Dark Man’s” followers, who brought about the demise of the “bad guys”.

“The Beauty of religious mania that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause if everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance… or change” Stephen King The Stand – Chapter 48

I will draw this post to a close here, although I have much to say on the concepts of good or evil. I feel I have only scratched the surface of the intricacies of this book and the philosophical questions it has raised for me. If you have made it this far, I would be really interested to hear what you think of the book, and my somewhat rambling conclusions of it. Especially if you disagree with me.

The Stand by Stephen King

Title: The Stand

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Doubleday

Genre: Horror, Science Fiction

First Publication: 1978

Language: English

Major Characters: Stuart Redman, Glenn Bateman, Nick Andros, Tom Cullen, Nadine Cross, Fran Goldsmith, Harold Lauder, Joe/Leo Rockway, Mother Abigail Freemantle, Randall Flagg, Trashcan Man, The Anti-Christ, Judge Farris, Larry Underwood, General William Starkey, Major Len Creighton, The Rat Man, Captain Trips,

Setting Place: United States of America

Theme: Good Vs Evil, Peace & Freedom

Book Summary: The Stand by Stephen King

First come the days of the plague. Then come the dreams.

Dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn’t take long for the plague which killed him to spread across America and the world.

Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King

The Stand by Stephen King opens on a man-made apocalypse – a designer flu has escaped from an American military laboratory. Within weeks, only a fifth of humanity lives. Dead rotting bodies are lying unburied everywhere and modern electrified society is dead. The survivors are mysteriously called through dreams to meet either a black woman or a white man in one of two cities located in the center of America, separated by the Rocky Mountains. The choice people make whether to meet the woman or the man apparently is actually a choice of Good or Evil. Neither choice will save your life

The first section of the novel centres around the downfall of a civilised world as 99.4% of the population is wiped out by the relentless plague known as Captain Trips. What gives this novel the edge over your conventional horror story with ghosts and vampires, is that this story is plausible. These people simply caught the flu. We all catch a cold or suffer an odd raging headache. However, The Stand is going to make me think twice the next time I feel a tickly throat coming on. What’s more, this virus was made in a lab . The plague decimating the world was created by us. We were liable for our own downfall.

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.”

Despite finding some parts slow, The Stand introduced me to King´s unmatched talent for presenting a cast of characters who are full and alive; Frannie, Stu, Harold, Larry, Ralph, Lloyd, and that´s only a handful of them. I normally crave a central protagonist who I can cling to as the story progresses. However, I routed for nearly all of them as I wondered how each of their stories would end. Nick, the deaf-mute, was so precious, and I treasured every moment of his incompatible friendship with the illiterate Tom Cullen. My love for the characters resulted in heartbreak, shock, but also joy for those who made it. King covers every shade of human morality and no two characters are alike.

The story eventually morphs not only into a battle of good and evil but also a novel about fate. All of the survivors somehow manage to unite through peculiar dreams. The deiform Mother Abigail assembles her own community, while others dream about the malevolent Randal Flagg, curating an army from the weak-minded, the stragglers. Two communities unite. This section introduces numerous supernatural elements, some of which was long-winded, so I skimmed across. It was interesting to read nonetheless.

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Book Review

Stephen King
Dystopian , Horror , Suspense/Thriller

Readability Age Range

Anchor Books, A division of Random House Inc., New York

Year Published

The Stand by Stephen King has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

The story begins in the town of Arnette, Texas. Charlie Campion crashes his car into a gas station. He is sick, delirious and dying. Charlie’s wife and child are already dead in the car. Stu Redman, along with the other locals in Arnette, calls the paramedics. Little do they know that they are witnessing the outbreak point of a disease—later nicknamed the superflu or Captain Trips—that will kill over 99% of the world’s population.

Stu Redman and a group of locals from Arnette are taken to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Specialists race to find a cure for Captain Trips, and they think Stu Redman is the answer. He’s the only person they’ve seen who is immune. They take him to their research facility. But the disease is more contagious than anyone can imagine, and despite their best efforts, it continues to spread across the country and even in the research facility. Stu is moved to another facility in Vermont.

While Stu is being studied and contained, Frannie Goldsmith and Harold Lauder watch their families die. They are also survivors. Though Frannie is pregnant, she stays long enough in Ogunquit, Maine, to bury her father. Harold, the little brother of one of her dead friends and one of her least favorite people in the town, accompanies her to try and find others.

Right before the outbreak, a deaf and mute young man named Nick Andros is robbed and beaten in Shoyo, Arkansas. The sheriff arrests two of the men who assaulted him, but the third man, who is also the sheriff’s brother-in-law, evades capture. Nick watches as the superflu takes the entire town. Like other survivors, he has no symptoms and stays healthy. He does almost die when Ray Booth, the third man who attacked him, comes stumbling out of the woods where he had been hiding to evade capture, and tries to kill him.

Nick fights him off, but is wounded in his leg and eye. The infection from these two wounds almost kills him. The Walking Man comes to him in a fever dream and offers him life and more. Nick is offered the ability to hear. The young man is tempted, but refuses, because he knows the Walking Man is evil. Then he begins to dream of Abigail Freemantle, a black woman from Nebraska who is 108 years old. In his dream, she is singing old hymns. After Nick recovers somewhat from the infection and is heartened by the presence of Mother Abigail, he journeys to find her in Nebraska.

Another survivor, Larry Underwood, is a musician on the brink of real fame. His drug use is the only thing holding him back, so he goes to New York City to see his mother and clear his head. There he watches her die from the superflu in a hospital along with most of the city. After most are dead, he meets Rita Blakemoor, an older woman, and they begin a relationship.

But both Rita and Larry are deeply shaken by the superflu epidemic, and Rita becomes unstable after they find another survivor brutally murdered. They travel together for a time, but on the Fourth of July, Larry finds her dead from an overdose. He carries the guilt of her death with him, feeling that he should have tried to do more for her. He knew she was taking pills in an unhealthy way to deal with the tragedy, but he said nothing.

Stu Redman is still being kept as a prisoner in a medical facility in Stovington, Vermont. A man named Elder comes to kill him. Stu doesn’t understand why anyone would want to kill him when so many are dying from the superflu, but he suspects it’s so the U.S. government can deny being responsible — even though there is no government left. Stu kills Elder by beating him with a chair and then escapes from the facility.

Many survivors die of things other than the superflu. A young boy falls in a well, breaks his legs and dies alone. A crazed woman shoots a man in cold blood simply because she believes all men are rapists. A young woman puts the dead bodies of her son and husband in a freezer and enjoys going in and looking at them in triumph, glad to be rid of them. Unfortunately the door closes behind her on one of these visits, and she dies, trapped inside with them.

Stu finds Glen Batemen, a sociologist who taught at a small community college in Woodsville, New Hampshire. They notice that along with humans, the superflu took most of the domestic animals, such as dogs, but left wolves and wild animals untouched. Glen Batemen has one of the few surviving dogs. The sociologist declines to go with Stu initially but later joins his group.

Stu then encounters Frannie and Harold. Harold wants nothing to do with the Texan because he sees him as a threat to his hopeful romance with Frannie. Stu takes Harold aside and tells him he has no interest in Frannie; however, before long, Stu and Frannie fall in love.

Harold sees the two of them making love, and when rifling through Frannie’s possessions, he finds a journal she was keeping for her unborn child. Frannie doesn’t always speak kindly of Harold, and she makes it clear that she has no romantic interest in him. Harold becomes consumed with hate for Frannie — because she rejects his affections — and for Stu — because he took her when he said he wasn’t interested. Harold vows to have revenge on them, but he pretends to accept their relationship.

Larry crosses the country alone for a time, fighting madness and guilt. Eventually two other survivors follow him. Nadine Cross is a beautiful, slightly older woman, who is taking care of a child she calls Joe. Joe had been left alone after the superflu killed his family. Nadine found him on the verge of death. She nursed him back to health, and she is the only person he trusts.

Joe doesn’t speak, carries a knife and refuses to wear anything but underwear. They follow Larry because Joe doesn’t trust him and even attempts to kill Larry while he’s sleeping one night. Nadine saves Larry’s life. Larry is aware that they are following him. But when they officially meet, the boy tries to kill him again.

Larry and Joe eventually make peace after Larry finds a guitar and sings one night. The boy stops picking up knives and takes the guitar. Larry and Nadine are shocked that the child is a talented musician. He even begins to speak and act more like a normal boy. Larry falls in love with Nadine, and though she cares for him greatly, she won’t return his affection. Larry has no idea that Nadine is lusting after the Walking Man who visits her in her dreams.

The survivors all dream of the Walking Man, and many dream of Mother Abigail. They intuitively know that the Walking Man, whose current name is Randal Flagg, is evil, while Mother Abigail is the opposite, God’s representative on earth. The survivors form groups and go to either Mother Abigail, who starts out in Nebraska but moves to Boulder, Colorado, or to Las Vegas, to be aligned with Randall Flagg.

Flagg’s first official follower is Lloyd Henreid. Flagg finds Lloyd left in prison and opens his cell, which keeps Lloyd from starving. Lloyd is grateful. He had been so hungry that he had begun eating another inmate, who died in the cell next to him. Lloyd isn’t very bright, but Flagg makes him smart enough to become his right-hand man.

Randal Flagg’s followers are more likely to be outsiders, like the man named Donald Elbert but called the Trashcan Man. He acquired the nickname for starting fires in trash cans and other places after his father murdered his siblings and tried to murder his mother and him. The local sheriff shot his father and then later married his mother. The two were divorced when the sheriff sent Donald to a mental hospital where he received electroshock therapy.

After the sickness took everyone, the Trashcan Man started fires all over the country, the bigger, the better, reducing whole towns to ash in his travels. He dreams of the Walking Man, and after wolves save the Trashcan Man, he pledges his life to Flagg. The Walking Man has the wolves on his side, among other animals, and can even enter ravens and other creatures to watch the survivors.

Nick runs into a man named Tom Cullen, who is slightly mentally disabled, but intelligent enough to save Nick from a tornado that Nick didn’t see or hear coming. Nick is almost shot by a woman named Julie Lawry after refusing to sleep with her for a second time and not wanting her to join their duo. They go on to meet up with other survivors and are the first group to find Mother Abigail in Nebraska. They take her to Boulder.

Stu and his group are almost killed when a group of men who hold women captive and rape them tries to kill Stu, Glen and Harold. Along with the help of the women who were captives, they manage to kill the rapists.

Larry’s group grows, and he follows Harold’s signs all the way to the Boulder Free Zone, as the survivors rename the area. Larry idealizes Harold and uses the image as a source of strength and comfort on the trip, frequently asking himself what Harold would do when he’s unsure. Lucy Swann joins their group. Though Larry is in love with Nadine, Larry begins sleeping with Lucy.

Once in the Boulder Free Zone, Nick, Stu, Susan Stern, one of the women rescued from the rapists, Larry, Frannie, Glen, and a friend of Nick’s named Ralph, form the Free Zone Committee and are elected by popular vote. Their primary concerns are getting the power back on before winter, countering the threat of the Walking Man, clearing out the dead bodies and re-establishing society.

Mother Abigail commits the sin of pride by not confronting Nadine for the evil intent inside of her. She isn’t right with God, so she leaves the Boulder Free Zone and goes wandering in the wilderness. The residents search but do not find her.

While she is gone, the committee sends spies out to collect information on the Walking Man. Larry asks his friend Richard Farris to go. Sue asks her friend Dayna Jurgens. Nick asks Tom Cullen. Tom is susceptible to hypnotism and is hypnotized to believe that he was driven out of the free zone. When the moon is full, he is supposed to return home.

In the Boulder Free Zone, Harold’s hate for Stu and Frannie leads him to follow the Walking Man. Before he can join him in Las Vegas, he knows he must deliver a blow to the community. Harold has moments where he considers dropping his hate and becoming a new person. Many people in Boulder genuinely like Harold because he works hard and is good to people. Some men even nickname him Hawk.

But then the Walking Man tells Nadine to go to Harold and fulfill almost all of his sexual desires. Harold designs a bomb meant to kill the members of the Free Zone Committee. Right before Harold sets it off, Mother Abigail returns. News of her arrival brings most of the committee members outside before the bomb explodes. Only Nick and Sue on the committee are killed, though other innocent bystanders are killed as well.

Harold and Nadine take off to Las Vegas, but the Walking Man causes them to have an accident where Harold breaks his leg and is severely injured. Nadine knows that it has to happen this way and leaves him to die. Harold shoots at her before she goes, but the Walking Man interferes so she lives. Harold realizes the error of his ways. He writes down his apology and that he was deceived before he shoots himself.

A dying Mother Abigail meets with the remaining committee members. She tells them that Stu, Larry, Glen and Ralph must walk to the Walking Man in Las Vegas. Frannie is distraught. Mother Abigail heals her back, an injury she received when Harold’s bomb went off.

The Walking Man comes to Nadine, and they have sex. Nadine is deeply disturbed by the Walking Man’s evil and becomes pregnant. She eventually angers him on purpose, so he kills her.

The four committee members set off for Las Vegas. When they are more than halfway there, Stu breaks his leg in a fall. After much debate, the others leave him. Glen’s dog stays with Stu as the others continue on.

Larry, Glen, and Ralph are picked up by the Walking Man’s men and put in cells. Lloyd shoots Glen because he laughs at the Walking Man. Larry and Ralph are going to be ripped apart, but the Trashcan Man returns. He had to flee Las Vegas for blowing up some of the other men when they teased him. He comes back with radiation sickness, bringing a nuclear warhead. The Walking Man accidently sets off the bomb with a fireball that he creates. It explodes, killing everyone there.

Tom Cullen escapes before the bomb goes off, but the other spies are killed. Tom finds Stu and eventually they make it back to Boulder. Frannie has her baby, and they learn that the superflu doesn’t kill all babies. Lucy has twins.

The Walking Man found a way to escape before the bomb went off and reappears in another part of the world to build his empire again.

Christian Beliefs

Christianity is discussed a great deal. Some of the main characters believe in God, but most are unsure or don’t believe. Almost all of the major characters broach the subject at one time because the survivors have dreams of the Walking Man, who is compared to the Devil in many instances. The Walking Man is inherently evil, while the other person the survivors dream of, Mother Abigail, is God’s representative on earth and the opposite of the Walking Man. Mother Abigail’s existence causes many of the survivors to wonder if God exists.

Glen Bateman is a sociologist who struggles with belief in God. After experiencing the dreams of the Walking Man and finding that Mother Abigail from his dreams is real, he debates with others and himself on the merits of Christianity and good and evil.

Abigail Freemantle, or Mother Abigail as her followers call her, has faith in God. Mother Abigail often quotes the Bible accurately, stressing her faith in God and His ability to do all things. She also communicates with God. When she prays, God saves her from being attacked by a group of weasels. God directs people to go to her for safety by having them dream about her. Following God leads her to move from Nebraska to Colorado. God also tells her things about the different characters before they meet or when they meet. Mother Abigail knows Nick and Larry before they arrive. When she meets Nadine, she can see the Walking Man’s influence.

Before Mother Abigail dies, she tells Larry, Ralph, Stu and Glen that they have to go to the Walking Man. Larry, Ralph and Glen die, and later their deaths are talked about as a sacrifice demanded by God. None of the characters know the reason for the sacrifice.

Other Belief Systems

At the beginning of the novel, Nick Andros and Glenn Bateman are atheists. Neither of them have faith in God. When they discover that their dreams of Mother Abigail are real, they, along with most of the Boulder Free Zone, believe the Walking Man is real.

The Walking Man is clearly evil, and Mother Abigail is his opponent on earth, so both Nick and Glenn wrestle with the possibility of God being real too. They are agnostic, believing there must be a God, but are unsure of anything specific about Him.

The Walking Man’s followers revile and fear him because of his supernatural abilities. The Walking Man can enter ravens to spy on his enemies, levitate and form fireballs. There are no satanic rituals or symbols included, but the Walking Man is a murderer, and nearly every character who dreams about him sees him as evil.

Authority Roles

Many of the soldiers during the superflu begin killing other soldiers or civilians. Some of them are under orders from their superiors, and some decide to kill on their own. Some soldiers are involved in capturing and raping women.

Nadine is taking care of a child she calls Joe. Once Joe meets Mother Abigail, he tells her his name is Leo. Nadine feels that the boy no longer needs her and eventually decides to join the Walking Man. Leo is very sensitive to people and knows when she makes this decision. Leo is crushed and feels abandoned by Nadine. He reverts back to something of how he acted when Nadine first found him — sitting in underwear, sucking his thumb — and asks Nadine to stay with him. Nadine refuses.

Mother Abigail is God’s chosen representative on earth. He calls her to lead the survivors, who reject the Walking Man, to Boulder, Colorado, and reveals to her the hearts and minds of many. Mother Abigail enjoys welcoming people into the Boulder Free Zone and misses her opportunity to call out Nadine Cross though God revealed to her that Nadine had already chosen the Walking Man in her heart. Mother Abigail sees herself as Moses who strikes the water from the rock and gives himself the credit. Mother Abigail knows she isn’t right with God and has to go wandering in the wilderness to find Him again. Because of her sin, Nick, Sue, Harold and others die.

Randall Flagg, the Walking Man, leads his people through false flattery and fear. He sends a man to the Trashcan Man, who almost kills him, just so Randall can rescue him. Randall crucifies anyone who uses drugs or defies him. He chooses outcasts like the Trashcan Man and Lloyd, and makes them feel like they are valuable to him, when in reality everyone is disposable. Randall Flagg makes mistakes though, like not seeing that the Trashcan Man isn’t stable enough to be a competent follower and not trusting Lloyd with the list of red names that would have led to the capture of the spy Tom Cullen. Both instances lead to his people losing faith in his abilities. Without fear, they begin to slip away in the night or even openly defy him.

Profanity & Violence

Profanity includes words such as d–n , the f-word, s— , b–ch , and b–tard . God’s name is taken in vain frequently with words such as d–n .

In the beginning, many people die horrifically of the superflu. Mucus streams out of their noses and mouths, and their throats swell and often turn black. Some of these people get delirious and violent, such as Ray Booth. Ray tries to kill Nick and manages to nearly gouge out his eye.

A survivor shoots a man because she thinks all men will rape her. Elder tries to kill Stu. Instead, Stu beats Elder to death with a chair. There are many suicides in the book through the use of pills and guns.

Four men keep women captive and repeatedly rape them and demand sexual favors. When a 12-year-old won’t do what one of the men wants, he shoots her. These men try to kill Glen, Harold and Stu, but with the help of the captive women, the rapists are killed.

Lloyd is starving to death in a prison cell and begins to eat the corpse of another inmate. The Trashcan Man is suffering from severe radiation poisoning when he comes back to Las Vegas. His skin is peeling off and is covered in sores.

The Walking Man orders anyone who displeases him to be crucified. Graphic violence is portrayed throughout the novel in forms of people dying from disease, being shot, raped, burned, stabbed and crucified.

Sexual Content

Frannie is pregnant and not married. She doesn’t plan on marrying the father and considers abortion. Her father speaks against abortion without condemning her. Frannie remembers Harold’s sister telling her how Harold masturbates in his pants and wears them long after they become stiff.

Nick has sex with another survivor before speaking with her. He then spends time listening to her talk, and he realizes he doesn’t like her. She wants to have sex again, and he refuses. She shoots at him.

Harold masturbates. Four men hold eight women captive and abuse them as sex slaves. The Trashcan Man remembers being raped in prison and is raped by another survivor. He doesn’t mind.

Stu and Frannie have sex. Though they are in love, they are not married. Many people in the Boulder Free Zone live together without being married. The characters speculate whether marriage will even exist in the new world. Nadine and Harold have anal and oral sex many times without being in love. Nadine and Larry sleep together. Larry also sleeps with Lucy.

Discussion Topics

Additional comments.

Disturbing Images: The book periodically has disturbing sketches depicting the more horrific sections of the narrative.

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Stephen King - The Stand

“first came the days of the plague. then came the dreams.”, no major spoilers.

Unputdownable…

…and for a book that’s nearly 1500 pages long, that’s a signficant potential problem with implications on the reader’s personal hygiene, nutrition and gainful employment. So, in matter of fact it is eminently putdownable – out of sheer human necessity. It would, however, be churlish to point out that a book of this size is really quite difficult to pick up or indeed transport over any vertical distance in an upward direction. But I digress. The Stand is a wholly absorbing story and I had to read the last 400 pages or so in one frantic late night sitting (and I can think of quite a few frantic, late night activities).

The Stand is /the/ archetypal post-apocalypse story, writ through with a (I’m afraid, rather heavy-handed) religious message. This religious theme is somewhat troubling to the atheistic reader although it can, with effort, be accepted as a part of the story. King clearly takes a huge bite out of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings for inspiration and above that, it is possible to divine (sorry!) the genesis (sorry!) of many more recent apocalypse stories; LaHaye/Jenkins’ awful “Left Behind” series, Mad Max and Swan Song. I suspect that even the Wachowski brothers probably called on The Stand when working up the Messianic and Adversary themes in The Matrix.

As I mentioned, The Stand is a very enjoyable work, despite its enormous size, and unlike some of King’s other leviathans, I didn’t find myself flagging (sorry! pun not intended) towards the end. The story grips you and drags you along with it, the characters engage and the writing – King at his typically American-folksy best – is easy to read. As per most of his books, its characters are the usual band of likeable, blue-collar American stereotypes. They all seem to wear “chambray shirts”, “pegged jeans” and “easy grins” (I’ve not yet worked out what a chambray shirt is nor why their jeans should be pegged, but there you go…). Also, as per typical King, many of them are doomed to an untimely or nasty death: King does like to telegraph these deaths several chapters or more in advance. Some people hate this practise: I personally don’t mind it too much but it does feel a little bit like King trying to be a bit clever and I wish he’d stop it.

My one real complaint about the book is the ending. Well, not the actual physical last few pages which are pretty lame and seem to have been tacked on just to provide some “closure”, but the denouement, the final face off between the Walkin’ Dude and the delegation from the survivors. It is classic Deus ex Machina and leaves the reader thinking “Oh! Was that it?” Sorry Steve, but the effort you put into “updating” the book would have been better spent coming up with a half-way decent Armageddon.

I had never really noticed until I started reading King again recently that his stories are heavily peppered with brand-name references and I’ve come to wonder whether he engages in more than a little product placement.

This edition is an “updated” version. The original was written in the late 70’s and, a decade later, King clearly felt that its age was showing so he added 10 years to the referenced dates and perhaps brought a few cultural references up to date. Unfortunately this process was done rather patchily and produced some glaring anachronisms: in my opinion the earlier version was quite strong enough to stand as it was published and nothing less than a full re-write would have done the job properly. It also includes several hundred /extra/ pages that were edited from the original publication.

It also also comes with a handful of “illustrations” which, were I feeling less generous, would earn the book a negative star. They look like they were drawn by an A Level art student with a severe migraine and a big, fat black magic marker and one wonders why on earth they were included.

The Stand will, I suspect, abide for generations to come as one of King’s best stories and perhaps even as a seminal piece of 20th century pop-fiction. It occupies a special place in the hearts of Kings “constant readers” and while I personally think he’s done better, I don’t believe that he’s yet done /much/ better.

Reviewed by:

Campbell mcaulay.

Added 24th March 2015

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The Stand by Stephen King

I don’t know why it's taken me so long to reread the Stand. Certainly (unlike say The Tommyknockers or Misery) it isn’t because I didn’t enjoy it first time around, nor is it, despite its definitely extended length, because I found its beginning long winded or hard to get into. For whatever reason it’s been quite literally half a lifetime since I first read The Stand so; both due to my recent rediscovery of a love of Mr. King’s writing, and the far greater prevalence of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic books today it was definitely time to give it another look.

Even as a premise, The Stand is rather unique. A super flu virus, dubbed Captain Trips by its sufferers is released across America which wipes out more than 99% of the population, despite increasingly draconian efforts by the US government to cover up the fact: introduce martial law to a disintegrating social order and even infect other countries with strains of the virus too.

What is truly unique however, is all of this is dealt with summarily in less than a week of real time, and less than twelve hours of the book’s monstrous 46 hour length. This is because after King has set the stage the real conflict begins. Through prophetic dreams some survivors are led to Mother Abigail, a saintly 108 year old Christian woman who speaks for God and the forces of good. Others however are led to Randall Flagg, The Dark Man, a creature whose been walking the highways of America in rundown cowboy boots, waiting for its hour to come around at last and the chance to forge a new society of torture and tyranny. So the stage is set for a confrontation of good and evil of quite literally biblical proportions, a confrontation which will lead to one simple moment, The Stand.

One of the most astounding things about The Stand is the fact noted by Floresiensis, that returning to King as a more experienced reader I realize just how carefully crafted the book is, especially since King was able to restore the 400 pages cut from the original edition for space reasons.

Many authors have a distinctive writing style all their own, with their own quirks, strengths and weaknesses. King however has that rare gift of being able to shift his style, his use of language, even his scene pacing to evoke the mood he’s trying to conjure. From long deserted views of the American wasteland both pre and post virus, to the darkly mysterious depiction of Randall Flagg, to the series of short punchy vignettes which illustrate nasty little details of the spread of Captain Trips and the breakdown of society. King actually resembles his own creation Pennywise the clown, able to shift his form to give us new senses of fear wonder or mystery as occasion demands, popping up with unexpected surprises, or teasing out the pace or detail of a specific scene to evoke a certain note or colour, from the horrific terror of the New York Lincoln tunnel filled with cars and dead bodies, to the grotesquely comic idea of a glitzy hotel and famous casino turned into the seat for a brutal dictatorship.

King’s shifting style also insures that we really get inside the heads of the books 10 or so major players, see them grow and change, and understand their struggles both before and after the virus, indeed it is quite astounding that in a book whose basic underlying cosmology is so blatantly black and white, King creates such a range of characters with complexities and journeys to travel, particularly since we don’t necessarily know where their journeys will take them. Indeed from Larry Underwood, a successful rock singer battling with his own selfishness, to Harold Lauder, a frighteningly intelligent yet socially outcast sixteen year old trying to find his identity, to the Trashcan Man, a pitiable pyromaniac tormented by memories of bullying and abuse and his own love of fire, The Stand features some truly complex and three dimensional villains and heroes many of whom, like the quietly strong Stu Redman, learning disabled Tom Cullen and his friend, deaf drifter Nick Andros are characters we come to truly love.

One issue I did have with the book, is despite a few changes and updates to the setting for the 1990 uncut edition such as the insertion of President Reagan, the book still retains the flavour of the 1970’s when it was originally written. Of course minor anachronisms such as government protest groups and Larry’s ability to instantly write a hit rock and roll song and hold Hollywood pot parties are easy enough to overlook, however a more serious problem is the way gender affects characterisation and setting.

My lady accused King in much of his early work of writing his female characters as “wet tissues,” and unfortunately The Stand is no exception. Franny Goldsmith, the female character we see most of is a 21 year old student who finds out at the beginning of the book she is pregnant. I can understand King wishing to write a gentle female character, however in Franny King overshoots gentle and lands squarely in childish. From her actually quite unpleasant dismissal of her baby’s father as “weak” despite the fact that all we see of him is his desire to marry Fran and not run out on his child, and the way Fran rather cattily rejects Harold’s unrequited affection, not to mention Fran’s constant habit of crying literally at the drop of her hat and of course her absolute obsession about having a baby (accidental though her pregnancy was), Fran in general was a major disappointment.

This would matter less if there were a range of female characters in the book, but with the exception of the semi mystical mother Abigail most women we meet are emotionally needy and often dependent, indeed the closest thing we have to a competent or self sufficient female character is said to be a “women’s libber” and a lesbian (two terms which King implies are synonymous).

The book also features a large amount of subtle comments about women in its narration, from way men frequently describe their partners as of “my woman”, to Stu Redman’s rather disgusting assertion to the protective yet slimy Harold that he wouldn’t need to force a woman because he “had his hand”, to even the narrator’s note that “some girls you could possess” when Stu meets Fran, not to mention the fact that the new society that is formed still seems pretty strict on gender lines as regards division of labour.

While some of these assertions may be taken as in character, such as Fran’s rather hysterical observation that she “needs a man” and that women’s liberation meant nothing in a post virus world, to mother Abigail’s disapproval of girls who take sex as a playground, (an attitude we’d expect in a woman born in the 1880’s), the fact that these attitudes spread into narrative voice and the general constancy of them did increasingly take me out of the book and alienate me from some characters.

Of course this isn’t to say that all women, even in post-apocalyptic situations need to be hard as nails, any more than all men must show their sensitivity by constant emotional displays, but it is odd that a book which features such complexity in most of its characters so often falls down in depicting motivations when those characters had two x chromosomes.

Sadly it wasn’t even just the female characters who were affected by this. I was greatly disappointed in one scene when the likable and sensitive Nick Andros casually and rather brutally has sex with a psychotic and promiscuous girl almost on a whim, an action which seemed so out of character it was actively jarring, or when the otherwise straight up and honest Stu Redman rather casually talks about trips to brothels as though they were fairly standard nights out with the boys.

Yet not all the relationships in the book are problematic. Larry’s struggle with his demons and how this struggle reflects upon the woman Nadine Cross’s strange quest was one of the high points of the book for me. Indeed in Nadine King manages to achieve something I would have assumed impossible, feature a plot concerning a corruption by use of lust which does not objectify lust as an end in itself, but instead is focused entirely upon the weaknesses of his characters, both Nadine’s and those of her intended victims, especially given the genuinely touching relationship one of those victims already has, a relationship which you don’t want to see ruined.

Of course as a confrontation between good and evil, you always need a villain, and Randall Flagg is one of King’s best known and most compelling creations, an iconic drifter come provocateur with demonic origins, mysterious powers and a dark, blazing charisma. What is especially compelling about Flagg is that even when you have read books like The Dark Tower and are aware who Flagg is and what his origins are, he still retains that sense of mystery and compelling enigma that he had on first reading, much the way Sauron remains a mysterious being however many times you reread Lord of the Rings; a feat which is doubly astounding given the views from Flagg’s perspective we get during the book since usually seeing things from the villain’s point of view is death to suspense. The Stand however shows its quality in one of the hallmarks of great fiction, even amazingly powerful demonic beings can’t see all ends, and Flagg’s plans are just as prone to go awry as others are, especially given how fallible, human and complex his minions are.

One thing I did find a little odd, was the book’s relationship to society. The US government are painted as the villains of the piece, not only releasing the super flu accidently but also going to increasingly more brutal lengths to cover up their blunders, even going as far as dispersing the virus world wide so that America can maintain plausible deniability. When Mother Abigail’s converts reach their destination a considerable time is spent debating the start of a representative government with political voting, in fighting and even the generally virtuous characters engaged in a little back room dealing to get their people in charge.

With discourses from Glen Bateman, an opinionated professor of sociology we are often treated to rather oddly nuanced views about the troubles of government and organisation, and even a minor suggestion that Flagg represents not just absolute evil but the structure and mystique of technological progress (a fact reinforced by Flagg’s own brutal, totalitarian government). This strand of the book did feel a little aimless, particularly because other than a vague sense of “society is bad” King doesn’t seem to have come down with any certainty on any given position, indeed King himself noted that he needed an explosive game changer to bring the action back on track. Of course not every book needs a political point, but with the concentration on themes of society and especially Glen’s rather gloom laden discourses King probably should have been a little more definite, indeed this is one of the few areas The Stand falls short of one of King’s later books as Under the Dome was far more definite with how its political anarchy intersected with its characters and setting.

That being said King does manage something in The Stand which I found extremely positive, he writes a book with not only an American setting, but one deeply rooted in American culture that does not alienate none American readers, indeed even though I found the political discussion a little aimless I did enjoy one section in which the survivors sing the American national anthem, because unlike the vast majority of writers King doesn’t rely on simply the invocation of “Truth, Justice and the American way”, to create an emotional scene, but simply works on what that particular thing means at this particular time to the people who have lost so much in a post-virus world, and since these are characters we care deeply about this is affecting for any reader, American or not.

The book’s ending has received a huge amount of criticism over the years, many noting that it is literally a Deus ex Machina. One thing however which people levelling this criticism miss, is that The Stand is unashamedly a book written in a Christian context. Several characters, especially Mother Abigail quite freely talk of messages from God and putting trust in God, and Flagg is depicted as much as “Satan’s imp” or the demon Legion as something extra dimensional. Whether one is a Christian or not, there is no escaping the fact that the Christian story; even considered as a story, has had a huge effect on the way western culture considers matters of good evil and power.

The power of Evil, as T. H. White’s Arthur reminds us, is built on one simple premise, might makes right. The Hero, the power of good is able to check that balance, to see the powers of good succeed despite lacking that might. The story of Jesus is significant because at rock bottom it is the story of a man who had little power beyond his convictions, spoke out against the evils of his day and succeeded. Yet Jesus was not a mighty Hercules, successful through superior strength of arms, nor even a wily Odysseus, successful through trickery or cunning. Jesus simply endured a horrific death, and showed his strength of conviction through that endurance; a conviction which was in the end rewarded.

This idea of the hero overcoming might through endurance is one of the most beautiful tropes in fiction, since it gives us hope that eventually the powerless (which sadly these days includes most of the world’s population), will be shown to be virtuous in the end despite their lack of military, economic or other types of might, and the powerful, the selfish and yes the evil will not conquer forever. After all Jesus himself mentions that it is the meek who shall inherit the earth, and the last who will be first.

Tolkien understood the power of this ideal when he wrote of a little hobbit carrying a heavy burden to Mordor. Rowling understood it when a boy wizard leapt before a murderous psychopath shouting a disarming charm, and King understood it when he called his own American Lord of the Rings “The Stand”.

The power of good in this case is not cunning or strength or a last minute power from inside, it is simply being there and enduring as evil ends.

This is why for me The Stand couldn’t have had any other ending and why I think King himself called The Stand “a work of dark Christianity”.

Likely how well the ending works for you will depend upon your appreciation of this trope, since certainly if your looking for almighty heroes who punch out the bad guys or turn the tables in one last desperate bit of ingenuity, or suddenly gain power from inside themselves to win out you’ll be disappointed. If however you can appreciate the idea that King works to, the very “stand” of the book’s title, you’ll find the ending a beautiful and terrible experience.

My only minor niggle with the ending goes back to the books more serious issue, that of gender. All of the characters who take the stand are male, while the women are quite literally left at home to have babies. Only one relationship is actually given time to be depicted in light of the ending (and that involves the childish Fran). This is extremely disappointing since one extremely likable character is left hanging rather badly, and the “woman” of one of the men taking the stand is barely mentioned at all.

Indeed here King seems to subscribe to the decidedly old fashioned idea that for a woman having a baby pretty much equals happily ever after, and it’s sad to see more complex relationships fall off because of that.

King has stated The Stand is the book he’s most commonly asked about, even though he doesn’t believe it’s his best book, and this I don’t find surprising. I could likely write ten times this amount and still just scratch the surface, since The Stand is at rock bottom a big book. Not just because of its length, but because of its complexity. King’s shifting style and moments of horror and cynicism cover a huge range of visions, experiences and ideas. Yes, some work better than others and some are rather dated, but there is no point being hung up on one issue or other when there is so much else to see.

In this review I’ve tried to give a flavour of the salient points of the book, and yet there are a massive amount of things I’ve not touched on, Tom Cullen’s unique M-O-O-N speech, Nick Andros struggles as a deaf person, Mother Abigail’s trip into the desert, King’s rather pleasant depiction of most survivors (though by no means all), as comparatively decent people, the interesting mix of poverty and plenty in a post virus world where companionship is now the new scarcity, the horrific problems of a world where simple medical operations are impossible, and on and on.

Suffice it to say, if you call yourself any kind of reader of speculative fiction and can appreciate a truly rich and complex book, The Stand is a must read. Even if you’ve never read Stephen King before, even if neither horror nor post-apocalyptic are your usual genre choice, you won’t be disappointed. Dark, 9.3/10

The Stand, first published in 1978, was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 1979. It was author Stephen King's sixth work of fiction, a cross-over of epic fantasy, horror and dystopia which still remains one of the finest works of its type and the novel that King's legions of fans love most.

The Stand begins as the first days of the plague hits the US. Then come the dreams, dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man, the apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads, the warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand and as His Empire grows in the west so looms the Apocalypse.

I first read The Stand in 1989 and I was completely blown away by it. The story, the characters, the tension - I had never read a book of its size so quickly. So, 23 years later I decided to read it again, finding that although I was able to remember certain parts, almost everything other than the memory of loving it had been forgotten. I found it interesting that King himself said, in the forward, that he doesn't think The Stand is amongst his best books, but the one he is asked most questions about. I would agree with the author here as books like It, Salem’s Lot and The Shining are better-written books but there is just something about The Stand, and if the reader connects with it they are in for a thrilling ride.

So what inspired King to kill of 99% of the world’s population? "I love to burn things up," he said. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke."

I am now old enough, and have read enough across all the varying literature that is available to confidently state that King is an excellent, and by many underrated, author. To put is simply, he is one of the greatest storytellers of his generation who is only pigeon-holed as a schlock horror writer by those who haven’t actually read his work. And The Stand is one of his best stories, not the best executed arguably but always compelling and never dull. And it's great to finally have it on Kindle, and it can now be read by commuters without having to carry the weight about as the uncut edition weighs in around at 1,400 pages (bigger than all 3 Lord of the Rings books put together!) and for many will be the biggest book they have ever read, and as such it is not just an enjoyment but also an achievement to complete. By the end the story, which reaches Biblical proportions, the reader will feel like they have been on a journey every bit as unforgettable as the characters themselves.

The Stand is King near the top of his game (and having recently read 11.22.63 I am delighted to say he is still producing). The writing is excellent, the imagery horrifying and the atmosphere hypnotic. After the first few pages you will either find yourself hooked or repelled… it’s that kind of book. But if you want to read one of the greatest examples of dystopian fiction with a healthy dose of fantasy thrown in then look no further. Floresiensis, 9/10

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Reviews by Dark and Floresiensis

11 positive reader review(s) for The Stand

Stephen King biography

Harry Tasias from Greece

I have always been a Steven King fan but I only read The Stand the past month. In my opinion it is one of his best books together with Salem's Lot and The Shining, great character development and a story that you never forget!!! Yes, it has religious overtones but Randall Flagg, the main villian of the story is actually a demon. You can't beat an evil spirit with grenades and bazookas so the deus ex machina in the ending fits very well. I recommend it to anyone who wants an exciting, thrilling story with a lot of heart in it.

TColl from Australia

***SPOILERS**** A lot of people criticise King's treatment of female characters in this book, as the main review did. This seems to totally forget two characters - Dayna and Mother Abigail both had strength in buckets. Moreover, Stu's survival would have been impossible if Dayna had cracked. Mother Abigail is pure strength - a survivor who has enough character and will to do her duty as she (and her god) sees it. Additionally, people are pretty hard on Fran. She was young, still in college, and pregnant when the end of the world came. Ok, she wasn't the brightest spark in the book and some of her worries seemed very small, but when you consider the situation she was in (pregnant without any modern medicine to ensure the health of her and her baby) and the fact her hormones would have been going mad as well I think she did okay. Even Nadine plays such a pivotal and interesting role in beating RF. So while there might be less female characters, those that are there are pretty powerful in their own right.

Karlis from Latvia

I eventually started to believe that Stephen King was cranking books out too quickly, which meant, at least to my eyes, a drop in quality, but I read "The Stand" when I was a teenager and was completely blown away by the sheer scope of the thing. To me, there are three true Stephen King masterpieces -- "The Stand," for which the subsequent miniseries was wonderful, "Carrie," the movie for which I saw when I was 16 and which scared the Bejesus out of me in the final scene, and "Salem's Lot," which made me sleep with the lights on for about two weeks. Thank you for the author's very interesting review of "The Stand." I guess I'll have to read the book again.

Michael from US

I was 11 years old the first time I read The Stand. I had read several other Stephen King books before, and was already on my way to becoming a Stephen King superfan. His books have a tendency to start out slow and then pick up as you read. The opposite could be said for this one, as the flu is sprung on you practically from the start. King connects the dots exceptionally well when describing how the flu could spread from a military base in California first to a small town in Texas then to the entire world. It seamlessly transitions from one character to another, giving insight into each one's strengths and liabilities. For instance, Stewart Redmond's loyalty for his friends, yet his feelings of not being strong enough to be a leader. The ending was a little blasé, but it makes sense in a way. The three men who went to Las Vegas brought God with them to a Godless place. It was their faith that let God finally deal with Flagg and his army. All in all, I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who not only like horror and fantasy books, but just good stories. I'd just have to warn them about the length and recommend an eBook copy.

August Profumo from UK

The Stand book Review By August Profumo PART II Nick Andros About five gang members were shadowing Nick closely through a field of hay in the middle of the night between neighboring backyards, where he was looking for a place to stay. But, he had just worked for two months doing odd jobs and pumping recently. So, his wallet was bulging a little too prominently. So, they beat him up and stole it (although it was an extremely protracted struggle, I can’t remember the precise details. But, it was dramatic and well choreographed). Hence, immediately after this Nick hobbled, painfully, to visit the Sheriff’s office. Then he communicated what had transpired by writing it down with a mechanical pencil and a sheet of white paper. He included physical descriptions. But, one of the perpetrators was the Sheriffs brother in law (because he matched Nick’s description to a T with his telltale tattoo). Thus, the Sheriff didn’t lose sight of his duty to preserve justice. So, he helped Nick even though his brother in law was certainly guilty: two of his friends who were gang members were identified by Nick Andros as accessories. So, they were apprehended, handcuffed and jailed. Then the Local doctor had to fix Nick’s injured foot and toes. Then Capt. Trips strikes. Its First bout with the Sheriff had laid him low for while. But, he recovered long enough to ask Nick to fill in for him. Since, nobody else was available to be deputized: all of the reserve units had been ordered away. Thus, Nick was sworn in (and then the Sherriff died followed by his wife). So, Nick ordered food from a local diner to supply food to the two inmates that shared a cell. But, both demanded to be freed before it struck because they saw many people (with tube necks), dropping like flies, everywhere. But, eventually they’ll die. But, Nick Survived. Then Nick becomes somewhat closer to the Sheriff’s wife, before she died. Then shortly later, the guilty Brother in law returns to get even with Nick after nearly everyone else had died of plague. So, he gouged one of Nick’s eyes out (terribly). But, Nick killed his assailant in self-defense. Even though its duration was brief, it had two or three distinct phases while both men remained standing face to face without throwing any punches, kicking or using any weapons. It was an intense struggle similar to upright wrestling. I think he broke his neck. But, Only Nick survived (so, he probably had to bandage his wounded eye first). Then he walked away slowly (and serenely) and day dreamed vividly of Mother Abigail with many Rows of corn and fresh piping hot biscuits. Broadcasting telepathically, this is Mother Abigail, please come to my farm, you all. We’ll have some fried chicken instead of Turkey. In this age of modern conveniences, she still didn’t have a toilet. She had a privy with lime to make it smell sweet. When Nick first met Tom Cullen, he didn’t understand what a deaf mute was: this concept comes to him like a lightning bolt, unexpectedly (but it took awhile before it registers). He doesn’t understand how to pantomime since he’s retarded; he shouldn’t be able to read Nick’s writing or read his lips. But, technically, Nick can Read Tom’s lips easily. So, there’s a magical Understanding between them like telepathy in order to communicate. So, whenever, they conserve, it’s sheer fantasy. One time, Tom saved Nick by warning him about a Tornado that had just started to reap havoc in their vicinity by ripping the barn’s top off. So, Tom had to drag Nick by the arm at the last instant to escape by jumping down and through the floors’ cellar door and remaining there until it had subsided, with the door bolted tightly shut. Since, this was Tom’s territory, he knew what to expect and that this type of danger occurred frequently and routinely. But, for Nick this was his very first time, so he felt completely out of his element. Thus, he was shocked and even concerned that that Tom had it all figured out precisely, gamely, and eagerly. Nick as a Good party committee member had nominated Tom Cullen to be one of their three spies. Tom was easy to hypnotize so that he was amenable to post hypnotize suggestions for him to remember an elaborate cover story: they drove him away because they didn’t want him to pollute their gene pool with retarded children, (I don’t know if it’d be plausible). Then when the moon was full to return homeward bound. If hypnotism were realistic, this’d be tenable. Only Tom will survive, however, and the other two were killed: The Judge didn’t make it into their territory. He made it across the first border checkpoint, but when he tries to circle around, he was finally apprehended (or seized) while crossing through Oregon. But, the other girl (Deana) had successfully infiltrated. Thus, she had gleaned a lot of useful (spy type) information by sleeping with the evil vice-president in Las Vegas. (I can’t remember precisely how her cover had been blown, however.) Thus, when Flag finally caught her and tried to execute her, she jumped from his (interior) office window, landed on a shard of broken glass (on the floor) and cut her throat, committing suicide. She herself had been nominated because she had survived many ordeals with men drugging her in order to have sex. She had been held prisoner for perhaps six months, and there were about eight other girls in this harem. So, when the good party, which included Harold, was passing by her jailers on the road (driving in a caravan in the opposite direction), there was a brief shoot out. Then the good gang was finally able to win because this Deana had had the presence of mind to arm herself. When a rapist was shot in the belly, he dropped his gun, and then it skirted her way on the truck bed’s floor. Then she participated in shooting her own abductors, jailers and tormentors. The wild gunfire, which ensued, caused the girls’ deaths, but only two survived. Both girls had to defend themselves: one using a gun but the other via a knife. But, when the moon was full, Tom Cullen returned homeward as planned. But, his instructions were to only travel at night and sleep during the day. But, Flag was looking for him on the crossroads only during the day. Thus, Flag called off further searches after the first one had failed. Because Tom didn’t return the entire way home, he was strategically located next to Stu (although unscripted). Since, the good person’s mission was successful via a self-inflicted A-bomb blast by trashcan man that he had liberated in the Nevada desert at Nellis Air Force Base. But, only Stu survived, because he’d broken his leg while falling down an escarpment on the way. But, the A-bomb had killed everyone including his teammates. But, Stu had to be safely out of its range in order to have survived—although I don’t know about the fallout. Fortunately, Tom was nearby, so Kojak found him and brought him back. But, initially, Kojak was with Stu from the very beginning, rendering aid by hunting for game (rabbits) and giving it to Stu. This included all of the essentials like fetching a stick in order to make a splint for his leg (it seemed to heal a little too fast), water, clothing, firewood, flint for the fire, etc. Stu needed Tom’s strength. Since, it was winter and snow covered every square inch of ground, so they created a makeshift ski transport. But, its runners were stuck in the ice. Thus, it’d only move, when all three of them were pulling together (in unison or in tandem) like a team of pack dogs with its tie ropes lashed securely. So, Tom made it possible. But, when the weather improved, they traveled on foot and searched for a decent car: with its keys still in the ignition but with a dead battery (so it couldn’t be hotwired). But, they continued searching until they found one pointing downhill. So, Stu was able to compression start its engine (since they found gas for it) by rolling it down the hill and then waiting for its speed to reach about twenty miles per hour (by looking at the speedometer). Then, when its momentum was optimal, he popped the clutch and its engine fired up. Although there was a dense cloud of smoke coming from under its hood that entered the cab, revoltingly, when it sputtered and almost died. So, Stu had to pump on the gas pedal a few more times to get it going again and revving up its tachometer. So, for the first time in months, Stu had serious transportation—and they zoomed down the road like Heaven’s devils with roaring engines and flames pouring out of its dual exhaust pipes. Then they make fair headway all the way home and they’re highly motivated to see how Frannie’s child will be when he’s eventually born in a few weeks.

August from USA

The Stand book Review By August Profumo I had to read it twice: my first (ever novel) written by Stephen King and my Last. But, for the second I had to wait until I was in the proper mood. Since, I knew that it was slightly longer—in fact, my version was uncut but the original was cut. Moreover, the horror aspect was more pronounced. So, even though I spent approximately 100% of my total time reading, it still took about twelve full days. My memories of the entire first half were extraordinarily vague: confabulation prevailed. Indeed, I thought that the plague’s cause was natural. But, rather the US military had instigated it even though it was prohibited. But, somehow, it had inadvertently escaped (or leaked) from a Top Secret Testing facility. But, the government and the US military continued to be evasive. Hence, Newspapers and Broadcasting stations were forced to Lie and cover-up the truth under threats of death by armed military guards. So, thousands of citizens were summarily executed by the army with machine guns, and nearly everyone else died of the plague (known as Mr. Trips), except for a few rugged individualists. But, after their ordeal, (perhaps it was three months); they had to make their Stand (that is for the genuine Apocalypse in the future and they share the same dreams: Good or evil). I thought that the initial plague victim’s car had crashed into a gas station smashing the pumps (dramatically) and that they had instantly exploded (with a dazzling flash of pyrotechnics). But, it was actually turned off at the last second by the attendant, Stu Redman: the Stand’s future hero. When it finally struck; however, it was only going about ten miles per hour. So, that’s what stopped its momentum. In fact, the driver survived the crash itself, but his family was in the back seats. Then the driver died of the plague after asking Stu, who had investigated the occupant on foot, if his wife and infant son were still Ok. So, Stu lied and said that they were Ok. Then the driver died. But, he had narrowly escaped from a top secret Army Plague testing center, where he was stationed with his wife (and son) and that’s where it had originated: it had accidently leaked from a hermetically sealed lab room with test tubes. But, this was the primary reason for it spreading rampantly, out of control. Or, I thought that the beginning events occurred at the end. For example, I thought that Flag could levitate (or fly) about a foot off the ground. But, at the end, he could only manage a quarter inch or so. He was the leader of the Evil gang based in Las Vegas. My favorite characters were Larry Underwood (former Rock Star, and writer of “Baby, can you dig your man?”), Harold Lauder (with his fake smile due to losing his beloved Frannie Goldsmith to Stewart Redman who he loathed and wished was dead, who loved Payday candy bars with peanuts), Nick Andros (the deaf mute and Tom’s best friend), Tom Cullen (The retarded man) and Nadine Cross (Flag’s reluctant wife and Harold Lauder’s confidant on the “Good” side, where they plant a bomb to kill a few including Nick). The good party was led by Mother Abigail based out of Denver Colorado (but they had to move there from back east). She was the one that everybody had dreamed of before meeting her—with many rows of corn and homemade biscuits. (She fried three chickens for her guests, but her favorite food was Planter’s peanuts with lots of salt). She explained how to deal with the Evil gang based in Las Vegas by sending only four persons—Larry Underwood, Stuart Redman, Ralph, and Glen. She said that that was God’s will after communing (with him) via a vision after spending about three weeks outside without food or water. Harold Lauder When Frannie Goldsmith’s was burying her father in her backyard, Harold drove by with his new car, which he had requisitioned from their home town dealership. Harold was a neighbor, but his sister was a good friend of Frannie. Then he told Frannie that he’d come by later after she had finished. Then he drove to his house and started typing noisily on his typewriter—and she heard it, as if it were nearer. According to Frannie, Harold was a slightly portly teenager, with acne, but he loved Payday candy bars with peanuts. He considered himself a talented literacy artist, but nobody else did. Someday, he’ll write his own diary in order to compete with Frannie. But, even though Larry Underwood will find it hidden under a loose masonry stone inside Harold’s homemade chimney, he didn’t read it. There wasn’t enough time. After Ms. Goldsmith finished burying her father, she heard Harold trying to mow his front lawn with a John deer tractor setup. But, as she walks closer, she saw that Harold was in fact crying, with tears streaming down his face, from his own deaths in his own family, including his sister, mother and father. The freshly mowed grass is in the back of the truck and he’s about half way finished, as he zig zags, back and forth across his old front yard. Then when Frannie arrived, she said hello. Then he stopped crying immediately and he said that he could feel empathy with her tears over burying her father. Then Frannie told Harold that she wants to visit a Government Disease treatment center nearby, where they could learn more about what had happened in that regard. So, Harold agreed. Then Harold takes charge of her in grand fashion afterward and he’s extremely pleased with his new role: since, he’s quite dashing for a change. But, first, they had to plan by provisioning themselves with all of the essentials like food, water, clothing, gas and pistols. This included teaching Frannie how to ride a small two stroke motorcycle (that is a Honda or Yamaha). So, this takes a while before she’s officially ready, without crashing that many times before seriously injuring herself. Before, departing, however, Harold had the presence of mind to leave a message behind on a barn top that told their names, the date and their destination. He had to paint it there in large enough Letters, so that it’d be seen readily from miles away. But, he also drew a small picture of a heart with His name and Frannie’s as true Love inside the Barn somewhere (this will be seen by Larry Underwood). Then when Harold and Frannie finally depart, they make fair headway to their destination. Stewart Redman When a military doctor came to kill Redman in his hospital bed, since he was their prize guineas pig for experiments with Mr. Trips, Stu had to kill him with a heavy chair. Thus, it penetrated his heavy metal helmet, according to plan. Then when he scampered away through his doorway (outside), he peered about briefly. But, all of the other base personnel were dead from plague. So, all he had do in order to escape (fully) was examine a wall-map that showed his location (that is you are here) relative to nearby Exits of the mazelike building. So, once he espied it, it was a walk in the park. But, it took a while. Then after acquiring a new wardrobe and a pair of shoes from the local stores, free: Since nearly everyone else had died, nobody remained to operate the cash-registers and collect the usual fees. Thus, equipped, he was finally able to amble down the road again (in relative comfort). Then he finally, meets his new friend, Ralph. First, he meets his (adopted) dog called Kojak. Then the dog leads, Stu, to Ralph who’s painting natural scenery with a lake in the background, with a dense forest for contrast. Then they begin conversing and he gives him about six beers that were submerged in a lake. Then they become steady friends (until Ralph dies) and they camp out every day, and eat canned foods. Ralph is a retired high school Sociology Teacher. They remained in same camp and talked. So, he said that most people had an innate latent talent to predict the future like plane fights crashes. For example, most of the planes that had crashed were nearly empty. So, somehow, they had avoided only the ones that crashed and the ones that didn’t crash were always full to capacity. So, he studied stuff like that. Harold and Frannie Suddenly, Harold and Frannie are coming around the curb, riding their motor cycles. But, as soon as they see Stu and Ralph off to one side of the road, they pulled over and stopped, immediately, to investigate. Harold tells them their Destination, and that it was worth a gander. But, Stu, explained not to waste any time. Since, that’s where he had escaped. However, Harold had insisted that they should go; he said that Stu was lying. So, they ended up going all the way back there in order to prove that he was telling the truth. But, Harold doubted it until the very end. When they finally arrived at the very room with the dead medical doctor that Stu had to kill with a chair, then he admitted that Stu was telling the truth. Initially, Harold had agreed to allow Stu Redman to travel with them, because Stu had promised that he wasn’t interested in Frannie, personally. But, he lied. Harold had hoped to woo (or love) Frannie for himself. But, Stu ended up having sex with her after about a week after they had met—but their match was forged in Heaven. But, one night Harold decided to steal (stealthily) Frannie’s diary from her knapsack while everyone else slept. Then, afterward, he took it back to his tent to read with a flashlight (privately), but when he reads the page that says that Frannie, loved Stu, he became quite mad, and marked the page (inadvertently) with a Payday candy bar smudge print. Frannie will eventually notice (and recognize) it as Harold’s. But, it’s fairly incriminating. So, at this time Harold started to keep a diary like Frannie. But, he dreamed only of Killing Stu Redman. But, he wrote about it in graphic detail inside his diary. Then he used a mirror in order to practice smiling, so that whenever he thought of killing Stu Redman, he wouldn’t give himself away. Then they continued to travel together en route to meet Mother Abigail: their communal goal. Larry Underwood Before meeting Mother Abigail, Larry Underwood had to escape via subway tunnels in New York, but it was too dark. He had a small butane cigarette lighter. So, he had to grope along blindly, feeling his way along one side of a walkway’s wall with his bare hands. But, sometimes his path was blocked with bodies that had been shot by the US army with machine guns. But, also, most of the others in that tunnel were plague victims that had fled in their cars. With a flick of his bic, that’s how he was able to see, casting blurred shadows on the walls around him. Then one time he heard a strange noise that sounded like footsteps coming from behind him. But, it turned out to be his first girl friend that he had hooked up with after everyone else had died of the plague. That was three weeks after his mother had died and her rich husband had died of plague. But, even though Larry kept yelling out asking (imploringly), if anyone else was following him, she didn’t say a word, remaining silent. So, Larry nearly shot her (twice) by accident with his pistol and rifle. Initially, they had become inadvertently separated by arguing over something ridiculous like how much water to carry vs. food, etc. So, somehow, they negotiated through without encountering any persons. Then Larry gets a motorcycle at a local store—since there’s plenty of free goods around—in order to travel generally from town to town. Since otherwise, this was the first time that they didn’t travel on foot. In fact, most people acquired canned goods like chili beans or Dinty Moore beef stew in grocery stores or dried goods like peanuts, crackers, and strawberry jam, marmalade, slim Jims and peanut butter. They get camping gear, clothing, boots etc. Larry Underwood was dreaming of Flag when he got in a wreck with his Harley Davidson. But, fortunately, his new girl friend who had survived the plague wasn’t with him, since she had died of a drug overdose (that is sleeping pills). Larry had discovered this when investigating their new tent: he found barbiturates in her purse and he wasn’t aware of her addiction. Perhaps, that was the reason why they had argued previously. Larry was intensely upset when she died because he was doting on her—and thus it was excruciatingly painful—because they were getting along so splendidly. Because he injured his leg during his accident, he’s too frightened to travel using any other vehicle (or means of conveyance) including a bicycle. So, he has to forge ahead on foot, otherwise, he’ll dream of Flag, the Walking Dud. But, his injuries weren’t serous: only one knee was injured while he took a spill on his Harley, trying to negotiate around an old Oak tree on the pavement. But, he didn’t make it. But, when he fell, he wasn’t wearing a helmet, but fortunately, he didn’t need to. Thus, he had to apply first aid to himself with his own kit—with his uninjured hands. First, in order to stop the bleeding, he applies pressure with his bare bloody hands—and he’s feeling a fair amount of pain. However, because it’s moist, his hands keep slipping and it’s extremely tough to get a firm grip. Then he had to make a makeshift tourniquet with his leather belt, which he loops around it, tightly. Then he cleans his hands off with a wet towel. Then he cleans it daily with soap, alcohol and mercurochrome as an antiseptic. Then he applies fresh bandages, so he doesn’t get gangrene. Then he drinks a bottle of Jack Daniels to kill the pain. Then after a few more weeks of easy trekking (all of his wounds have healed, miraculously), Larry was walking by Nadine Cross’s house where she’s staying with a ten year boy that she calls Joe (who survived also). But, they left the house before he arrived. But, Joe who always had his trusty knife with him was creeping up (silently on the balls of his feet) on Larry through the foliage to see if he entered. But, Nadine saw him just in time to stop him. She said, “No, Joe! Stop it!” That was the first time, however. But, Larry as he walks by senses that someone is watching him from behind. But, he decides to stay in the area, since he needed food and shelter. So, he goes shopping for canned food at the local supermarket, and ends up with higher quality food than Nadine had given Joe. Then he decides to stay in a house that’s relatively close to Nadine’s, with her feral child and surrogate son, Joe. Moreover, due to shock, he’s mute. Then in the middle of the night, Joe, decides to visit Larry’s camp again where he’s sleeping. Then Joe, armed with his knife, is waving it high above Larry’s head a few times in circles (just missing his face), but he doesn’t strike. But, he’s notices that Larry’s Dinty Moore canned stew was better than his Nabisco crackers with cheese. But, he didn’t even touch a single crumb. Then the next Morning, Nadine decides that she will meet Larry and introduce Joe. So, generally, they were amiable after agreeing to stay traveling together. So, they went to the Atlantic Ocean where Joe becomes (increasingly, day by day) more humane. So, after reaching there, Larry demands that as a priori condition (or token of) his continued goodwill that Joe should get rid of his knife. So, Joe throws his trusty knife, arcing high in the air, so that it lands in the Ocean where it disappears forever in the breakers, with a splashing sound. But, as a surrogate, he’s given a beautiful (Gibson twelve string classical) guitar. Moreover, Joe’s no longer mute; he talks to Larry about his former Rock Star Music days. Then Larry teaches him how to play—but Joe seems to be a prodigy like Mozart, with remarkable talent. But, afterward this facet of his personality isn’t even mentioned. When they ultimately meet, Mother Abigail, she knows his real name, but it wasn’t Joe. She warned Nadine Cross to stay away from Flag, if possible. But, she does get involved deeper in time, including some escapades with Harold Lauder. But, ultimately, she committed suicide by jumping out of her bedroom window, after causing Harold to die by Flag’s hand. Since, he had had his side of the road side blocked with a stone abutment, but Nadine’s side was free, when they departed together (driving Motorcycles) from the Good person’s camp, after setting off their bomb that killed at least 20 people including Nick Andros. But, Stu and Frannie had survived since she had had a premonition concerning it. But, she was too late to save Nick. Nadine was aware of what would happen to Harold, before departing. Afterward, he plummeted downward about 30 ft. Consequently, when landing on a tree stump, he shattered both legs and his left collarbone broke. Then Nadine said that Flag had barricaded Harold’s side of the roadside. Then Harold took his colt 45 out from his holster and almost shot at Nadine, but he knew if he did, that’d end everything. So, as long as she still lingered, entertainingly, she might attempt helping him out of his predicament. Then after a while, Harold finally realized that he should’ve shot her from the very beginning because she departed abruptly. After, this Harold writes in his diary, about what had happened and he said that it was best writing that he had ever performed. Then he signed it, Hawk, which was a nick name that a Good party coworker had given him while working on a volunteer burial (plague victim’s) detail. He was extremely proud of it. Stu (et al) will find his wreck later.

Steve from UK

Great book, read it years ago planning on rereading soon. Excellently written, rilliantly realised characters, fabulous, good verses evil narrative. Highly recommended!

Geoffrey from U.S.A.

Stephen King's "The Stand" is an epic in the classical sense of the word. It is huge, broad and all-encompassing, and addresses the national characteristics of Americans, both weaknesses and strengths. It was the first King book which I ever read and remains my favorite. The novel is really two separate novels. Of its roughly 1200 pages, the first 600 or so address the experiences of survivors of a humanly engineered world-wide plague ("Blue," or "The Superflu," or "Tube Neck," or "Captain Trips.") It only addresses what is going on in the United States, although we are given to understand that the rest of the world has suffered a similar fate. About .7 % (that is .007) of the world population and the population of the U.S. survives. The second part of the book is about an apocolyptic confrontation between the good people of the United States and the evil people. The good people, congregated in Boulder, Colorado--a western, moutainous state, for you Brits--are led by a 108 year old black woman from Nebraska. The bad people are led by a mysterious, satanic figure, whom the black woman calls, "Satan's Imp." King dwells much more on the satanic figure than on the grandmotherly woman, since the grandmother follows the instructions which she has perceived come from God (and they do), but she has no insight into what God's plan is. it is a lot clearer what the satanic figure's goals are: conquest, misery and death. The implication is that he is trying to establish Satan's kingdom on earth. King draws detailed portraits of about six or seven characters, who are flawed but good-hearted and likeable. He spends hundreds of pages on these characters and their experiences. So, by the last quarter of the book, we are really hooked and rooting for them. Most of them are not particularly religious, but their own personalities drive them to do good, at risk to themselves, and to defeat evil. It is only late in the story that some of the characters acknowledge that they are being directed by God. King's ability to draw convincing, entertaining and likeable characters (among the good guys) and convincing, entertaining and dislikeable characters among the bad guys, sets this book apart from most others. Believable characterization is the hardest thing to write, I believe. And King manages to do this routinely. There are two versions of "The Stand" available. The first version was cut at the behest of Doubleday's marketing department, which determined how big a book Doubleday could publish and still make a decent profit, based on the performance of King's previous five books. This was around 1972 at the beginning of King's career. When King's popularity took off, the marketing people at Doubleday agreed to publish the book at approximately its original length. I have read both versions and, because I loved the book originally in its roughly 800 page form, I loved it even more in its roughly 1200 page form. My guess is that if you are not picking up a used copy, you will only find the longer version available, although I cannot be certain about this.

Randy from Australia

I loved 99.99% of this book. the reason why I said that, is because the ending isn't all that I would like it to be. What I noticed, is that Steven King is a very very very good writer when the subject is realistic. The more far fetched the subject is, the worse the ending. That is to be expected with all Steven kKing books, but what surprised me, is that for a far fetched book, the ending isn't 100% crap. the only slip up that he made (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! IT WILL BE SAFE TO RESUME AT THE NEXT PERENTACES) is by making the Hand of God reach down, and kill Randall Flagg. (SAFE TO RESUME) So over all, this book is 999 and 3/4 great. (it has a total lot 1000 pages). I would recommend this book to anyone who can read a 1,000 page book.

Anton from US

The characters in The Stand are wonderfully realized. They stay with you. Great story. One of my comfort books. Want to be friends with all the good guys.

Niall from UK

One of my favorite books of all time. Beautifully written with brilliant characters. A pleasure to read!

9.6 /10 from 12 reviews

All Stephen King Reviews

Joyland (Hard Case Crime Series)
Under the Dome
The Talisman: Road of Trials
The Eyes of the Dragon
Needful Things
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Long Walk
Gerald's Game
Bag of Bones
Salem's Lot
Firestarter
The Shining
Pet Sematary
The Talisman (Talisman: Book 2)
Black House (Talisman: Book 2)
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower series: Book 1)
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower series: Book 2)
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower series: Book 3)
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower series: Book 4)
The Wind Through The Keyhole (The Dark Tower series: Book 4.5)
Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower series: Book 5)
Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower series: Book 6)
The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower series: Book 7)

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Chapters 12

Chapters 13-25

Chapters 26-35

Chapters 36-43

Chapters 44-46

Chapters 47-50

Chapters 51-54

Chapters 55-60

Chapters 61-71

Chapters 72-78

Character Analysis

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Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Summary and Study Guide

The Stand is the fourth and longest novel by bestselling author Stephen King, who has written over 60 books to date, including such well-known titles as Carrie (1974), The Shining (1977), Pet Sematary (1983), Misery (1987), and The Green Mile (1996). It falls into the categories of post-apocalyptic science fiction and horror fantasy.

When originally published in 1978, The Stand was approximately 800 pages long. This edition represented a compromise on King’s part because his publisher forced him to cut 400 pages from his original manuscript. He later published an unabridged version of the novel in May 1990 containing 1,200 pages. Aside from its length, the book is notable for introducing the character of Randall Flagg , who was to become a recurring villain in many of King’s later works. The Stand was adapted as a 1994 television mini-series. A new televised 10-episode version of the novel is currently in production with an anticipated airdate during the fourth quarter of 2020.

The story spans the time period of June 1990 through January 1991. King tells it using limited third-person narration from over a dozen different points of view. The book’s setting covers most of the continental United States with special emphasis on rural Nebraska, Boulder, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite the dark tone of the material, many passages carry an element of humor, references to popular songs, and light-hearted philosophical observations about life.

The Stand tells the tale of a post-apocalyptic world in which the survivors must rebuild society from the ground up. One group coalesces around an elderly female prophet, while another rallies to the cause of a totalitarian leader named Randall Flagg. The conflict between the forces of light and darkness allows the novel to explore the themes of how to build an ideal society, the cyclic persistence of evil, and the necessity of taking a stand against it.

Plot Summary

As the tale begins, a soldier and his family flee a government facility that has become contaminated with an antigen virus intended for use as a biological weapon. This virus eventually kills over 99% of the United States population. Following the initial outbreak, a small number of individual survivors begin to find one another and band together. They all experience recurring dreams of a frightening dark man, and a benevolent old black woman who tells them to come find her in Nebraska.

The old woman’s name is Abagail, and she believes God has given her a mission to assemble all the survivors in Boulder, Colorado, to prepare for a confrontation with the dark man. Across the Rockies in Las Vegas, a demonic entity known as Randall Flagg is assembling a faction of his own. Flagg intends to destroy all who oppose him and take over the world.

Abagail instructs four of the men in the Boulder Free Zone colony to walk to Las Vegas to confront Flagg. They will almost certainly die as a result, but all of them have faith in Abagail’s vision and the necessity of making a stand against Flagg. Although three of the four men die, their willingness to confront the forces of darkness succeeds in banishing Flagg and restoring harmony to what remains of the human community.

NOTE: All page number citations come from the Kindle edition of this book.

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The Stand is a Hell of a Mixed Bag

“Do you think he’s still alive?” a man asks a new friend. Then he clarifies: “ The Rock ?” The pair look down at what the man holds: a copy of, of all things, “ Skyscraper .” It’s both punchline and lament, one moment among many in which the characters of “The Stand” confront their new reality. Is The Rock still alive? Probably not. Like 99 percent of humanity, it’s likely that he succumbed to the virus known colloquially as Captain Trips, a government-developed superflu inadvertently unleashed upon the world by a scared man who just wants to keep his wife and kid safe. And as a moment of drama, it’s an unlikely high point in Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell’s adaptation of Stephen King ’s seminal dark fantasy novel. The world ends, and that’s a wrap on The Rock as we understand him; all our old institutions of wealth, fame, and power have crumbled. It’s surreal and sad, a punchline and a moment of grief in one, and then it passes, and it’s time to get back to work hauling corpses.

I’ll admit that the “Skyscraper” moment almost doesn’t work—the writers are in on the joke, but the character is not, and it rankles a bit—but all the same, it’s hard not to wish for more such moments in this take on “The Stand.” Any King adaptation lives and dies by its characters. The character development in this adaptation, the first episode of which arrives this week via CBS’ streaming service, is a hell of a mixed bag, and that’s true of the miniseries as a whole. It’s a sometimes dazzling, often frustrating, and undeniably assured effort that swings hard and occasionally connects. When it does, it’s riveting television; when it doesn’t, well, it’s not boring.

For the uninitiated, “The Stand” centers on a good old-fashioned battle between good and evil, writ large against the backdrop of a world devastated by a pandemic. King’s sprawling novel is home to a lengthy cast of characters, and one of the most compelling, both on the page and in this adaptation, is Harold Lauder. One of the biggest changes Boone and Cavell, the latter of whom serves as showrunner, make to the narrative is an early focus on Harold, here played with complexity and gusto by Owen Teague . When we meet him, he’s on the body-dumping crew in a peaceful settlement in Boulder, where a group of survivors have gathered to attempt to jumpstart humanity, among them: Stu Redman ( James Marsden ), who begins his pandemic journey trapped inside a government facility full of people who are dropping like flies; Franny Goldsmith ( Odessa Young ), a young woman on whom Harold is unhealthily fixated, and that’s only one of her problems, thanks; Larry Underwood ( Jovan Adepo ), a singer-songwriter whose ascent up the pop charts is interrupted when most of the music-lovers of the world drown in their own mucus; Nick Andros (Henry Zaga), a gentle guy whose deafness makes it difficult to communicate with his travel buddy Tom ( Brad William Henke ), a sweet guy with a developmental disability who can’t read; vape-loving professor Glen ( Greg Kinnear ); and Nadine ( Amber Heard ), whose inner turmoil far predates Captain Trips.

Most of those folks keep having the same dream—an old woman in a cornfield ( Whoopi Goldberg ), beckoning them to Boulder. But there are other dreams as well—a malevolent figure ( Alexander Skarsgård ) who’s set up shop in Vegas and promptly sets out to recruit folks like Lloyd ( Nat Wolff , incredibly game), a mass murderer who’s behind bars when the disease strikes, and Julie ( Katherine McNamara ), a sociopath wandering the countryside in a prom dress. It is, as you may have guessed, a lot. And that’s just the main players. If there’s one undeniably excellent thing about this adaptation, it’s casting director Avy Kaufman ’s commitment to stacking the deck; this is a series where folks like Hamish Linklater show up for a handful of scenes, then clock out, knowing full well that they nailed it. There’s the odd off-note—Heard in particular seems ill-suited to her role—but for the most part it’s a powerhouse ensemble, with Teague as a standout, playing the budding MRA rage machine with clarity and without vanity. When “The Stand” stumbles, and it does, it’s rarely because of the actors.

It’s not the source material, either. The best King adaptations prioritize character over all else, and that’s what Boone and Cavell attempt here, transforming the book’s linear, long-road structure into a “Lost”-inspired back and forth between past and present, with the scenes in Boulder and Vegas (places readers take quite awhile to reach) interspersed with flashbacks to how the characters met up, survived, and eventually reached their destinations. It’s a clever idea, obviously intended to tell as much of King’s story as possible without committing to a ten-season arc, but it inadvertently robs the story of its potency. We see who’s in Boulder, so the danger of the journey is inherently diminished; we meet the characters after they’ve established new relationships, and the pleasure of seeing them develop is greatly lessened.

Most damningly, there’s no sense of the world’s descent into madness, no seeping dread, no unbearable builds of tension; “The Stand” hits you with the glowing eyes of evil and the mystical wisdom of the “magical old black lady” (the show’s description, not mine) early and often, leaving subtlety in the dust. When the onset of the apocalypse is treated with more subtlety on “The Walking Dead” than in “The Stand,” something has gone terribly wrong.

Still, it’s sometimes effective, and when Cavell and company anchor themselves in one time or place for an extended stay, the show comes into focus. Not all the writing, nor the direction, is stellar—the first episode, directed by Boone, is the tightest in terms of writing but visually falls flat, while some solid, tense scenes get punctured by on-the-nose dialogue, with a nightmarish roadside encounter nearly tanked by a line about “beta-male snowflakes.” So not all the choices work, but there’s still much to enjoy. (Cheers in particular to music supervisor Season Kent for the year’s best needle-drops.) The miniseries is set to conclude with a coda written by Sai King himself, and die-hard Constant Readers will likely stick around for that regardless, but even those new to the story will likely find reasons to stick around. If nothing else, “The Stand” may cast our current situation in a different light; things are bad, but hey, they could definitely get worse.

Six episodes screened for review.

Allison Shoemaker

Allison Shoemaker is a freelance film and television critic based in Chicago.

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The Stand Book Review (2024)

Stephen king.

The Stand, written by the horror novel master himself, Stephen King, is a fiction story that tells you about a world that plummets into total chaos and one that later turns into a truly horrible post-apocalyptic world where there is not one bright side to look at.

Masterpiece

If you are a fan of Stephen King’s stories, then this book will definitely be an enjoyable one and if you haven’t yet read any content by him, then you are about to become Stephen’s fan after reading this masterpiece. This book is considered as one of the best post-apocalyptic books that are ever written and you get to find out a thing or two about it from this book review of The Stand.

The Stand Book

Strand of influenza.

The story starts with you finding out about a super-strong, resistant, and very lethal strand of influenza, a stronger and modified version of the flu that was created in the labs of the secret United States Department of Defense and was intended as a biological weapon that is resistant to all antibodies and vaccines.

This particular strand of the deadly influenza is released into the world by accident, in a fraction of a second, the world faces it’s deadliest and most massive problem ever. Humanity’s extinction as we know it had begun.

Quick Escalation

Events quickly escalate after the release of the disease as the lab staff inside dies and one man, a security guard named Charles Campion, manages to escape and he immediately takes his family out of state. After a while being on the road, this man starts feeling bad and crashes into a gas station in Arnette, Texas and things only get worse from there.

The men who work at the gas station take Campion’s dead body out of the car and all of them get infected. You probably know what happens next after a few get infected. The spread of the disease is exponential and the infection rate grows rapidly.

The United States Army tries to isolate Arnette but their efforts are totally useless as this quickly turns into a global pandemic after the disease spreads beyond the borders and infects 99.4% of the world’s population, killing all of them within a month. After so much death, people start to panic and society as we know it crumbles as chaos begins to be the number one thing happening everywhere.

Stuart Redman

Then, as you can see from this book review of The Stand, a man called Stuart Redman who was an employee at the gas station where all of the chaos started proves immune to the disease and becomes the most important guy on the planet, what is left of it.

As you might imagine, he is held with force to be examined as scientists see if they can find a cure for this thing. A whole lot of reckless events take place where they are holding him after most of the staff dies from the disease and Stuart is forced to kill a person in self-defense as he escapes from the facility.

Just the Beginning

The story is far from over as this is just the beginning of this 1200-page book in which a broader and more complicated story unveils. This is the reason why Stephen King is one of the best writers who produce such interesting stories as this one that are all packed with many unique and fascinating characters.

A plot that spans so long that it starts feeling like a real-life story, and you get to read about all of those things as you go beyond this The Stand book review and check out this masterpiece of yourself. We further recommend checking out our review of ‘Salem’s Lot , which is another amazing book written by this brilliant author!

Robert Hazley

Robert is a science fiction and fantasy geek. (He is also the best looking Ereads writer!) Besides reading and writing, he enjoys sports, cosplay, and good food (don't we all?). Currently works as an accountant (would you believe that?)

Literature & Fiction
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The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition

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The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition Hardcover – Unabridged, May 1, 1990

Print length 1152 pages
Language English
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date May 1, 1990
Dimensions 6.52 x 2.28 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10 0385199570
ISBN-13 978-0385199575
Lexile measure 840L
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

There is much to admire in The Stand : the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. --Fiona Webster

From Publishers Weekly

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (May 1, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1152 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385199570
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385199575
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 840L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.52 x 2.28 x 9.5 inches
#928 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)
#2,359 in Horror Literature & Fiction
#4,889 in Suspense Thrillers

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About the author

Stephen king.

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

Customer reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 76% 17% 5% 1% 1% 76%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 76% 17% 5% 1% 1% 17%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 76% 17% 5% 1% 1% 5%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 76% 17% 5% 1% 1% 1%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 76% 17% 5% 1% 1% 1%

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Customers say

Customers find the writing style masterful, with some of the best imagery. They also find the religious content insightful and beautiful. Customers say the plot sucks them in and has them emotionally involved. They appreciate the depth of content and the well-developed characters. Opinions are mixed on the pacing, length, and page-turning ability. Some find it fast-paced, while others say it drags out in places.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers like the plot, saying it's an epic story of massive proportions, with powerful scenes. They also say it'll keep them emotionally involved, riveting, and wise. Customers also mention that the book is fearfully realistic, with great character development, and great world building. They say the plot is not too predictable and keeps them on their toes throughout the book.

"...I was pleased that I was not depressed.I was pleased to see a romance ...." Read more

"...The Stand is an epic story of massive proportions ! The amount of characters throughout are immense, diverse, some you love, and some you hate...." Read more

"...There was also a very interesting element in the lives of the characters; when we first see them, most of them haven't yet been affected by the..." Read more

"...Well written and is a page turner. Lots of twists and keeps you guessing . Highly recommended if you love psychological thrillers!" Read more

Customers find the story telling amazing, masterful, and spectacular. They also appreciate the great descriptions, imagery, and dialogue. Readers mention the book is heavy on exposition, dialogue, and character background. They say it's a part horror story, part morality tale, and part dystopian yet part utopian.

"...the more I read the more I truly love Stephen King, and his masterfully written works ...." Read more

"...This book is heavy on exposition, dialogue , and character background. Every character that is introduced gets multiple pages (!)..." Read more

"I love this author as never disappointing. Well written and is a page turner. Lots of twists and keeps you guessing...." Read more

"...This novel has so many elements to it, yet is still written masterfully by Stephen King , allowing the plot to be organized and appealing to a reader...." Read more

Customers find the characters well developed and say the book is an excellent example of the talent this man has been blessed with.

"...I was wrong. I'm finding a lot of depth and interesting character development ...." Read more

"...The amount of characters throughout are immense , diverse, some you love, and some you hate...." Read more

"...This book is heavy on exposition, dialogue, and character background . Every character that is introduced gets multiple pages (!)..." Read more

"...Not only that, but the characters within the novel are relate able ...." Read more

Customers find the religious content insightful, prophetic, and frightening. They say the way Stephen King takes them into his world is amazing. They also say the cultural references are more cohesive. Customers say the book focuses on average people and makes them take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

"...I was impressed by the deep social worldbuilding and examination , the detailed characterization (especially across such a HUGE cast), and the..." Read more

"...other times the novel is very insightful and beautiful...." Read more

"...Thevillain is outstanding and very interesting. The book focuses on average people , some borderline losers, some who have simple not been..." Read more

"...It does get a little philosophical at points , and this may get annoying to some readers, but it is hard to strip society down to bare bones without..." Read more

Customers appreciate the depth of content. They say the author has an amazing ability to get into people's heads and make them real. They also mention that the book is richer, more coherent, and less full of plot holes.

"...I was wrong. I'm finding a lot of depth and interesting character development...." Read more

"...by the deep social worldbuilding and examination, the detailed characterization (especially across such a HUGE cast), and the maintenance of the..." Read more

"...This work under review has many interesting aspects to it ...." Read more

"...But I savored his writing and appreciated the amount of detail he gave - the scenes in my head were nicely painted by King's artistic writing...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the length of the book. Some find it very long and heavy to read at times, while others say it's the most horrifying thing about The Stand.

"...a good book with great characters and some powerful scenes, but too long-winded to be a great book...." Read more

"..."The End of October" was a good, well written, medium length novel that I also liked...." Read more

"...Even though this book is very long , it does not feel that way when reading it, and that is an accomplishment in itself...." Read more

"...Even though it is a long boom. It will definitely keep the reader reading for long ." Read more

Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention it goes fast, while others say it drags. They also say the book skips around a lot at first.

"...Also, although it slows down at a few parts , the end is exciting and feels deliberate...." Read more

"...(especially across such a HUGE cast), and the maintenance of the pace of the story even across so many pages...." Read more

"...The book skips around a lot at first , which would be fine if I could've remembered who everyone was...." Read more

"...The story moves at a good pace and the chapters are short so it's rewarding to continue and you don't burn out...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the page-turning ability. Some mention it's hard to put down and easy to start caring for the characters early in the story. However, others say that it'll be hard to pick up and cumbersome to hold.

"...Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. This book is hard to put down .. you can't wait to read ( or hear) what is coming next! FANTASTIC!!!" Read more

"...- I liked the book, but after the first 1/3, it became easier to put the book down , and read other books in between...." Read more

"...book , fits with our world today , arrived in good condition and easy transaction " Read more

"This version was harder to stay with , even more excruciating than Doctor Sleep...." Read more

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The Stand Reviews Are In, Here's What Critics Thought About The Latest Stephen King Miniseries

the stand cbs all access whoopi goldberg

The long-awaited new adaptation of Stephen King 's The Stand is finally only days away from premiering on CBS All Access to reveal what sets it apart not only from the book, but also from the 1994 miniseries . Reviews for the nine-episode series are in to reveal what critics think about the latest Stephen King adaptation, and there seems to be a consensus on at least one front.

The Stand adapts Stephen King's gargantuan novel of the same name that runs for more than 1000 pages, and it has only nine hours to do so with a stacked cast of characters . The plot reveals a world decimated by a pandemic, but not one quite like the current COVID-19 pandemic. Called "Captain Trips," the virus wipes out most of humanity, and The Stand follows the stories of a group of survivors and the conflict between good and evil as they congregate in Boulder, CO.

Starring Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail and Alexander Skarsgard as Randall Flagg as the representations of good and evil, The Stand 's cast is filled out by the likes of James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, Amber Heard, Owen Teague, and more. Read on to find out what critics think of CBS All Access' The Stand . Vinnie Mancuso of Collider compared the structure of The Stand to the flashbacks of Lost , saying:

While the show's back-and-forth structure never quite collapses, it does become a bit untenable for anyone who isn't already well-versed in the plot of the book. After four episodes, there's still no real sense of how the community in Boulder came together, or what unites them besides a vague, undefined devotion to Mother Abagail. It's hard to really care for this growing cast of characters you barely know, and harder still when almost every conversation or sideways glance launches into another flashback to an apocalypse that is also pretty vague and undefined.

The structure that worked for Lost isn't as successful when it comes to The Stand , according to this reviewer, who raises the point that following the story could be difficult for viewers who haven't read Stephen King's novel. The book is quite long and packs a long list of characters, so readers may be at an advantage going into the CBS All Access series. That said, what isn't evident after four episodes might be more clear by the end of the series. Vinnie Mancuso continued:

Lost's long shadow hangs heavy over The Stand, but where that series at least used its back, forward, and sideways leaps to build a sense of mystery, The Stand primarily builds confusion. You feel unmoored, but not in a fun way; just in the way where you're begging a show to focus on one timeline at a time.

While the structure of The Stand may not be winning universal acclaim from reviewers, the show is also tasked with showing a post-apocalyptic world that isn't the same post-apocalyptic world that has been done time and again on television and in film. TV Guide 's Keith Phipps praised The Stand for building a convincing new reality for the few survivors and keeping the story interesting:

The series' generous budget keeps its post-apocalyptic America convincing and its tense moments deliver the scares. If these first four episodes offer little in the way of unforgettable moments, they're always intriguing enough to keep curiosity burning about what will happen next (or, for those who know the book, how the series will stage or reshape it). It's smartly cast, too.

The consensus among critics on the strongest point of The Stand seems to be that the cast shines where the structure isn't always so successful, and The Stand did pack some notable names into the ensemble, including Stephen King adaptation alum Owen Teague from the latest versions of IT . Roxana Hadadi of Variety notes that Alexander Skarsgard is particularly effective as the "standout" of the series, and says of the cast as a whole:

That tentative quality and uneven storytelling is in spite of the cast, the most compelling reason to watch The Stand. The series’ messaging about good and evil might be skimpy, but most every actor is doing good work.

A cast alone can't make a show a hit, but the strong actors may result in a strong focus on character despite the show playing with time in its structure. Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com suggests that the focus on character over plot works for The Stand , although perhaps not for all fans of Stephen King's book. Drum shared:

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With that broad and complex narrative to navigate, this adaptation -- developed by Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell -- takes the unique approach of telling the story in a nonlinear fashion, one that introduces viewers less to the pandemic itself more to the characters, the hearts and souls that the story is ultimately about. It's a move that may not sit well with some die-hard King fans, but it's one that injects a new life into the story. Starting with people, not with plague and it immediately sets the series out on a much better foot and almost immediately will hook audiences.

While a series based on a Stephen King novel may earn itself a reputation as a horror story, and a post-apocalyptic setting may suggest science-fiction, The Stand is actually a fantasy saga with ties to a larger mythology in King's pantheon of works. SFGATE compares the Stand miniseries to Lord of the Rings , with reviewer Joshua Sargent praising the series' sense of hope despite all of the darkness of the premise:

For all the horrific imagery and tragedy (and don’t worry, there’s plenty), there’s a muted optimism. From the opening scenes, we see that life after the pandemic is possible. Communities can be rebuilt. Life goes on, even if it has to trudge. Good is quieter than Evil, but that’s because it’s more patient. Evil thrashes and throws tantrums, but it never thinks too far ahead. This might be an unexpected source of comfort, but there are worse thoughts to have in your head this winter.

The wait to see The Stand for yourself is finally almost at an end, nearly two years after CBS All Access officially ordered the series back in January 2019. The first episode of the new Stand miniseries premieres on CBS All Access on Thursday, December 17. The first season will run for nine episodes and feature episodes written by Stephen King and son Owen King, among others. Stephen King himself wrote the finale , so be sure to check out The Stand if you're a fan of the novel and/or King!

For some additional viewing options in the new year, take a look at our 2021 winter and spring TV premiere schedule for what to watch and when to watch it.

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).

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10 Movies Like Stand By Me You Have To See

Stand by me true story: was it inspired by stephen king’s childhood, 10 books written by movie characters we actually want to read.

The 1986 drama film Stand By Me followed a group of four 12-year-old boys on a hike to find a missing boy’s dead body and featured a bittersweet ending that saw them go their separate ways. Stand By Me is considered one of the best coming-of-age films of its time, with a strong young cast that included Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell. Wheaton played narrator Gordon “Gordie” Lachance, a young boy who dreamed of being a writer and was grappling with the recent tragic death of his younger brother.

The older version of Gordie, played by Richard Dreyfuss, narrated Stand By Me as he wrote the story of his crazy hike with his friends. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner and is based on the Stephen King novella The Body . The movie’s title was changed to match the song that plays in the end credits, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” Stand By Me is often considered one of the best Stephen King movie adaptations , and it still holds up decades later due to its relatability and the bond between the main characters.

If you're a fan of the coming of age classic Stand By Me then make sure to check out these similar movies for more of the same heartfelt adventure.

Why The Boys Didn’t Take Ray Brower’s Body At The End Of Stand By Me

The boys made an anonymous phone call instead.

The young boys in a woods in Stand by Me

Stand By Me is set in the small fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon in 1959, where a boy named Ray Brower had recently gone missing. Vern overheard his older brother, Billy, talking to his friend, Charlie, about finding Ray’s body but not telling the police since it might have gotten them in trouble for another crime. The boys set out on a multiple-day-long hike across the railroad track to where Billy said Ray’s body was, hoping to become local heroes by finding it.

Yet, when they arrived and saw Ray’s dead body, things suddenly changed. The hike there was filled with boyish fun, but when they saw Ray, they realized he was a boy just like them. After they scared off another one of Billy’s friends, Ace, and his gang, Gordie told them they weren’t taking Ray’s body. When Teddy said they came all that way, and they were supposed to be heroes, Gordie replied, “ Not this way, Teddy .”

Kent Luttrell played Ray Brower in Stand By Me . He was initially just cast as Corey Feldman's stand-in, but Luttrell told Portland Monthly that he was asked to play Ray the same day the scene was shot because the mannequin didn't look right.

Gordie and the boys realized that there was nothing heroic about exploiting another young boy’s death just to get their name in the paper or appear on the news. Instead, they made an anonymous phone call to the police and told them where to find the body. They may have come all that way to find Ray’s body, but the journey ended up being more important than their destination. The kids in Stand By Me were forever changed by seeing Ray’s body, and, sadly, nothing was ever quite the same between them again.

How Stephen King’s Childhood Inspired Stand By Me’s Story

Stand by me was semi-autobiographical.

The Body , the Stephen King book that Stand By Me was based on, was inspired by the author’s childhood. King’s stand-in in the autobiographical story was Gordie, with their biggest connection being that they both grew up to be writers and were aspiring storytellers as children. It’s even mentioned in one Stand By Me scene that most of Gordie’s stories are horror, which is the genre King is best known for. Though Stand By Me is a coming-of-age story, it has horror elements.

Though King and his friends never went on a hike searching for a dead body like Gordie and his friends did, Ray’s death was inspired by an event in King’s childhood. When King was four, he visited his friend’s house by the railroad tracks, and the child was struck and killed by a train. King claims he doesn’t remember seeing his friend die and was told about it later, but it's another connection between King and Gordie in Stand By Me .

The Stand By Me book, The Body, draws from Stephen King's real childhood experiences. Here's the true story behind the Stand By Me source material.

Why Gordie Doesn’t Tell His Friends About The Deer

Gordie didn’t tell anyone until he wrote about it.

Gordie sees a deer on the train track in Stand by Me

Gordie stood out among his friends in Stand By Me . He went along with their crazy ideas, but as Chris pointed out, he had a brighter future than the rest of them thanks to his passion for writing. Teddy, who had an abusive father, was particularly seen as a lost cause, and he often acted recklessly. Gordie was more introspective and level-headed than his friends, outside of Chris, who didn’t have much hope for himself because of his family’s reputation. In one of Stand By Me ’s quieter moments, Gordie came across a deer before everyone else woke up.

He didn’t say anything and just looked at the deer before it scampered off. Gordie didn’t tell them about the encounter and called it, “ the one thing I kept to myself .” Even at that time, Gordie knew he was different from his friends, and that they wouldn’t be able to understand and appreciate the deer as he had. The deer represented an innocence that the boys were losing, which provided Gordie with some hope as they approached a new chapter in their lives. It was a sweet moment that highlighted the beauty of the simpler things in life.

The Significance Of Gordie’s Lardass Story

Gordie’s lardass story was about revenge.

Andy Lindberg As David Lardass Hogan Smiling Covered In Pie In Stand By Me.jpg

Outside the story of their hike that Gordie narrated in Stand By Me , he told one other story. He shared it with his friends before they went to bed one night, and it was visualized for viewers in the movie. The story was about a boy named David Hogan, who was called “Lardass” by everyone in town because of his size. One day, he entered the town's famous pie-eating contest to get revenge on everyone.

He quickly ate five pies and people actually began to cheer for him, but he wasn’t trying to win. To enact revenge, David had downed castor oil and raw eggs before the contest, which eventually triggered him to throw up pie all over Bill Travis, another competitor. This triggered a series of barfing from the contestants and those watching. The story ended with David happily watching the chaos he’d created, but Teddy and Vern pressed for more, wanting the story to be something it wasn’t.

Books written by fictional characters Down with Love and Misery

Books that only exist in a movie are few and far between but a handful of them are actually ones audiences want to read.

Gordie chose to tell a revenge story because it was a satisfying fantasy for him. Gordie had been bullied and though he knew he would never get revenge on his bullies, it was nice to write about. However, by the end of Stand by Me , Gordie had gotten revenge in a way. He’d scared off Ace and his gang, proving he wasn’t to be messed with, protecting Ray’s body in the process.

The Differences Between Stand By Me & The Body’s Endings Explained

Stand by me’s ending made changes from the body.

Richard Dreyfuss As Adult Gordon Sitting In Car In Stand By Me.jpg

The premise for Stand By Me and The Body are the same, but they are executed differently. There are flashes back and forth between present-day and 12-year-old Gordie that aren’t included in the movie. However, the biggest difference comes in the ending, which is much sadder in the book than the movie. In the Stand By Me movie, Gordie is inspired to write the story after Chris was heartbreakingly killed while trying to stop a fight in a diner. This happened in The Body as well, but Teddy and Vern also die in the Stephen King book.

In the movie, Teddy tried to join the Army, but his poor eyesight and damaged ear, which his father had almost burnt off, disqualified him. He worked odd jobs and served some jail time. Vern got married, had four children, and worked as a forklift operator. In The Body , Gordie dealt with a form of survivor’s guilt as the only one of his friends to live into his thirties, which is not present in the movie. Stand By Me doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending , but it’s much nicer than The Body ’s.

Stephen King Movie Adaptations Ranked By Tomatometer

(1976)	93%
(1986)	92%
(1990)	91%
(1994)	89%
(1983)	89%

The Real Meaning Of Stand By Me’s Ending Explained

Stand by me was a story about friendship.

As a coming-of-age story, Stand By Me was mainly about friendship and its role in a young child’s development. In many ways, Gordie, Vern, Teddy, and Chris were an odd group. However, this may have been what made them work at the time. They were all misfits in their own ways and banded together, forming a sense of belonging and camaraderie they might have been missing otherwise. Eventually, their differences drew them apart, with Chris and Gordie focused more on their education than Vern and Teddy.

Though they didn’t remain friends, Gordie’s friendships in Stand By Me were important in helping make the person he became. The last line of Stand By Me summarizes the movie’s main point, “ I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone? ” Regardless of what happened after that weekend, Chris, Vern, and Teddy will always hold a special place in Gordie’s heart. Stand By Me still resonates with viewers because of how it emphasizes the importance of friendship, reminding viewers of the friends they had when they were twelve.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Stand By Me

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Based on a Stephen King novella, and directed by Rob Reiner, Stand By Me follows the story of a group of young boys who set out on an expedition to find the dead body of another missing boy from their hometown. The film stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell, and is considered one of the most influential films of all time.

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COMMENTS

THE STAND
BOOK REVIEW. Striking a far less hysterical tone than in The Shining, King has written his most sweeping horror novel in The Stand, though it may lack the spinal jingles of Salem's Lot. In part this is because The Stand, with its flow of hundreds of brand-name products, is a kind of inventory of American culture.
The Stand by Stephen King
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival. Show more Genres HorrorFictionFantasy Science FictionPost ...
Review: The Stand
A post-apocalyptic horror novel by Stephen King, The Stand is a long and epic tale of good versus evil. The Literary Edit reviews the book's characters, themes, biblical references and its place in the BBC's Big Read.
Book Discussion
The Stand Book Discussion About the Author - Stephen King is an American author with over 50 novels to his name. His vast catalog of work also includes short stories, novellas, and non-fiction. He started writing horror and suspense stories while living in Maine as a young kid and never stopped.
The New York Times: Book Review Search Article
In 1978, Stephen King, the author of ''Carrie'' and ''The Shining,'' published ''The Stand '' and almost immediately added thousands of new readers to his already huge following. At that time, Mr. King's publishers thought the book would be better and certainly more salable if it were cut - in fact, cut by 500 pages, nearly half of its original length. Now the novel has been reissued with the ...
Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King
A few of my thoughts on Stephen King's The Stand. An epic tale of good vs evil in a post-apocalyptic world.
The Stand by Stephen King
Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King The Stand by Stephen King opens on a man-made apocalypse - a designer flu has escaped from an American military laboratory.
The Stand
Book Review The Stand by Stephen King has been reviewed by Focus on the Family's marriage and parenting magazine.
Stephen King
A review of one of Stephen King's best known novels, The Stand. Review submitted by regular contributor and prolific Amazon reviewer Campbell McAulay.
Book review: The Stand by Stephen King
Reading The Stand requires a significant time commitment from the reader, but in my experience, it was absolutely worth the effort. It is a gripping novel of huge power, encompassing fantasy, adventure, horror and much more, and from the first page you're safely in the hands of a master storyteller. It is a long novel (and I read the extended ...
'The Stand' Review: Stephen King's Pandemic Story Hits TV Again
Stephen King's slab of a novel, "The Stand" (originally 800-plus pages, later expanded to 1,100-plus), begins with a manufactured viral epidemic that wipes out most of the human race. That ...
The Stand by Stephen King
The Stand book Review By August Profumo I had to read it twice: my first (ever novel) written by Stephen King and my Last. But, for the second I had to wait until I was in the proper mood.
'The Stand' Review: A Dystopia for Today and Tomorrow
'The Stand' Review: A Dystopia for Today and Tomorrow This adaptation of a Stephen King novel about a pandemic is especially timely in the age of Covid, but also stands up as a lasting work in ...
The Stand Summary and Study Guide
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "The Stand" by Stephen King. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The Stand By Stephen King Book Review & Reaction
The Stand By Stephen King Book Review & Reaction | In The Discussion For The Best Book He's Written Mike's Book Reviews 121K subscribers Subscribed 2.3K
'The Stand' review: CBS All Access turns Stephen King's epic book into
The original 1994 version of "The Stand" is rightfully ranked among the best Stephen King miniseries, admittedly not an inordinately high bar. Streaming brings the chance to expand upon that ...
The Stand
My thoughts on Stephen King's magnum opus "The Stand."My rating: 100 / 100TL;DR: Nothing short of awe-inspiring, beautiful, and captivating. An intentionally...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.
The Stand is a Hell of a Mixed Bag
A review of the new CBS All Access series based on the acclaimed Stephen King novel, premiering December 17.
The Stand Book Review (2024)
Is The Stand by Stephen King worth a read? Will it keep you immersed from page one or is it just a waste of time? Find out in our review!
The Stand Review: Both Too Real and Too Unreal for 2020
A review of The Stand, the new TV adaptation of Stephen King's novel, starring James Marsden, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo, Alexander Skarsgard, and Whoopi Goldberg, and premiering Thursday December ...
The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition
One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years! This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of ...
The Stand Reviews Are In, Here's What Critics Thought ...
The long-awaited new adaptation of Stephen King 's The Stand is finally only days away from premiering on CBS All Access to reveal what sets it apart not only from the book, but also from the 1994 ...
Stand By Me Ending Explained
The 1986 drama film Stand By Me followed a group of four 12-year-old boys on a hike to find a missing boy's dead body and featured a bittersweet ending that saw them go their separate ways. Stand By Me is considered one of the best coming-of-age films of its time, with a strong young cast that included Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell.

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