Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

The Stand by Stephen King

51 reviews

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It's hard to put a book like this into words. I tried separating the sections to work out how I felt about each, but without the threads connecting them all they're not as special. So I'll settle for one (probably over-used) word: epic.

I already knew King was a brilliant writer. But for something as grand as this he really let loose. It's a disaster story, a post-apocalyptic dystopia, a journey, the rebuilding of society, war, religion and literally the entire question of good versus evil.

Flagg's presence becomes more insidious as the book goes on, but by then the characters I loved were so in my head that I just had blind faith in them. Even those who don't survive (and my goodness there are a lot of them - no one is safe) seem to leave some part of themselves behind, the connections between them run so deep.

And it was the characters that I really loved. Frannie, Stu, Nick, wonderful Tom Cullen, Larry, Glen and Kojak. People on Flagg's side like Lloyd and poor Trash Can Man were also brilliantly wrought and complex. Even someone who is only relevant to a single chapter has a full and rich back story. This will stay with me a long time. 

M-O-O-N, that spells masterpiece.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

abimi's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This took me a lifetime to finish. 1325 pages?! What’s crazy is I was gripped for all of them. Characters were heavily developed as was the plot, which I guess is how you end up with 1325 pages.

This book might be my true first horror read, or at least it feels that way. Other horror books I’ve read were not nearly as terrifying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, and Suicide

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Cannibalism

rinanana_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Rape, Suicide, Blood, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mcritchett's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A story between good and evil in which survivors of a pandemic split along those very lines.  Fear can drive people together or pull people apart.  A very thorough tail covering a vast number of characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

doctoracula's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

At time the story felt dated but overall the adventure of the book was engaging. I found it eerily similar in some ways to COVID in the earlier parts of the book which then evolved into a more apocalyptic story. Some chapters felt drawn out but that wasn't frequently the case in almost 48 hour audiobook!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

thssmysrnm's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

calypso_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Definitely in my Top 5 for favorite books. It’s got everything you could want from a book: mystery, romance, adventure, magic. Well worth the 1k+ pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

As usual, Stephen King has unprotected sex with racial slurs. Just something to be aware of

roisin_marie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, and Pandemic/Epidemic

So you need to know about the dog? Kojak, the dog, is left behind because they leave on motorbikes. By himself. I know. He isn't mentioned again he just shows up asleep on a porch later. We learn he'd travelled, on foot, alone, for miles and miles to get back to Glen. He took on a pack of evil wolves and won. He is a hero and goes on to the stand. Stephen king kindly let's us know when kojak comes back that he survives to be 16 and goes on to be a doggy daddy. So you're able to relax then

dflemmons's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Murder, and Pregnancy

catherineelms's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic