Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Stand by Stephen King

24 reviews

yellowpurple500's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

5.0

My new favourite King book.

I went into this expecting to enjoy a story about a pandemic. Nothing prepared me for the emotional journey I was taken on. I love the cast of characters and how everyone gradually links together. I love how all of kings stories have a supernatural element and I enjoyed the "is this supernatural or are we just going insane". 

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It's not an easy read but it's so worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

urnee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lilashelly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I generally don't read Stephen King. I don't like his writing style, I find it to be very pretentious. But a friend at work told me this is his favorite horror book so I gave it a shot. I actually did enjoy the plot, but there's so much that feels so dragged out and a lot of filler. And I get that it was written in 1990, but a lot of the racial terms felt unnecessarily added.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

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

beatle426's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

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

2.75

I do not see how people say that this is the best King novel that there is. I read the uncut version as is recommended and I can tell you that his publishers were correct for making him cut as much as they did. 

This book starts off so strong. I was gripped from the beginning and couldn't put it down. I wanted to know what happened to each of the characters. Everyone was interesting and dynamic. The book moves along at a nice pace until it doesn't. It comes to a screeching halt

the second that they find mother Abigail and start the Safe Zone in Colorado.

The character development stops, the plot does a hard pivot into something that is weirdly political and horrible to sit through. The lull in the middle is so hard to get through. It was just an absolute slog that added nothing to the story. 

Then, the story picks up again finally and there is movement again towards some kind of resolution.

After Nick's death

it feels like things are finally moving but it really doesn't kick off again. The whole back half of the book is a drag. It never got moving for me again. 

There also are some frustratingly huge issues with the ending.

If the end of the Vegas group was just Trash blowing them up with an atomic bomb, which would have happened anyways, why send the four to Vegas? I know that it was explained as "God requiring a sacrifice" but that just felt like such a stupid cop out to what could have been a really cool final battle. For a book titled "The Stand" there is no actual stand against evil. It is in fact the opposite. Evil consumes itself and there was no reason for Good to be involved in any way. If people had just ignored the Vegas group, the ending would have been the same with a lot less character death.

It was just incredibly frustrating to put in so much time to get such a poorly written and plotted ending. 

This book really highlights the best and worst of King. 

• Pro: Characters are amazing and really fleshed out. You end up feeling connected to each of them and rooting for them 
• Pro: It has a great premise and he has great world building at the beginning of the novel 
• Con: The ending blows and falls flat 
• Con: It is so long and needed some heavy editing. I know that people say that it "fleshes out the world" but you know what I didn't need?
  Chapters of council meetings that had literally no hold on the plot.

If you are a die hard King fan and you want to complete all his works, then this book provides some really great highs and I recommend it for the great characters. 

If you are not a huge King fan and are not sure if you are willing to put in the work, just stay away. The pay off is not worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

gagereadsstuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion

josiew's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Trafficking, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis