Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Stand

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Stand by Stephen King

46 reviews

scipio_africanus's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? No

5.0

Damn good story. My first time reading Stephen King, and he didnt disappoint. From the synopsis I went in expecting it to be overly sentimental, corny, cartoonish, or just plain weak the way The Postman ended up being but was pleasantly surprised with the direction King took the story and the characters. I see why King is so successful. Great writing and a great time. Will def be exploring him more.

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dflemmons's review against another edition

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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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catherineelms's review against another edition

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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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beatle426's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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kirtreads's review against another edition

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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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nilescrane's review against another edition

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2.0

I'm glad I've read this because it's been on my TBR for nigh on a decade. This was my first King, potentially my last; I was not the biggest fan of how he wrote his women characters, but I did enjoy the various character arcs.

Also theres a pun at the climax of this book that was so silly it really took me out of the experience. It was the audiobook listening format of looking into the camera like you're on the office.

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