A review by rhogregoire
The Running Man by Stephen King, Richard Bachman
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I have pretty strongly mixed feelings on this. I liked the story, but I didn't like the amount of explicit racism in the worldbuilding. It's used as a backdrop for the lower classes, and dialed way up even from where it is today. For a book that's critiquing capitalism and class, I don't think it added anything to the story to have the lower classes so steeped in racism. A generous view would be to say that it's intending to illustrate how the class system is unfair even when the lower classes might be "undesirable" or bigoted people, but that's a pretty elitist and white view of how American class works.
Graphic: Gore, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Racial slurs