Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King

How is it even possible for me to condense my thoughts on The Stand into one review. I don’t know. But I’ll try!

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.”

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my reread of The Stand. Revisiting these characters reminded me of reconnecting me with old friends you haven’t seen in a while - you don’t realise how much you’ve missed them until you see them again. And the characters are what make The Stand so epic, for me personally.

But... I’ll get this out of the way early - it didn’t break into my top 10 King books. Yes, I love it, but some parts are bloody painful. That first section is mostly fantastic, I love reading about the outbreak of Captain Trips, a deadly flu that kills 99.4% of the population, but some chapters are a real drag. The Trashcan Man, for example. Yes, he is a crucial character, but good god, reading about him in the first section is like pulling teeth.

But truly, what would The Stand be without the epic cast of characters and the terrifying villain? My top 3 are Stu, the everyday man who proves a leader in such challenging times, Tom Cullen, a sweet innocent character who is impossible not to love, and Kojak, the goodest boy I ever did see, but there’s just sooo many that are fascinating to read about - from Harold to Nadine to Fran to Glen to Mother Abigail to the main man, Randall Flagg himself. And his scary penis. But a special shout-out to the often-forgotten Dayna Jurgens. She is the very definition of a BADASS.

The Stand is the ultimate battle of Good vs Evil, accelerated by a terrifying pandemic. It was quite scary to read during the time of COVID, and I can only be thankful that it never got quite this bad!

M-O-O-N spells EPIC. The greatest post-apocalyptic novel ever written, in my humble opinion. 5 stars.

Johann