The Stand (1978) (1990)

 

Before reading: The Stand is one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations. I was obsessed with the mini series growing up and have watched it all the way through quite a few times. I, surprisingly, have yet to read it. So I am super excited to get to read it because I know it can only be better than the mini series. I know there is currently a new tv adaption (which, subsequently, hiked up the price for the book) that unfortunately I won't be watching but that's a story for a completely different blog. This is also going to be the first large (over 1,000 pages) book that I've read for this little adventure and it's also going to be the largest book that I've read with a digital copy. So hopefully I won't be writing the "after reading" too far in the future.... Also, this book is about a pandemic so I'm not sure if it's going to make it harder to read or if it'll be cathartic, but I will let you know. Here we go!

*FYI, I'm apparently reading the expansion version that came out in 1990, I'm not sure how different it is but I think overall it's basically the same as the original just a little longer with updated references. 

After reading: Well. That took me six months, but I made it through. Let's just rip the bandaid off and address my before reading thoughts. I do think the book was better than the series, obviously, but I think I would watch the series a hundred times before reading the book again. I am very tempted to watch the newer adaptation just to see what they did but I personally have decided not to watch it or support it because they sadly refused to hire a deaf actor to play the deaf character of Nick Andros. This was, in fact, the largest book I've ever read and I am anticipating that it will be the largest book I will ever read in my life. Luckily for me The Stand is King's longest book and everything from here on out will at least be shorter. I mentioned that I hopefully wouldn't be writing the "after reading" too far in the future and here I am, six months later. I honestly do chalk it up to it being about a pandemic and it was not cathartic...I don't recommend reading this book during a pandemic. It was tough, honestly. I felt like reading was a little escape from the real world but I wasn't able to escape. It mirrored what was happening in the world in a much scarier way. It was tough to read through the first part when the pandemic was happening and it made me not want to read it. It took me until summer vacation when the boredom kicked in to force myself to finish the book. I'm glad I did. It is a really great book, I think it was just not the right time to be reading it.

Let's check out the notes I took while reading before I give my final thoughts. My first note was that the book was tracking time just like Carrie and The Shining did, but that only lasted for a short time in the beginning and didn't carry throughout the book. One thing that confused me from the beginning was that the cousin/cop didn't get quarantined (while everyone else did) and that is how the disease spread and infected everyone...why? Why was that overlooked? It seemed a little off. I would also like to just throw it out there that Captain Trips is a much better name for a virus than Covid, just saying. There was a part when we first meet Nick's character when there is an analogy about the moon which I thought was really great foreshadowing. There was a direct connection to Children of the Corn and I am patiently waiting for that crossover. Also, there are pictures in this book...fun! I did find it interesting (at first) that it took until chapter 23 before the audience meets Randall Flagg considering he is the antagonist as well as one of King's more famous characters. I did get over this later on, however, considering how big this book was chapter 23 felt like it was early on when I finished. A bit of a side note, I did do some reading about the newer TV series of The Stand and it seems that they introduce Flagg right from the get-go. I do want to point out that one of the best parts in the book, in my opinion, is when we meet Flagg. The introduction of his character was really great. I did make several notes about how I wish I wasn't reading this book at the moment....here is an exact note: "Social distancing...vaccines....travel restrictions...kinda wish I wasn't reading this right now." A negative note that I noticed was that it seem like any character who isn't white is described as being black or asian every single time they are mentioned, it was a little jarring. Alternatively, there was an entire chapter about news from around the states which I thought was great. I have several notes about not liking the character Larry but I'll address that more later on. There were more references to rats which I think at this point can be seen as a classic Stephen King reference. I did make a note about how they are living through a pandemic that is extremely contagious but they still touch each other and did not social distance...come on now! I would also like to point out that cats did not catch the virus and I'm fairly certain it is because cats are superior to dogs, but you didn't hear that from me. There was another chapter that featured what was happening to random people throughout the country that I really enjoyed because at that point in the book I was pretty much tired of a lot of the main characters. I got excited at the end of Book 1 when the characters started finally meeting each other and hoped that Book 2 would go by faster...turned out Book 2 is longer than Book 1. Here is another direct quote: "M-O-O-N that spells this book sure is long." There was a direct reference to the Shining and I wish it would have been more flushed out that some characters had the shine. There were two women characters that killed themselves by taking pills and I just thought that wasn't very creative. Another thing that confused me was that Larry is famous but literally no one, not one person, recognized him or even his name?? He mustn't have been all that famous. Toward the end I started getting really upset whenever characters would die and had to keep reminding myself this was a book about the apocalypse. I did update my notes to claim that I no longer hated Larry. I really struggled reading Book 1 and even some of Book 2 which were just very rich with character building. It honestly made me tired of the characters and I think I took it out on poor Larry. As the book went on and I got into Book 3, I grew to like all of the characters. My final two notes were references. The first was the snowmobile section of Book 3 reminded me of The Shining and the second was that there was a reference to Castle Rock which I believe is the first time a full length novel has mentioned the town, so far. 

My final thoughts mostly surround the fact that I am glad I finally finished this book. After having read it, I did really enjoy it. It really is a great story. However, I did not enjoy actually reading it. It was much too long and it didn't need to be. I felt like there was so much that could've been removed and it wouldn't have changed the story. The character building was too much that it made me tired of the characters. The novel is split into 3 books and personally I would have preferred this to have been a trilogy of books. I think that would've been easier to digest. But hey, what do I know? This is King's longest book so maybe he had similar thoughts. Do I recommend you read this book? Of course. Do I recommend you read this book during a pandemic? I do not. Moving on to the next book, which is my all time favorite- The Long Walk. This should be a quick read since I've read it a million times already but also....it's a short story! Much like I am looking forward to reading a short story after a giant one...I can only assume King needed a rest and wrote a couple short stories after writing this one and I don't blame him one bit.