The Stand by Stephen King

13 Apr 2014

I listened to an audiobook version of the book.

I remember watching the miniseries when it first came on broadcast TV. The opening scene was enough to scare me and I never bothered to watch the rest of the episodes.

It’s funny how King can create so many different characters in a single story and give them each uniqueness and fullness. My favorite characters were Larry, Harold, and Tom. Larry because he is able to redeem himself, Harold because he is just so misguided and self-destructive, and Tom–what’s there not to like about Tom?

The story shifts from one about a global pandemic to one about the fight between good and evil, and that battle’s manifestation within each of us. From that perspective, it is a bit formulaic, but what King does is makes it about the characters–which makes it infinitely more interesting. After all, aren’t we all just living the same tropes, the only difference being that each person is unique?

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