The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition – Stephen King
Pandemic, outbreak, survivor, thriller, horror, fiction.
Rating 8/10
Charlie is going AWOL with his family due to some disease or sickness like flu that killed most of the base he was enlisted at. They travel east, while his symptoms got worse. His wife and child got the illness. They crash at a town in Texas where their bodies were exhumed and sent to the Health Department for further examination. Stu Redman is taken in to be observed as to why he didn’t catch the flu like sickness. They perform tests and examinations on him. The state patrol catches whatever Charlie, his wife, and child had caught. From there, the sickness spreads outwards affecting more people like wildfire. Fran tells Jesse she’s pregnant, uncertain of what she wants to do, she goes to her dad for advice, he welcomes whatever she decides whether her mother agrees or not. Fran’s father tells Fran that her mother is really sick with a flu like illness. Larry, a famous singer, finds himself in trouble returns home to his mother to stay until he can get back onto his feet. During Larry’s stay, she gets extremely sick with this deadly flu. Nick finds himself robbed and assaulted, he is found and brought into be cared for. The deputy asks him information and realizes that Nick is deaf and mute, a birth defect. The deputy helps Nick catch the people who robbed and assaulted him, locked them in the jailcell. The deputy gets sick with the deadly flu. Each person who had caught the flu results in a fatal death where no one is immune. Randall Flagg senses a rebirth of society and he is ready for his own rebirthing. Survivors must come together and become a community to rebuild society that was nearly destroyed by the Super flu. Stu, Fran, Nick, and other survivors meet, and they decide to follow the old lady, Mother Abigail to Boulder, Colorado to build a community. Some plans go as plan whereas some are disrupted by people who don’t want organized society.
I had been wanting to read this novel for years. I tried many times to read it and couldn’t find myself going beyond a couple hundred pages. I guess the perfect time to read this novel was during a quarantine where I hardly had much to do. To much of my surprise I couldn’t believe I waited so long to read this novel. I am thankful I read it and this novel was a bit scary for me especially since there is a pandemic going on. This novel made me feel thankful that things weren’t too bad, and things could’ve been worse. I love and enjoyed this novel a lot. The pure size is overwhelming but reasonable because of the genre and style of storytelling. King’s novel starts off slow but then picks up the pace then slows down then picks up the pace. I was on my toes while reading this. I came to love some of the characters like Fran and Nick because of their personalities and their interactions they had with other survivors. The old lady, Mother Abigail was sweet. I do recommend this novel but not for the faint of heart.
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