The Stand (Modern Classics)
by Stephen King

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Book Reviews of The Stand (Modern Classics)

Book Review: The Best Novel I've Ever Read!
Summary: 5 Stars

For those of you unfamiliar with "The Stand," what rock have you been living under your whole life? It's a magnificient epic that tackles the subjects of good and evil. Charles Campion, working his night shift duty at a secret army base, manages to escape with his family after a malfuntion that unleashes a deadly disease the people were working on at the army base. He doesn't realize his whole family already has the disease, and heads West, spreading it on his way. Uventually, he crashes into the gas pumps at Hapscomb's Texaco, where several men, including Stuart Redman, are hanging out. From there on, the disease spreads across the world, leaving only a tiny percent of the world alive. This tiny percent then chooses sides. There's the side of good, led by the 108 year old Mother Abagail, or the side of evil, led by the demonic Randall Flagg. It all comes down to the untimate showdown, the "Stand."

This is a great novel. Do not let the size bother you. I know I was a bit intimidated by how large the novel is, but once you've started, you will only stop reading if absoloutly necessary. I'm reading the book for the fourth time, now (remember I'm only 13). I've read in "Uncut" two times, and I've read the original version once. I'd have to say go with the "Complete and Uncut" version. It has much more character development, and there's some stuff that NEVER should have been left out (Frannie's fight with her mother comes directly to mind).

Anywho, none of my fellow classmates want to read this book, and I say "Why? it's really good." hey all say "It's too long." It's a sad world we live in when the size of a book stops people from reading it. When I said once you start, you can't stop, I meant that. During reading time, I let a friend borrow it for the half hour of reading (where many kids just pretend to read! May I ask, "what's the point?"), and she asked me later if she could borrow it to finish the story. See what I mean?

I think it's great Stephen King got to release the "Complete and Uncut" version, because it's definately superior. With about 300 extra pages, you'd better hope the additional things are good, and they really are. The Kid was an interesting new part of the book, and we finally get to see what happens when Larry goes to tell his mother where he was the night before (we never find out in the original version). Also, in the original version, they make a lot of references to dleted material that you didn't read about, so you're confused. An example of this is Frannie's Mom's parlor, or Larry's mother telling him "You're a taker." The "Uncut" version also has some updates. By that I mean you'll find references to horror villian Freddy Krueger, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the movie Predator.

Wow! I got so caught up talking about the "Uncut" version that I forgot to say what makes this book great. Well, the characters are all very realistic and we can sympathize with them all. My favorite character is probably Frannie Goldsmith or Larry Underwood. I also liked the Harold character, and his descent into madness is creepy, tragic, and very detailed. A lot of people think first half of the book is better than the second one, but I think the second half is worth twice the first part. There's some completely unexpected twists and turns, and lots of cool stuff that comes out of nowhere and surprises the reader.

Wo, this review's getting kind of long. Bottom line: read the book, I guarantee you'll like it. If you can only read one Stephen King book, make this the fan. Even people who hate Stephen King should check this one out! You should also see the movie, which isn't nearly as good but is very well done and has a fabulous musical score (including Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper").

Anyway, hope my review helped. See ya.

Summary of The Stand (Modern Classics)

The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil.

"I love to burn things up," King says. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess.... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke."

There is much to admire in The Stand: the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. --Fiona Webster

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