The Stand- Stephen King

Summary

A deadly virus, which was engineered at an army base, is accidentally released across America and it wipes out nearly the entire U.S population. The surviving population is said to be miraculously immune to the virus. These survivors must now band together in order to survive a desolate world and try to rebuild civilization. However, there is a supernatural being amidst the survivors who lures the most intelligent, hardworking, and evil survivors to Nevada. On the other hand, the peaceful and rational survivors are lured to an old lady, who appears in their dreams, living in Nebraska. The supernatural being, known as the Dark Man, plans to obliterate all the survivors who sided with the old lady. He begins creating an army and the peaceful survivors are well aware of this, so they begin their own preparations. The two groups have different views on how they want to rebuild society. The Dark Man wants to rule society alone, with an iron fist. The old lady wants to recreate the previous society and live peacefully. Two different ideologies locking horns and only one can come on top. This means war. 

Review

The book is a fictional novel and consists of 1200 pages. The book has a multitude of characters that have their own unique personalities and stories. Throughout the book, you will skip from one survivor story to another and finally, they all entangle together to create a rather complex yet unique storyline. You will feel connected to several characters and you will grow a sense of sympathy for the characters after a few hundred pages. The antagonist is a very well rounded character who remains mysterious and intriguing throughout the book. One thing that I disliked about this book was the ending. It seemed very abrupt and left many loose ends that the author should have addressed. After reading over a thousand pages the ending felt rather underwhelming.