The Long Walk

#1 Bestseller Writing as Richard Bachman With an Introduction by the Author "The Importance of Being Bachman"

by Stephen King OG

Paperback, 370 pages

English language

Published April 1, 1999 by Signet Group, Penguin Group.

ISBN:: 978-0-451-19671-2
OCLC Number:: 441197949

(59 reviews)

In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you're out - permanently. ([source][1])

Also contained in:

[The Bachman Books][2]

[1]: stephenking.com/library/bachman_novel/long_walk_the.html [2]: openlibrary.org/works/OL81591W/The_Bachman_Books_(Rage_The_Long_Walk_Roadwork_The_Running_Man)

Also contained in:

[The Bachman Books][2]

[1]: stephenking.com/library/bachman_novel/long_walk_the.html [2]: openlibrary.org/works/OL81591W/The_Bachman_Books_(Rage_The_Long_Walk_Roadwork_The_Running_Man)

23 editions

GenericMoniker reviewed The Long Walk by Stephen King OG

A boy goes for a walk

3 stars

Content warning Maybe spoilers?

100 boys walk until only one is left standing.

Early in my reading of this book I imagined Stephen King taking a bet that he couldn't write a whole book where nothing happens except for someone going on a walk. I also thought I'd be disappointed if there wasn't some kind of a plot twist or at least that things get better spelled out about the setting that makes the walk what it is. But the plot, like the walkers, just keeps going down the line.

Doing a little research, this is apparently the first novel Stephen King wrote (and it was published under a pseudonym), so there probably weren't any literary challenge bets going on.

Despite the simplicity of the plot there are a ton of unanswered questions that leave the reader to speculate.

Did I like it? It was brutal and gory at times, so not "enjoyable" but it made me think.

Jack 💜 reviewed The Long Walk by Stephen King OG

Review of 'The Long Walk' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

God I love this one so much. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to read something cover to cover, but this is one of the rare ones that keeps me pushing through the eye strain. A severely underrated classic in its simplicity.

acidman reviewed The Long Walk by Stephen King OG

Review of 'The Long Walk' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Gobsmackingly funny but bleak beyond repair. I enjoyed every page but it's just too goddamn bleak.

So, the book's about a bunch of dead men walking. I didn't really care for the social commentary that's supposed to be there if you squint your eyes. Past the premise, past the setup, the author didn't care either. Death men don't care.

It's also about a bunch of kids dying. Kids who don't know any better. They get to learn though. Not much. But they wizen up to how wrong they were about everything. Disabused of their convictions about their bodies, strength. Their minds, their fancy plans. A long, strung out, emphasized, capitalized but pointless lesson. Divine enlightenment during bad trip that doesn't seem to end. Raw reality received and processed but soon to be forgotten, too absurd to be any useful. You drop when you drop. Till then, maybe you get to shoot the shit with a bunch of other unlucky bastards. But that's it.

It's also about a bunch of people dying in a very horrific way. Public, absurd, without dignity. Unrealistically twisted but all too recognizable. A merciless and hopeless gauntlet without any winners. It's a competition but not really. The only game, a game of chance versus their bodies. Against their minds.

All in all, it's all a decent metaphor, a good one even. And King can tell a good yarn. But I don't like it. Just too damn bleak. There are sunnier metaphors out there and fuck it if they're not just as true. I want to forget about this book.

ahmednabin reviewed The Long Walk by Stephen King OG

Review of 'The Long Walk' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A long-ass book about an even longer walk, yeah, just walk! Nothing interesting happens to be honest. Just some 100 boys, with whom I failed to develop any kind of emotional tethering, walking to their demise. Why would anyone in their right mind join the long walk knowing that it is certain death, is not clear to me still. The major, who is he actually, and what’s his motivation behind arranging the long walk? This book doesn't give answers to these questions. It probably would have worked better as a short story rather than this long-ass novel with no real climax.