Balise reviewed Stephen King 8 by Stephen King
Review of 'Stephen King 8' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I've had a weird relationship with Stephen King's books. If I remember correctly, I read quite a few of them when I was in junior high (and they were probably the most read in the library of the school), but I apparently always managed to avoid the "classical" Kings (didn't read [b:Carrie|10592|Carrie|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166254258s/10592.jpg|1552134] or [b:It|18342|It|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309376909s/18342.jpg|150259] at that time, I think.)
Then, for some reason, I decided that the style of King annoyed me - at least in the French translations; at the time, it had struck me as grandiloquent (not exactly sure why, retospectively) and I hadn't read any for... I don't know, probably 15 years or so. And then, a year ago or so, on the recommandation of a friend, I read [b:On Writing|10569|On Writing A Memoir of the Craft|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388192403s/10569.jpg|150292], again by King. I loved it - it was interesting, it was funny, and mostly it made …
I've had a weird relationship with Stephen King's books. If I remember correctly, I read quite a few of them when I was in junior high (and they were probably the most read in the library of the school), but I apparently always managed to avoid the "classical" Kings (didn't read [b:Carrie|10592|Carrie|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166254258s/10592.jpg|1552134] or [b:It|18342|It|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309376909s/18342.jpg|150259] at that time, I think.)
Then, for some reason, I decided that the style of King annoyed me - at least in the French translations; at the time, it had struck me as grandiloquent (not exactly sure why, retospectively) and I hadn't read any for... I don't know, probably 15 years or so. And then, a year ago or so, on the recommandation of a friend, I read [b:On Writing|10569|On Writing A Memoir of the Craft|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388192403s/10569.jpg|150292], again by King. I loved it - it was interesting, it was funny, and mostly it made me want to give his novels another chance.
The Stand was the one that I remember most from my previous King readings; I think I read it at least twice in junior high; so I chose that one to get back into these books.
The pitch: The Stand begins with the story of the epidemic of a superflu virus that escaped from a military compound and kills 99% of the population. From there, the question is - what happens to the survivors? Two antagonistic communities end up forming - what will happen to them?
And I really really liked it. It's pretty long - the uncut version is ~1350 pages, according to Amazon, but it reads really nicely, not necessarily fast (took me a bit more than 3 weeks to read the whole thing, not reading anything else, but not having that much time a day to read either, so I don't know, in fact :P). Maybe a tad too much gory details to my taste, but mostly because I don't really like going "ewww" while I'm reading. It fades away quickly, though, as you go through the story - because you definitely want to know what's next.
