The Stand by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am, by nature, a chicken.
I refuse to go on roller coasters, I will never see a horror movie, I’m scared of deep water and the dark, I will avoid the aisle in the toy store where the bin of rubber snakes is, and the only time I’ve been in a haunted house, I hid in a corner and screamed for them to ‘turn it off’.
(They didn’t.)
Like I said, chicken.
I’ve picked up Stephen King’s The Stand a dozen times without opening it. Something about the cover, with its ethereal symbolism, beckoned and terrified me: the white knight with his hidden face and the ‘dark man’ with a crow’s head sticking out of a jester-esque costume fighting each other on a barren landscape: the knight has a very long, silver sword and the ‘dark man’s’ arms are raised up over his head, ready to strike with a scythe.
My husband finally talked me in to listening to the audiobook version on my commute to work in the morning. The thought of listening to a scary story didn’t frighten me as much, when I knew I’d be multitasking between that, my morning coffee, and battling the Los Angeles freeways.
(This drastically backfired on me after a late night at work. The unfortunate timing of my departure after dark, the lonely freeways, and the main character’s encounter with the “Come-Down-Into-The-Dark-And-Eat-Chicken-With-Me Man” didn’t deter me from future listening sessions, but did make me grateful that no one could hear me scream inside my car.)
The Stand took me a solid two months to listen to. It’s 48 hours long. And I loved every minute of it. Mr. King even surprised me with a romance that twisted the plot in a new and complicated way. I was very sad to hear the recorded “Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program” that is tagged on to the end of all of their books.
I’m proud to say that I’ve read The Stand. Though, …now I’m afraid of stairwells and tunnels. And crows. And Las Vegas. “Ciabola, Ciabola, bumpty, bumpty, bump!”
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Love the Stand, have the first release from way back in the 70s and then the extended version. Both are long, the second one is really long. So I read your little blog here and I get where our heroine Autumn gets her fear of so much and distrust of her love. I love her but she is growing. I hope to finish the second book today, followed by review. I love it and can't wait for the third one.
Thank you so much Donna!! Autumn definitely grows throughout the series. I think some of her growth is partly due to us growing with her as writers. Autumn in the City of Angels was the first book we wrote together (Dark Meadows being the second!) so we were developing as writers as we went along in the series. The third book, Autumn in the City of Lights, is with our editor right now and we hope to have it out this summer! I hope you like the second and third as much as you liked the first!!
I haven't read it yet but I watch the movie every time it's on. It's one of my favorite movies! :)
Sally wrote: "I haven't read it yet but I watch the movie every time it's on. It's one of my favorite movies! :)"Sally - the miniseries is so fun! Though since the book is so SO immense, a lot was left out. I'd really recommend reading it if you liked the miniseries!!
Jessica
(1/2 of Kirby Howell)
I will at some point. Right now I have lots of great books to read that I've won on here! :)
