JUST (and i mean JUST) finished the stand!! I had left off with only 100 pages to go last time i read it which was a month or two ago (ik ik bum behavior, but in my defense i had a lot of school stuff to worry about and so i didn't have a lot of time that I was willing to spend on reading)
Anyways I figured I may as well drop my opinions now, while they're fresh, and then later on i can come back and see if time has changed any of them.
I suppose I'll start with some general stuff that isn't centered around any single aspect of the novel:
I really liked it overall however I do believe in my heart of hearts that the stand would have been better as a duology or trilogy; because even with all 1000+ pages in its uncut form, I still think some things were rushed, or underdeveloped, such as:
I wish we got to see more of the forming of Vegas, more Vegas in general.
Nadine's ending felt particularly rushed to me? One scene she's still fully catatonic. and the next she's suddenly able to speak and move and allat? With no explanation? Idk, when i read that it just felt like SK realized he didn't know what the fuck to do with her and just had to kill her off ASAP. The scene on its own is not bad, but i think there should have been a bit more lead up.
Now this next point from me isn't a critique; i don't think this is an *issue* with the story, however it's a part of the story that I *personally* don't like. AKA this is a completely subjective and personal matter that I am bringing up because it did impact my experience as a reader. Cool? Cool.
I didn't like the religious stuff. No hate to those who have those beliefs, I just have a personal aversion to religious stuff as a whole, and in the case of the stand it caused me to often have a very different POV from the characters. It also caused me to feel some vague senses of discomfort with certain characters, like Abigail, not in a way where she gave me bad vibes? Like she's a good person and allat. I just didn't particularly like her as much as I wanted to?
But I still enjoyed the novel overall! Stephen King is really good at writing so all the characters felt tangible and real, having survived covid also of course made it very interesting! I was also happy to see my beloved home state of Colorado get love and attention from a novel :]
Anyways that's most of my general opinions. I'll likely make a post regarding my opinions on more specific parts later.
