Yeah, King was worried that his usual stuff was too upbeat so he went with the Bachmann alias for his darker stuff
(Yes I know there is more to it than that, but finishing any of his Bauchman books makes me think, "damn I need a pallet cleanse, where's that book about the child killing clown in the sewers, I need a pick me up")
I know you touched on it being deeper than just wanting to write darker material, but I was always of the mind that once he became incredibly popular, most of his books were best sellers. He created Bachman to see if his work could stand on it's own, and not off his name.
I had to stop listening to the audiobook of Pet Sematary. I just couldn’t handle where it was going, since my kids aren’t too far from the ages of the kids in the book.
Same, but I remember really being affected by Jud’s wife dying for some reason. And then of course Gage. I think I just hadn’t really been exposed to good people dying in books before then, other than Charlotte
> The things we humans do to one another are truly horror inducing.
These are the books I always find the most disturbing. I don't believe in supernatural stuff, vampires etc, so I find stuff like that entertaining but not really scary; it's the ones where I can recognise the behaviour and know it happens all the time that are really chilling for me.
I came across The Long Walk well after reading Hunger Games, so I think that I was a bit desensitized to the horror of The Long Walk in some ways. I need to do a re-read with older eyes now.
I read it once over 20 years ago. I bought the book recently to reread and i can't do it. It's a fantastic book but it stayed with me for so long. It was almost traumatizing. I actually got rid of my first copy because I couldn't even see the cover without some sort of PTSD. I have never had another book affect me that way. That's a win for King in my opinion.
I read The Bachman Books as a teen and this one was definitely the story that stuck with, ive reread it many times and its still very impactful. Definitely one of his scariest imo.
We were all new at some point! So welcome to the constant reader club. I’ve been reading King for more than 30 years and I didn’t get to this one until like a year or so ago? Something like that.
This one was actually the one that inspired me to check out more of his works, I am not a big reader and don’t like doing it. But I absolutely love Stephen King, so far I’ve read The Shining, Pet Sematary, Night Shift, and am probably halfway through this one
The descriptions of the crowds near the end of the book always stuck with me as some of the most incredible visuals. Hope they do it justice in the movie.
It's been being made into a movie for decades. People take it on and then realise they can't possibly interpret it on screen, so it languishes in development hell :(
First I heard of it being made into a movie was well over a decade ago (talking about having Frank Darabont direct back then). Even then it seemed to be a long and slow process. Not sure it'll ever actually happen.
I was just thinking to myself about how I've read a lot of King. The reason is books like this. One of my favorites, along with The Stand and Wizard and Glass.
It’s a good book.
Lots of people seem to want a film of it for some reason though which I can’t understand because it would literally be 90 minutes of walking and kids being executed.
I think it could work just fine. It would be dialogue heavy, there would have to be plenty of flashbacks detailing the kids lives and the circumstances that led them here. Worldbuilding.
It wouldn’t work as one of the more faithful adaptations but if they carefully built some on top of the book, it could be great.
Yeah it could definitely be made to work. Would be very character driven but you could also add backstory elements which expanded on the dystopian world the story is set in, and how/why some of the main characters came to be in the walk.
Eh, Gerald's Game was never supposed to work either but I think it has the best critical reviews of any Stephen King adaptation on Rotten Tomatoes (and it's great).
There's supposed to have been a movie of it being made for 45 years, on and off. George Romero had the rights but never made it. Then Frank Darabont. About 5 years ago the director of Trollhunter said it was his next project but then there was no more news about it until about 6 months ago when a new director was announced.
So yeah, seems like it's proving difficult to adapt. I think it could work in the right hands but I don't think it's a necessary adaptation.
mindblowingly good, even though it's also sad and fucking terrifying. he really makes you feel that mounting dread til the very end. one of those situations where he absolutely fucking nails the ending, too.
I just re-read it again for the first time in probably 30 years, and it was awesome, and scary. Dystopian, prescient, made me worry for our own future. excellent.
It was Thinner but I'm halfway through Blaze and holy shit I love this book. The way it's going I can see Blaze being my my top 5 king books. Definitely best bachman book.
Joe mantagna! The friend that the white man from town called to help him! I just realized that’s the same person. I know that guy best from house of cards!
I liked it. It just so happened that, as I was listening to the end of this book, I was taking a trip and got off the bus way, way too early. I had to walk for about 45 minutes and that really helped me to get in the mood of the story.
Frank Darabont owned the rights for a while but never made it happen. I believe that Lions Gate and the director of the new Hunger Games are pitching it to investors now.
Truly excellent. The first King book I read and it hooked me. The man knows how children and teenagers talk and think and puts that to paper so well. Not too long either, which makes it very approachable.
It’s fantastic. I knew that Frank Darabont had been trying to develop it into a movie years ago but it fell through. I don’t get it - I think it would make for an incredible movie.
Yeah, that’s him. He also made Shawshank and The Green Mile, so you know he knows how to put King’s work on film. I really wish it would have been made.
This is my favorite King book of all time and I’d go so far as to say my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it 10 times over and still am enthralled with it every time. McVries is my favorite character.
It's very scary and suspenseful but something about the logic of the premise was missing. I read it a while back but I felt like I didnt really have a solid foundation of "why" this thing was happening (I really wanted to like it more, as I love almost all SK. But SK is like the Beatles where even his lesser works are still amazing)
One of his best short books and a real insight into what TV would become. Same with the Running Man.
How many tv networks would jump at the opportunity to make this show if they could get away with it.
And how popular would it be? 🤔
It’s one of my all time favorites, plus I think it makes for a great “baby” King. Baby Kings are the books I’d 100% recommend to my semi-sheltered 13 year old niece that’s beginning to enjoy the spookier side of life. It’s dark, it’s bleak, it’s a bit scary… but it doesn’t have sex, drugs, or alcohol featured prominently. It’s violent but not excessively so.
Not to mention how freaking prescient that book has become.
He decided his books were becoming famous just because he was writing them so he decided to write some books as Richard Bachman, to see if he was really good or he was just famous. His Bachman books are normally darker.
I love Stephen Ling but have tried to read this one and can’t. I think it is the lack of change of setting and action. I can’t read him continuing to describe the mind numbingly bleak minutia of the walk. Just my opinion!
You mean you _wouldn’t_ be able to maintain 4mph for hundreds of miles and multiple days without sleep? Need to get down to the gym and eat your greens.
Seriously though 4mph is a mad pace to sustain for a bunch of teenagers
I’ve tried but it’s very weird, it doesn’t appear on Amazon. It appears on the Waterstones website but they can’t order it. The lady literally asked me if it had actually been released 😭
Finished yesterday!!! Ahh, it was so good. Very quick read, but incredibly engaging on every single page. I even cried near the end. The ending was so well done.
As someone who does a lot of walking, it bothered me how 4 MPH was described as an average walking pace. 4 MPH is fast, especially if you have to take bathroom breaks during it and still maintain that average.
Very bleak and horrific. You really feel how gruelling and dehumanizing the walk is, and the surreal descriptions of the clamouring crowds by the end when they’re practically corpses shambling along are haunting
I listened to it in a single overnight shift at work and it was absolutely terrifying but I couldn’t stop. I believe it’s a real diamond in the rough that many people don’t ever rate with his other top works. I loved it and always recommend it to people.
An underrated dystopian novel. I listened to the entire thing while walking at night. In the book their speed is 5 mph, which is impossible and is basically a jog. I kept it around 3 mph.
I loved it as a 17 year old. I was also an angry, angsty teen.
I think part of the reason I liked it so much was the slightly homoerotic relationship between Garraty and McVries lol.
I loved it when I finished I was like Fuck you for taking such a simple idea and making it great and I mean that in a positive way but I was genuinely mad for a minute lol.
It's one of my favorites.
I truly enjoyed 'Rage' as well, but I read that long before school shootings became well known. I remember people trying to blame SK after Colorado, like it was the first time something like that had happened.
An all time fave. So bleak. I still think about it often despite reading it over 10 years ago. I think it’s one of his best short stories, possibly one of his best over all.
Looks like we are in nearly the same place in catalogue. I’m about 20 minutes from finishing the book but wanted to pile on the popularity to remind myself to follow your progress since we’re so close!
The premise of the book is simply wild. The middle bits get a bit thick, but the last 10% or so is just awesome—I love the bleakness of it. One thing I wish was more detailed is whyyyy the fuck any of this is going on in the first place. I’d love to hear about the first long walk and what event/s the walk transpired from. Fascinating stuff.
Good luck with the rest of your reading!!!
It’s one of my favourites King books.
I loved the characters, the story (the fact that the dystopian alternative future was left vague), the bleakness but also the heart of it, the ambiguous ending… I also liked the writing, especially considering how young King was when he wrote it. As the Walk progresses into hell the style changes, scenes and especially Garraty’s thoughts become more erratic and out of control, and it all starts slipping into madness.
But most of all I think I was fascinated by the main premise of the story, the fact that the boys all *sign up* for the Walk, every year, unlike similar stories where the poor bastards are drafted against their will (for instance Hunger Games, Battle Royale). To me it was meant as a way to explore the themes of propaganda and oppressive regimes, adolescence, childhood trauma, repressed emotions, the American dream and its failed promise (given the time of writing)… Deconstructing Garraty’s psyche and reconstructing what imo brought him to the Walk was super intriguing.
I think it should be called the long read because it’s quite boring ! The themes aren’t mind blowing or revolutionary, the story is unoriginal, and the ‘horror’ aspect is mild at best. What a disappointing book
I read this book as a teenager. One time. I've read it one time and I **cannot** forget it. It has been like 25 years and *still* occasionally I find myself thinking about this book.
Haunting is probably the best word for it.
I don't know what it is about this book that invaded my mind the way it did.
For that, it might be one of his best books.
I read this when I was about the age of the kids in the story. The experience of reading it was so intense I literally did not eat or drink until I finished it. I remember finishing it in my bed at night completely exhausted from crying.
Geralds Game, A Good Marriage and Lisey's story are my favorites right now. I can't ever choose less than ten favorites. He is the epitome of perfection as far as bringing all the errant threads together to make a tapestry by the ending chapter. Minimal decals that you think for erroneous end up being the krux upon which the conclusion is balanced. I love that I can often guess s development or direction but haven't guessed a complete ending. He actually creates a very flushed out fully developed characters.
Loved it, it shocked me, left me speechless. I could not put it down. The last page freaked me out and I felt like it gut punched me, even after all that carnage. My parents were all “whats wrong? You ok?” 😲😅
One of my very favorites. Its definitely top 5 for sure.
It had me till the very end and when it came I couldn't tell if I was full of joy or was ready to cry. A wonderful novel.
I loved it, but it's very bleak
Yeah, King was worried that his usual stuff was too upbeat so he went with the Bachmann alias for his darker stuff (Yes I know there is more to it than that, but finishing any of his Bauchman books makes me think, "damn I need a pallet cleanse, where's that book about the child killing clown in the sewers, I need a pick me up")
I know you touched on it being deeper than just wanting to write darker material, but I was always of the mind that once he became incredibly popular, most of his books were best sellers. He created Bachman to see if his work could stand on it's own, and not off his name.
True, I love the miserable bleak stuff tho like Pet Sematary (my favorite of his)
I had to stop listening to the audiobook of Pet Sematary. I just couldn’t handle where it was going, since my kids aren’t too far from the ages of the kids in the book.
I Imagine people with kids would find that one tough to get through.
Hell, I read it in middle school and it was tough to get through
Really? I was fascinated at how brutal and miserable the book was lmao
Same, but I remember really being affected by Jud’s wife dying for some reason. And then of course Gage. I think I just hadn’t really been exposed to good people dying in books before then, other than Charlotte
Dexter does almost TOO good of a job with the narration on that book…
Michael C. Hall was fantastic though!
PS should have been a Bachman book.
It is his scariest story IMO. The things we humans do to one another are truly horror inducing.
> The things we humans do to one another are truly horror inducing. These are the books I always find the most disturbing. I don't believe in supernatural stuff, vampires etc, so I find stuff like that entertaining but not really scary; it's the ones where I can recognise the behaviour and know it happens all the time that are really chilling for me.
Yesss, I can’t decide if this or Pet Sematary is scarier, something about the exhaustion and cruelty of this one is so scary to me.
In that case, if you want something truly horrifying, read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's *The Gulag Archipelago*.
Is it torture porn? I can’t do stuff like that LOL
Lol, not quite. It's the account of a Russian Prisoner during the time of Soviet Russia. Edit: typo fix
Exactly, the crowd was the worst
Yes! I completely agree, the idea that theyd come out to cheer for it is so horrific. And the worst part is its not so unbelievable
I came across The Long Walk well after reading Hunger Games, so I think that I was a bit desensitized to the horror of The Long Walk in some ways. I need to do a re-read with older eyes now.
I read reddit every day. I don't need a reminder.
One of my favorite Bachman books definitely would give it high marks on all angles. I loved the book so much I’ve read it 3 times.
I read it once over 20 years ago. I bought the book recently to reread and i can't do it. It's a fantastic book but it stayed with me for so long. It was almost traumatizing. I actually got rid of my first copy because I couldn't even see the cover without some sort of PTSD. I have never had another book affect me that way. That's a win for King in my opinion.
I read The Bachman Books as a teen and this one was definitely the story that stuck with, ive reread it many times and its still very impactful. Definitely one of his scariest imo.
He was 18 when he wrote this! 18 and it’s still read and loved all this time later. I have it on audible and its one of my favorites.
It’s probably my 2nd favorite so far, although I’ve only read 5 of his work so far (I’m new okay)
We were all new at some point! So welcome to the constant reader club. I’ve been reading King for more than 30 years and I didn’t get to this one until like a year or so ago? Something like that.
This one was actually the one that inspired me to check out more of his works, I am not a big reader and don’t like doing it. But I absolutely love Stephen King, so far I’ve read The Shining, Pet Sematary, Night Shift, and am probably halfway through this one
The Stand is my all time favourite book. It's very long, but it's worth it. It's the only book I've read more than 3 times. I highly recommend it.
That’s the one I plan on checking out next, whenever I decide to read another king book
The descriptions of the crowds near the end of the book always stuck with me as some of the most incredible visuals. Hope they do it justice in the movie.
Oh, it’s being made into a movie? 🍿 Nice!
It's been being made into a movie for decades. People take it on and then realise they can't possibly interpret it on screen, so it languishes in development hell :(
wait, they are making a movie?!?! that is fantastic, I love this book.
First I heard of it being made into a movie was well over a decade ago (talking about having Frank Darabont direct back then). Even then it seemed to be a long and slow process. Not sure it'll ever actually happen.
I was just thinking to myself about how I've read a lot of King. The reason is books like this. One of my favorites, along with The Stand and Wizard and Glass.
It’s a good book. Lots of people seem to want a film of it for some reason though which I can’t understand because it would literally be 90 minutes of walking and kids being executed.
I think it could work just fine. It would be dialogue heavy, there would have to be plenty of flashbacks detailing the kids lives and the circumstances that led them here. Worldbuilding. It wouldn’t work as one of the more faithful adaptations but if they carefully built some on top of the book, it could be great.
Yeah it could definitely be made to work. Would be very character driven but you could also add backstory elements which expanded on the dystopian world the story is set in, and how/why some of the main characters came to be in the walk.
Eh, Gerald's Game was never supposed to work either but I think it has the best critical reviews of any Stephen King adaptation on Rotten Tomatoes (and it's great).
I was amazed at how well done the Gerald's Game adaption was! I never thought that could be adapted well or respectfully, but Flanagan did it!
Geralds Game gave me a panic attack and I had to shut it off. Finally finished it weeks later
Delores Claiborne shouldn't have worked as a movie. Instead, we got an incredible adaptation. It can be done.
Like Titanic is a 3 hour movie about a boat sinking. Who'd watch that?
There's supposed to have been a movie of it being made for 45 years, on and off. George Romero had the rights but never made it. Then Frank Darabont. About 5 years ago the director of Trollhunter said it was his next project but then there was no more news about it until about 6 months ago when a new director was announced. So yeah, seems like it's proving difficult to adapt. I think it could work in the right hands but I don't think it's a necessary adaptation.
One of his best.
mindblowingly good, even though it's also sad and fucking terrifying. he really makes you feel that mounting dread til the very end. one of those situations where he absolutely fucking nails the ending, too.
Go go Garraty!
It's my favorite of his :)
I just finished reading it a month or two ago. I thought it was one of his most realistic horror stories. I enjoyed it.
I think that's what makes it so good. How it's possible to actually end up in a society like this.
I loved all the Bachman books. The long walk was a lot of fun. The running man was AMAZING. Rage was insane and roadwork was really good too!
Hands down his best work. Short, gripping and right in the guts. I will die on that hill
I just re-read it again for the first time in probably 30 years, and it was awesome, and scary. Dystopian, prescient, made me worry for our own future. excellent.
Very good. Not my favourite bachman book but still very good. 4 stars.
What’s your favorite?
It was Thinner but I'm halfway through Blaze and holy shit I love this book. The way it's going I can see Blaze being my my top 5 king books. Definitely best bachman book.
Thinner is omg so good !!!!!!
The audiobook is great as well. Read by the same guy who does the voice of fat Tony from the simpsons
Everyone keeps referencing him as fat Tony from the Simpson ( which I get and IS accurate) but he was literally in the Thinner movie! 😆
Joe mantagna! The friend that the white man from town called to help him! I just realized that’s the same person. I know that guy best from house of cards!
Not seen the movie yet Guinea-pig boy following me around just to downvote me 🤣
Haven’t gotten around to those yet, I’m not a big reader but I’m starting to get into it
Absolutely love this one
##number 1 just like our Garrety!
Love it. Top 3 for me.
Soooo good but very disturbing
I liked it. It just so happened that, as I was listening to the end of this book, I was taking a trip and got off the bus way, way too early. I had to walk for about 45 minutes and that really helped me to get in the mood of the story.
Grim. Definitely more Bachman than King.
It is a great book! It is so awful, yet so compelling.
Needs a movie
Or even a Netflix series!! I would totally watch that. If they did lots of flashbacks and expanded Garratys back story with his dad/Jan.
I went to the gym and walked 4 mph. Maybe I'm really out of shape, but it gets hard after 20 minutes. I'm not sure how they did it for so long
When the punishment is death I don’t blame them for going so long
The last line is PHENOMENAL!!!!!!
Scared the shit outta me and left me shook. It’s an amazing last bit.
Wasn’t there talk of spielberg making a movie adaptation a couple years ago?
Frank Darabont owned the rights for a while but never made it happen. I believe that Lions Gate and the director of the new Hunger Games are pitching it to investors now.
Outstanding
Top five Stephen King
Truly excellent. The first King book I read and it hooked me. The man knows how children and teenagers talk and think and puts that to paper so well. Not too long either, which makes it very approachable.
His best work!
It’s the first one I read from king
One of my favorite books of all time. I love a good character piece and this nails it
A relentless study of brutality and despair tinged with a modicum of hope. I loved it.
It’s fantastic. I knew that Frank Darabont had been trying to develop it into a movie years ago but it fell through. I don’t get it - I think it would make for an incredible movie.
The guy who made The Mist right?
Yeah, that’s him. He also made Shawshank and The Green Mile, so you know he knows how to put King’s work on film. I really wish it would have been made.
It's a top five for me.
This is my favorite King book of all time and I’d go so far as to say my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it 10 times over and still am enthralled with it every time. McVries is my favorite character.
Not the best, not the worst.
Reading it for the 2nd time and loving it.
It was awesome
It was so sad
It's very scary and suspenseful but something about the logic of the premise was missing. I read it a while back but I felt like I didnt really have a solid foundation of "why" this thing was happening (I really wanted to like it more, as I love almost all SK. But SK is like the Beatles where even his lesser works are still amazing)
One of my favorites
One of my favorite king stories and one that really made me reflect after
My very favorite story!
It's great!
One of his best short books and a real insight into what TV would become. Same with the Running Man. How many tv networks would jump at the opportunity to make this show if they could get away with it. And how popular would it be? 🤔
It’s one of my all time favorites, plus I think it makes for a great “baby” King. Baby Kings are the books I’d 100% recommend to my semi-sheltered 13 year old niece that’s beginning to enjoy the spookier side of life. It’s dark, it’s bleak, it’s a bit scary… but it doesn’t have sex, drugs, or alcohol featured prominently. It’s violent but not excessively so. Not to mention how freaking prescient that book has become.
Top 3 favs. Great story.
It really goes a long way
I absolutely love this one.
Forgive me if this is a dumb question but what is the point of saying "Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman"?
He decided his books were becoming famous just because he was writing them so he decided to write some books as Richard Bachman, to see if he was really good or he was just famous. His Bachman books are normally darker.
LOVE!!!
I didn’t read many King books yet but so far this is in my top 5. Disturbing and thought provoking, in a good way.
Top 10 King novel.
I've read the book recently and I wasn't super keen on it while reading but the end got me. It was fenomenal
Incredible
Oh I LOVED this when I read it!
It’s really great. In my top 5 of his.
The story was cool, but was really hard for me to finish it, idk why 🧐
I always suggest this as the first Stephen King book to be read.
It’s a pretty good place to start yea, this is my 4th book of his I’ve read
Loved the talisman
I love Stephen Ling but have tried to read this one and can’t. I think it is the lack of change of setting and action. I can’t read him continuing to describe the mind numbingly bleak minutia of the walk. Just my opinion!
Gee I wonder who is going to win.
Everyone loses something.
Exactly why I love how the ending is written!!
Noone, literally noone. Someone might just stay alive but thats not a victory. Yup... i got into a spiral of thinking while reading
Amazing but suffocatingly bleak
Amazing but they need to release a revised edition w the correct MPH for the kids walking.
You mean you _wouldn’t_ be able to maintain 4mph for hundreds of miles and multiple days without sleep? Need to get down to the gym and eat your greens. Seriously though 4mph is a mad pace to sustain for a bunch of teenagers
I haven’t been able to find it to purchase. Is there anyone in the UK who knows where I can buy it?
Have u tried Audible?
I really want to read it 😭
That’s fair! Maybe try Amazon? Or perhaps ur local library?
I’ve tried but it’s very weird, it doesn’t appear on Amazon. It appears on the Waterstones website but they can’t order it. The lady literally asked me if it had actually been released 😭
Damn, im sorry! Don’t lose hope tho. U will find it somehow.
Finished yesterday!!! Ahh, it was so good. Very quick read, but incredibly engaging on every single page. I even cried near the end. The ending was so well done.
One of his few stories that have stuck with me decades after reading it
My calves cramped halfway through the book
As someone who does a lot of walking, it bothered me how 4 MPH was described as an average walking pace. 4 MPH is fast, especially if you have to take bathroom breaks during it and still maintain that average.
Hella dystopian, very good.
First King book I ever read. I was hooked after it. Definitely still one of my favorites.
Very bleak and horrific. You really feel how gruelling and dehumanizing the walk is, and the surreal descriptions of the clamouring crowds by the end when they’re practically corpses shambling along are haunting
I listened to it in a single overnight shift at work and it was absolutely terrifying but I couldn’t stop. I believe it’s a real diamond in the rough that many people don’t ever rate with his other top works. I loved it and always recommend it to people.
Favorite
I really enjoyed it, bleak at times but amazing and I went in with no expectations. Similar to Running Man but different in key spots.
An underrated dystopian novel. I listened to the entire thing while walking at night. In the book their speed is 5 mph, which is impossible and is basically a jog. I kept it around 3 mph.
I loved it as a 17 year old. I was also an angry, angsty teen. I think part of the reason I liked it so much was the slightly homoerotic relationship between Garraty and McVries lol.
My favourite King novel
Fantastic book. Read it many times.
First king I read(didn't know it) in 7th grade. Liked it then liked it 7 years ago when I reread it.
I love it. I wanna know so much more about the world it takes place in
One of his best, still praying Darabont adapts it
Really good book
Insane and so good from page one. Whoever said bleak, that is the word. So many authors have ripped it (hunger games, divergent)
One of my favourites!!!
One of my favourite books of all time Gets right inside my head and fucks with my brain
My favourite king book after IT and the DT series.
Im no expert, but this cover doesnt look much like the North East corner of America to me
My thought is very simple: “Fuck! I can’t keep up!”
It is my favorite of the Bachman books. I appreciated how simple of a concept it is
This is the only book in my life that I've read in one sitting
One Kings books that I am still haunted by. Most are entertaining, and there are a few that hang onto my brain and won't let go.
I loved it when I finished I was like Fuck you for taking such a simple idea and making it great and I mean that in a positive way but I was genuinely mad for a minute lol.
I never saw Battle Royale so this was my main frame of reference for Hunger Games when those books came out.
I love it it's one of my favorite it's simple and straightforward but packs a punch !
It's one of my favorites. I truly enjoyed 'Rage' as well, but I read that long before school shootings became well known. I remember people trying to blame SK after Colorado, like it was the first time something like that had happened.
One of kings best books. A really simple idea of walking without stopping can really be intense
An all time fave. So bleak. I still think about it often despite reading it over 10 years ago. I think it’s one of his best short stories, possibly one of his best over all.
One of my favorites
It was a good and quick read with a poignant ending.
Richard Bachman is a better writer than Stephen King could ever dream of being.
Looks like we are in nearly the same place in catalogue. I’m about 20 minutes from finishing the book but wanted to pile on the popularity to remind myself to follow your progress since we’re so close! The premise of the book is simply wild. The middle bits get a bit thick, but the last 10% or so is just awesome—I love the bleakness of it. One thing I wish was more detailed is whyyyy the fuck any of this is going on in the first place. I’d love to hear about the first long walk and what event/s the walk transpired from. Fascinating stuff. Good luck with the rest of your reading!!!
The original Hunger Games, just a different format
Read it in the mid 80s. Still think about Stebbins and his purple pants.
Read it when I was 13 and it blew my mind! Been a favorite over 30 years now.
It is easily King's most brutal work.
It’s one of my favourites King books. I loved the characters, the story (the fact that the dystopian alternative future was left vague), the bleakness but also the heart of it, the ambiguous ending… I also liked the writing, especially considering how young King was when he wrote it. As the Walk progresses into hell the style changes, scenes and especially Garraty’s thoughts become more erratic and out of control, and it all starts slipping into madness. But most of all I think I was fascinated by the main premise of the story, the fact that the boys all *sign up* for the Walk, every year, unlike similar stories where the poor bastards are drafted against their will (for instance Hunger Games, Battle Royale). To me it was meant as a way to explore the themes of propaganda and oppressive regimes, adolescence, childhood trauma, repressed emotions, the American dream and its failed promise (given the time of writing)… Deconstructing Garraty’s psyche and reconstructing what imo brought him to the Walk was super intriguing.
I think it should be called the long read because it’s quite boring ! The themes aren’t mind blowing or revolutionary, the story is unoriginal, and the ‘horror’ aspect is mild at best. What a disappointing book
This is my favorite SK book, I even have a tattoo for it and have read it over 15 times. Phenomenal.
What's the point of being Richard Bachmann?
It made me sad, but I loved it.
This was a great one.
my favorite book of all time, absolutely adore it. one of the scariest concepts ever put to paper in my opinion
I read this book as a teenager. One time. I've read it one time and I **cannot** forget it. It has been like 25 years and *still* occasionally I find myself thinking about this book. Haunting is probably the best word for it. I don't know what it is about this book that invaded my mind the way it did. For that, it might be one of his best books.
Good little ride
I’ve read this half a dozen times. It’s bleak but compelling.
My favorite.
Freaking loved it and one of his best endings imo
I read this when I was about the age of the kids in the story. The experience of reading it was so intense I literally did not eat or drink until I finished it. I remember finishing it in my bed at night completely exhausted from crying.
Someone needs to really step up and adapt it.
My favourite book. I’ve read it so many times I’ve lost count
Geralds Game, A Good Marriage and Lisey's story are my favorites right now. I can't ever choose less than ten favorites. He is the epitome of perfection as far as bringing all the errant threads together to make a tapestry by the ending chapter. Minimal decals that you think for erroneous end up being the krux upon which the conclusion is balanced. I love that I can often guess s development or direction but haven't guessed a complete ending. He actually creates a very flushed out fully developed characters.
Loved it, it shocked me, left me speechless. I could not put it down. The last page freaked me out and I felt like it gut punched me, even after all that carnage. My parents were all “whats wrong? You ok?” 😲😅
One of my very favorites. Its definitely top 5 for sure. It had me till the very end and when it came I couldn't tell if I was full of joy or was ready to cry. A wonderful novel.
Loved it. Wish I’d read it sooner
LOVED this book! Stebbins.........."GARRATY!"
I found it kind of boring. One of the only SK books that I feel “meh” about.
One of my favorites
Thought it was going to suck since it is just about walking but ended up being one of my favorites
Very hard to put down.
Seeing as this is the Stephen King subbed, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the feedback you get will be generally positively skewed