The Stand

This is an extremely long book that spends so much time developing characters that you inevitably don't care all that much about when something happens to them. Many of the characters were boring or straight up unlikable, so listening to their struggles for 50 pages at a time gets to be monotonous, and the explicit scenes felt a bit gratuitous and unnecessary in parts. I found they didn't really add much to the story and seemed like they were added for a horror or shock element in an otherwise slow and uneventful novel.

The premise was really exciting and the looming threat of the Dark Man really made me hope for more mystical/fantastical moments. I also hoped for more from Abigail, since I really loved her character and place in the overall story. In the end we're left questioning who these two really are and what place they really have in the overall world. Are they really the embodiments of Good and Evil? Have they always been “the chosen ones”? Did they somehow have a part in the plague? No questions are really answered... Which is very on-brand for a religious themed plot, but I found it left me unsatisfied.

In 1000 pages of build-up you really hope for some sort of battle for Good vs. Evil, sabotage, enlightenment... Anything. But we're really just left with a confusing turn of events and a lackluster end thought.

I loved the prose, but it wasn't enough to read 1000+ pages of people walking, eating, and talking a whole lot.