The Stand

by: Stephen King

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader.
Two emerge--Mother Abigail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. {cover copy}
When I was in the summer between high school and college, I read this book. Or tried to. I made it just under halfway through and became so paranoid that I had to quit reading the book. I distinctly remember getting on a plane and hearing someone cough and seriously contemplating my chance of survival from the plague they were most certainly going to be spreading if I happened to breathe in. lol It was ridiculous. But I finally decided I needed to know how the story ended, and I'm so glad I came back to it, because it was a really good story. Long and as thick as a brick, but still. I was glad to finally know how it ended.  

Sally. {first line}
"The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way."

"No one can tell what goes on between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just...come out the other side. Or you don't."

"I like crazy people. I'm crazy myself."

"...hope--that indestructible weed of the human heart..."

"The bricks of language. A stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Words. Worlds. Magic. Life and immortality. Power."

"The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet."


• again • {last word}