Book Review | The Long Walk by Stephen King

In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules—keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you’re out—permanently.

My Thoughts 

I had to think about my feelings about this book before writing my review. 

And let me tell you - my feelings are very mixed and complicated!

To start with what I liked — I really liked the simple premise of this competition in the dystopian world. I liked how bleak and brutal things turned out as we got deeper into the competition.And that simple premise turned into unsettling and full fledged series of horror events. That was my favourite part of the book!

What I did not like is basically my usual complaint with King. I have never liked the unnecessary sexual things in his stories, and this book was no different. We are in the head of this sixteen years old horny virgin teenager and let me tell you that was not a pleasant feeling for me to read! I can understand few of these things, given the time and person, but understanding does not mean I enjoy reading them. It always brings me out of the story and make me resent them! And there were so many instances which were not really necessary!

Second thing which really bugged me was how weak the reasoning of our MC to join this competition was. I thought maybe we will be able to understand his motivation further, but it was very weak and unconvincing to me. I was able to understand other boys' reasoning and mindset but was not sure of Garraty's, despite being inside his head! I was also not a big fan of the ending, it was nothing special.

Not my best read from him, I liked his ' Salem's lot' a lot better. But an interesting read overall!

OVERALL RATING (out of 5)-  ★★★

Buy online - Amazon (IN)