Chapter 75 of the uncut version did it for me. It has messed with my emotions.
After all the horror, death, and chaos, it wasn’t the monsters or the battles that broke me. It was a little Christmas tree in the snow. It was Tom Cullen, holding presents wrapped in wedding paper, singing “The First Noel” off-key (I even searched the song on YouTube and listened to it while reading, and man, it hit), and Stu just quietly watching him with love.
No civilization. No gifts that cost money. No fancy tree. Just love, survival, and the echo of something human and sacred in a broken world.
No explosions. No evil. Just two broken people, surviving, caring for each other, and finding meaning in the smallest, most human things.
Stephen King didn’t end the book with a “bang”. He ended it with kindness. We all need that, especially nowadays.
I wasn’t ready for how emotional that final stretch would be.
M-O-O-N, that spells tears, laws, yes. (My daughter is on the spectrum, and I was attached to this character the whole time ).
This was one of the harder books I’ve read (English is my second language). I’m thankful for technology, the press&hold dictionary feature is a godsend. Without it, getting through this would’ve been a lot harder. I also leaned on ChatGPT to explain all the “American” phrases, compound slang, cultural stuff, and King-exclusive American-English I didn’t understand (y’all certainly know what I am talking about, right?).
Such a great journey this has been.
If you haven’t read The Stand yet, don’t miss out.
First time I read it I hit “And they never saw Stu Redman again.” I was f’ing BROKEN.
But good news, friend, you’re ready for the Dark Tower books. :)
😭 I read that part like 5 times. I felt darkness in that sentence. I have the whole dark tower series, but have been hesitant to read it for some reason.
The important thing to remember is that the first book was written as separate short stories. It was never intended as a novel, novel. I think a lot of people have trouble with it because of that. Don’t think of them as chapters in a book, think of them as separate stories.
Little Sisters of Eluria fits in here as well, also a separate story.
Ha! So, those stories have nothing to do with each other? If so, how’s that going to connect to the following books?
Each story is pretty much self contained, there is a certain progression from one to the next, but they were each written and published independently, then collected together as “The Gunslinger”.
The rest of the books are actual novels.
Book 2 starts right where the last story in the Gunslinger ends and it’s off to the races!
I see. Thank you
