Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Book Review | The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

The Long Walk is a dystopian novel by Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.


On the first day of May, 100 teenage boys meet for a race known as "The Long Walk." If you break the rules, you get three warnings. If you exceed your limit, what happens is absolutely terrifying.
I've been asked on many occasions if I've read this book, and I never stopped to wonder why. Of course I see now why this book has been recommended to me throughout the years. It's like asking someone who's afraid of clowns if they've read IT. The Long Walk is a perfect fit for me. I wish I had read it sooner! I wish I had read The Long Walk prior to the upteen billion dystopians I've already experienced in recent years. It kept reminding me of The Hunger Games instead of vice versa as it bloody well should have been.

I listened to The Long Walk on audio which was a great experience. Grab it off Overdrive if you have yet to read this one. There's an amazing introduction by Stephen King included with the audio. I have the "Bachman Books" on my shelf so I pulled it down to read the introduction again only to find a completely different introduction! If you've already read the Bachman Books, you might be interested in reading the second introduction King wrote for it.

I've put off reading Bachman over the years. Up until now I think I've only read The Regulators (right after reading Desperation) and Thinner (right after watching the movie). I've had some deluded idea in my mind that I wouldn't enjoy them like I enjoy a King novel. I can't speak for the rest of the Bachman Books, but you don't get more Stephen King than The Long Walk. He really, really thought no one would know Richard Bachman was Stephen King?! No one writes like Stephen King. In my opinion, no one even comes close to writing like Stephen King. So now I have some more reading to do!

The Long Walk was a great way to end a not-so-remarkable reading year. It serves as a good reminder of how important it is to pull down the back titles throughout the year and enjoy some gems I've been missing out on.

8/10: Great Read

11 comments:

  1. I read this years ago, after Richard Bachman was exposed as SK, and so I rushed out to scour used bookstores for the original Bachman paperbacks. I found some too, so I have a beat up copy of this book. It really is hard to believe that no one caught on to his identity!

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  2. There's tons of Kings books I haven't read yet. Sigh! This one sounds intriguing.

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    1. There's a lot of King I haven't read yet, either. How he can write so much at that caliber, I will never know!

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  4. This is one of my very favorite SK stories!! It is so good, and so simple, really, when you think about it. He is truly a master, in my opinion. I actually read this one out loud to my husband when we first got married. We spent a few winters reading books like that, it was cool. This was one of them, and he loved it too.

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    1. He is definitely the master. The whole time I was reading the story I kept thinking "no one else could pull this off!" Aw, Erin, that's awesome that you guys read books like that. I wish I could do that with my hubs... I may make him. LOL.

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  5. I've never even heard of this but I want to read it now. With a synopsis like that...

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    1. Greg! Aren't you doing a dystopian challenge next year? You should totally read this one.

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  6. This is one of my absolute favorites! Not sure I've read any other Bachman's though... need to check. :)

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    1. I think I have them all, I just haven't read them. VERY TYPICAL ME!

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