The Long Walk

It's not my intention to slam The Long Walk and 3 stars is definitely a favorable review, but of the relatively few books I've read by Stephen King so far this is probably the weakest.

There is a profound hidden message on the disparities of modern society, as a group of teenage boys enter a glamorous competition for fame and fortune but suffer with their lives as a consequence, emphasizing the shallowness of the world we live in and how an intense life-or-death battle on the one hand is nothing more than vacuous entertainment for viewers on the other.

It's an intensive scrutiny into public attitudes of modern living, but the book falls over at the first hurdle due to the impossible premise that a Long Walk could even exist in a parallel or dystopian world that rubber stamps the massacre of everyone except a single surviving winner who gains a lifetime of fame and fortune.

It also emphasizes the weaknesses of Stephen King when writing as Richard Bachman and perhaps why a pseudonym was used to publish less well-thought-out works that would maybe tarnish his burgeoning reputation.

There’s still a lot of good to be had in The Long Walk and the main character Garraty is worth rooting for as the lynchpin of a story where he wins new friends and learns to trust them.

And it works as fundamental entertainment if you can forgive its weak foundations, the writing style is easy going and bounds along nicely, and the core emotion is reminiscent of trench warfare and the indelible connection between brothers facing unfavorable odds against unavoidable annihilation.

But this is probably a better experience if you can forgive the fundamental flaws, which I personally struggled with.