The Long Walk is a dystopian horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1979, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback and hardback. Set in a future dystopian America, ruled by a totalitarian and militaristic dictator, the plot revolves around the contestants of a grueling annual walking contest. In 2000, the American Library Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000.While not the first of King's novels to be published, The Long Walk was the first novel he wrote, having begun it in 1966–67 during his freshman year at the University of Maine some eight years before his first published novel Carrie was released in 1974.
God I love this one so much. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to read something cover to cover, but this is one of the rare ones that keeps me pushing through the eye strain. A severely underrated classic in its simplicity.
One of Stephen King's books written as Richard Bachman originally, The Long Walk is a good book that's a very fast read. If you expect a book full of big plots and action, that's not what this is about at all.
The setting is quite simple. In this dystopian version of the US, with only few tantalizing hints of what the world is like, every year 100 boys are chosen to participate in The Long Walk. Those boys have to walk at a steady minimum pace of 4 miles an hour until there's only one man left standing, the winner receiving anything he might ask for. Those unfortunate who get warned three times about slowing down get their ticket, which is a bullet to their head. We get to follow The Long Walk through the eyes of Ray Garraty, a 16-year old boy from Maine who is a willing participant. …
One of Stephen King's books written as Richard Bachman originally, The Long Walk is a good book that's a very fast read. If you expect a book full of big plots and action, that's not what this is about at all.
The setting is quite simple. In this dystopian version of the US, with only few tantalizing hints of what the world is like, every year 100 boys are chosen to participate in The Long Walk. Those boys have to walk at a steady minimum pace of 4 miles an hour until there's only one man left standing, the winner receiving anything he might ask for. Those unfortunate who get warned three times about slowing down get their ticket, which is a bullet to their head. We get to follow The Long Walk through the eyes of Ray Garraty, a 16-year old boy from Maine who is a willing participant.
As the boys walk, we get a look at many of the 100 boys, get to experience the highs and the lows, but mostly the lows because what highs could there be if you have to walk and can't even stop to take a dump without the risk of getting a ticket for it? It's not classic horror, more the psychological kind, because all the boys are dead men walking.
The ending didn't make much sense to me, but the path is the destination in this case.
Overall rating for me was 3.5 stars, because I just didn't care much for the ending. I enjoyed it quite a lot though.
