The Stand was an interesting but disappointing book. In one sense, I enjoyed it. It was captivating at times, the story over all was interesting (though it petered out), and I liked some of the characters.

On the other hand, it was vulgar a ton, had an amazing amount of blasphemy (even by white hats), had way too much and graphic sexual content, and was downright depressing with regards to some of its characters. I suppose that\’s real life for you in some respects, though.

That \”realism\” element is confusing. Sure, it\’s real to throw in a bunch of swear words and sex, but is it good? Is it profitable? Is it of good report? Obviously, Tolkien wouldn\’t have been better without Mordor. But what if they had Sauron raping every elf that got caught? Would that have made it better? What if Gimli dropped f-bombs? Frodo had a crush on Gollum? What then?

In the end, I returned the audiobook. It\’s definitely not something I would want to revisit (a major criteria I use for deciding if I want to keep a book). I wish Stephen King would write in a non-gross way. He\’s definitely got skill, but he needs to be sanctified.