The Stand is one of Stephen King's more famous works in which a computer error in a Defence Department laboratory has swept through the world and kills 99 percent of the world's population. This basically causes the remaining survivors to split into two groups.

M-O-O-N, that spells "What a fantastic book!"

I loved every single second of reading this. As you all know, I am a huge Stephen King fan. I have read such enjoyable reads by this author and can happily admit, most of them are my absolute favourites.

The Stand, I feel like is the best King novels I have read to date. It was fast paced, enjoyable, and so hard to put down. The world and characters were so unbelievably realistic and relatable as well.

I actually dove into this book without any previous knowledge about the plot. I also had no idea Randall Flagg was part of The Stand until reading this as well.

I am part of a Stephen King Facebook group and I noticed everyone talk about how amazing The Stand is; I got my hardcover edition at a local indie thrift bookstore and it has been sitting on my shelf since I bought it because I was too intimidated to read it. I'm so happy I decided to read though because I would definitely consider it one of my favourites, if not, my absolute favourite King book.

The Stand, depending on the edition, is roughly the same amount of pages as IT by Stephen King. And although you all probably know by now that I am absolutely obsessed with that novel, The Stand may defeat that ranking - only by a little bit though.

I believe it also took me less time to read than I did for IT because it was that enjoyable.

King's villains are always so interesting to me; they're mysterious and obviously evil, but I feel like the villain in The Stand, Randall Flagg is so complex. There is so much to him, his abilities and even his appearance.

King admits that Randall Flagg is his best villain and I agree. There are so many villains King has created: Tak, Pennywise, Brady, Annie, etc. but I find Randall to be the best and most interesting because of his complexity.

I'm quite happy I'll be hearing more about Randall Flagg in King's other works because he is truly one of my favourite villains of all time.

There are so many twists and turns in this novel, overall, that keeps the readers off their feet which I enjoyed a lot. A lot of the time, I notice - and I know I'm not the only one, King's books are typically long yet tend to run on. And although, I personally don't mind for the most part, it's quite noticeable that some things probably shouldn't be added to certain novels anyways.

With The Stand, although it is one of King's larger books, I think it is a perfect size for the content that is provided - if anything, I would want The Stand to be longer.

There are actually two variants of this novel: The Stand and The Stand: Complete and Uncut.

I fortunately have two copies of the complete and uncut version and I'm happy I do.

Apparently, this book was first published just as The Stand because the original copy (The Complete and Uncut version) Stephen King wrote was too long and King's publishers not only didn't want to raise the cost of this book but also because they believed no one would purchase it for a high price.

Although, once The Stand was published and King's team realized how well it was doing, they decided to release the Complete and Uncut editions which myself and I'm sure a lot of other fans were happy about as well.

Overall, I loved The Stand by Stephen King. It is incredibly well-written, the plot is well executed, so complex with such amazing characters.

I'd love to know your thoughts! Who is your favourite villain? It can be from a King novel or through any other book or show/movie! Let me know in the comments section or on my Instagram!