Luke’s Reviews > The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand > Status Update
Luke
is on page 47 of 779
I’m going to take my time with this one (it’s 800 pages). First story, Room 24 by Caroline Kepnes, was amazing. Such a disturbing protagonist, and felt very in line with the world of the Stand. Second story, The Tripps by Wrath James White was horrible. It read like bad fan fiction, filled with superfluous dialogue and gratuitous violence. Genuinely so fucking terrible. Makes me nervous for the rest of the book.
— Aug 22, 2025 01:42AM
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Luke
is on page 115 of 779
This story, “Lockdown” by Bev Vincent, was my favorite so far. It’s about the few residents of a remote island off the coast of Maine who are isolated from society as the world is ending. It felt so consistent with Stephen King’s writing style (not surprising considering Vincent has written multiple books about King) and was an interesting, small scale story. Had a few nods to the original book that I loved.
— Aug 28, 2025 01:35AM
Luke
is on page 95 of 779
The next story, “Every Dog Has Its Day” by Bryan Smith is a very grim story about a teenager who ends up all by himself in the wake of the superflu. I liked it for the most part, and think it fits the tone of The Stand very well. But man some of the dialogue is really bad. I feel like the author forgot the original book takes place over 30 years ago. But luckily this story wasn’t very dialogue heavy.
— Aug 27, 2025 01:52AM
Luke
is on page 71 of 779
This next story, Bright Light City by Meg Gardiner, was much better than the last one. Interesting to get a picture of what Vegas was like right after the superflu ended the world, which we don’t really see in the original book (that I can recall). This story felt like a chapter that would have appeared in the first half of The Stand. A bit rushed but enjoyable for sure.
— Aug 25, 2025 02:04AM
