Asha’s Reviews > The Long Walk > Status Update

I saw a review or a tumblr post that said “don’t let Mr Beast see this book/movie” and there’s another essay on the lack of manipulation in this set up. There isn’t the same media hype and build up as THG. It doesn’t have the turn to camera of a reality tv show. It’s a dystopian death match from an older era of media and spectacle. Game shows in the epigraphs. Not reality tv.

The very narrow focus makes the “Panem Scenes” like when they arrive in Augusta really pop. There’s so little worldbuilding holding it up and the world is just 1980s Maine so it lands with the full force of how fucked up the whole thing is? There’s no flash or glitter to hide behind. Just the horror of it all.

Also really noteworthy because I’m binging it is the style. The repeated vocabulary (smote and pallid stand out) and the heavy adverb use. And then these moments where a description just lands perfectly.

There’s an essay in here on what Stephen King thinks teenage masculinity is. It makes me want to read other things about that sort of 20th century working class “this shit is just how everyone is” thing. Like I grew up on the tail end of it but I really see it in this.

I haven’t read a Stephen King book since high school. He sure does have a vibe. The inclusion of the game show quotes as chapter epigraphs is sure a mood. Also that there’s so little exposition on the world or the shape of this particular dystopia. It’s a very white-people 1980s setting without any world building holding up the Long Walk which kind of works. Like Shirley Jackson’s the Lottery.