The Long Walk
Richard Bachman, 1979
Horror Science fictionMystery, thriller & crimeContemporary fiction
A hundred teenage boys start walking. The rules are simple, the nation is watching, and only one of them is meant to stop.
Feels like dread and serenity. About death.
A page from the book
The seductive idea of death as a silent library where nothing is asked of you.
Garraty wondered how it would be, to lie in the biggest, dustiest library silence of all, dreaming endless, thoughtless dreams behind your gummed-down eyelids, dressed forever in your Sunday suit. No worries about money, success, fear, joy, pain, sorrow, sex, or love. Absolute zero. No father, mother, girlfriend, lover. The dead are orphans. No company but the silence like a moth’s wing. An end to the agony of movement, to the long nightmare of going down the road. The body in peace, stillness, and order. The perfect darkness of death.How would that be? Just how would that be? Richard Bachman.Richard Bachman was Stephen King: the pseudonym sold modestly until a Washington bookseller, Steve Brown, traced the copyright records and exposed him in 1985.
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Questions readers ask
- What is The Long Walk like?
- Feels like dread and serenity. About death.
- What should I read after The Long Walk?
- If you liked The Long Walk, try The Scorch Trials (James Dashner), Doctor Sleep (Stephen King) and Death Row (Freida McFadden).
A taste of the feed
The monsters are gone; the pictures in their heads are not.
Somehow she projected a jab of cynicism into the words. I keep seeing Grievers. Their disgusting skin and blubber bodies, all those metal arms and spikes. It was way too close for comfort, Tom. How’re we gonna get something like that out of our heads?
The Scorch Trials · James Dashner
A grand hotel burns, and the year hides in a president.
On the second day of December in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado’s great resort hotels burned to the ground. The Overlook was declared a total loss.
Doctor Sleep · Stephen King
Being believed is not the same as being saved.
I didn’t do it.” My voice slurs on the words. “I didn’t kill my husband. I’m innocent.” Albert is quiet for a moment, his fingers frozen on the syringe that will paralyze my muscles. He exchanges looks with Rhea and then lets out a deep sigh. “Yes,” he says, “we know.
Death Row · Freida McFadden
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