Brutal. So brutal.
It probably goes without saying, but if you cannot handle gruesome death and gore, this book is not for you.
The premise of The Long Walk is simple. 100 boys must walk cross-country at a consistent pace of four miles per hour until there is only one left standing. Yet, with such a simple plot and in a mere 300 pages, Stephen King (originally writing under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman) does an excellent job elevating the physical torture to heartbreaking emotional turmoil. I generally find King is at his strongest when exploring his characters’ psyches (especially the adolescent mind), and in The Long Walk he does this wonderfully. What happens when you put 100 teenage boys together and work them until they waste away? It’s crude. It’s mean. It’s weird. But it’s also a moving story about doomed friendships and mining the depths of one’s soul for the will to live.
There have been so many dystopian young-adult centric stories published and put on film since The Long Walk was published back in 1979, but none that I have read have come close. The Long Walk doesn’t rely on fantasy, elaborate gimmicks, or world-ending stakes to leave an impact. The pain is all on this group of boys, and the tragedy is so much more impactful as a result.
The Once and Future Lit 