La larga marcha

I picked this up after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie. While King does a decent job of making the characters relatable, or at least understandable, not a whole lot happens plot-wise outside of each boy "buying their ticket." Sure, Garraty is thrust into introspection and asks after his friends’ reasons for signing up, but the story is missing a complete list of all the walking tips, a peek into the government’s twisted values, or the spectators’ grisly fascination. I would have liked more details about how The Long Walk came to be, why so many young men would take the exam and walk based on the harrowing reality, or why the Major created the event. Knowing more about the dystopian world would have provided a hell of a lot more intrigue, yet I was left wondering what service the Walk truly provided the country and the people within it. There are snippets of a world, but you're never given the broad strokes of the culture that paved the way for such a brutal annual event. I'm hoping the movie offers more context, and I have high hopes based on the screenwriter.

One of Stephen King's books written as Richard Bachman originally, The Long Walk is a good book that's a very fast read. If you expect a book full of big plots and action, that's not what this is about at all.

The setting is quite simple. In this dystopian version of the US, with only few tantalizing hints of what the world is like, every year 100 boys are chosen to participate in The Long Walk. Those boys have to walk at a steady minimum pace of 4 miles an hour until there's only one man left standing, the winner receiving anything he might ask for. Those unfortunate who get warned three times about slowing down get their ticket, which is a bullet to their head. We get to follow The Long Walk through the eyes of Ray Garraty, a 16-year old boy from Maine who is a willing participant.

As the boys walk, we get a look at many of the 100 boys, get to experience the highs and the lows, but mostly the lows because what highs could there be if you have to walk and can't even stop to take a dump without the risk of getting a ticket for it? It's not classic horror, more the psychological kind, because all the boys are dead men walking.

The ending didn't make much sense to me, but the path is the destination in this case.

Overall rating for me was 3.5 stars, because I just didn't care much for the ending. I enjoyed it quite a lot though.