Reading The Stand in 2020 was an eerie experience. The book starts at the beginning of a global pandemic and continues from there. Needless to explain the similarities with the world today. However, this virus, known as the Superflu, Captain Trips or The Blue Virus, had a less than 1 percent survival rate. It was scary seeing how quickly the virus spread and how quickly society collapsed. Those who remained were drawn to one of two sides, good or evil. King, as usual, did a great job building up the survivors and explaining their motives. While there was a lot of tragedy, which is expected in a apocalypse book, there were a handful of positive moments, where people helped each other and started rebuilding society. At first, it seemed idyllic, but as time went on the usual problems started to appear. To quote sociology professor Glen Bateman:
