Nowhere close to the movie and that is a great thing. I have no problem with the movie as it is entertaining, if silly. However, this novel is a fast-paced scifi thriller and was a blast to read. A very dark and dystopian story where the underclass gets the chance to win money via TV game shows. But there are no ordinary game shows and the stakes are literally life and limb. The movie did get the basic premise down but there are little similarities from there. This book was much more enjoyable than I had expected it to be. ( )

this book is good time but i feel like it could have been even more amazing.

first off i will say i watched the Arnold movie first and i love that movie and when i found out it was based after a book that king wrote. i was curious and even before reading this book i knew it was going to be different wish made it even more interesting to me. the overall concept i think is awesome and is right up my ally .i also think the main characters motivation to be tragic and you really care for him and all the situations he gets himself into you want to see him succeed.

however as much as i love the idea a lot from this book i just dont think its as amazing as it could have been because this book is very short and i wish it had more scenes to flesh things out better like how King did in The Long Walk. i also felt like it was a missed opportunity that the main character barely had any encounter's with the stalkers. he was being chased by the cops more often wish makes sense but i wish there was more action moments with the stalkers and random people hunting him down. this is a book that has potential at being an all time favorite but is just missing some meat on the bones.

dont get me wrong this is still a solid book overall and i had fun with it. especially the ending climax which is insane. but compared to other books that i read from King its not on that level but even a King book that is not an all time classic is still a very good book in general so i would still recommend it as it is a short thrill ride that wont take long to get through and it was not boring either. just missed the mark from being another all time favorite ( )

Kinda funny to read this book that was published in 1982 and is set in 2023. I watched the movie ages ago and didn’t really care for it; therefore, it’s taken me forever to want to read the book. I’m glad I finally did, the book was so much better! Ben Richards volunteers to go on the run to earn money for his sick baby girl. He’s such a clever and strategic man. That ending though was definitely done in true King fashion; nice and gory. ( )

I always enjoy looking for the differences between bachman and king and I think this is a great example. As dark as king can be, there is an even deeper darkness to bachman and even though this is an entertainment read on the surface, the darkness of human existence and civilization runs deep with little hope for a better existence in this one. The end is one of dark finality and I think even king would have provided some type of epilogue at least to allow the reader to the chance to imagine some hope for the remainder of humanity even if it is not really there ( )

It was....ok. I didn't like the constant derogatory racial comments in this book. To me there was no need for it. There was no horror, thriller or suspenseful aspects of this book and it just all around left a bad taste in my mouth. It will be a long time before I read one of his books again and unfortunately I have quite a few. ( )