Step into dystopia

When do you call a world post-apocalyptic? Simple. It's when you have to walk mile after mile until exhaustion takes over your body and soul. It's when there's no spot left on your feet without bruises or blisters. Everyone else must die, except you. It's the death game you have to play in hopes of gaining everything after losing everyone.

This chilling idea finds one of its most unsettling expressions in the legacy of Stephen King, whose works continue to be adapted for film time and again. The Long Walk (Signet Books, 1979) was originally written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1966. Nevertheless, it remains one of the eeriest works King has produced.

The story opens with Ray Garraty, representing the Maine district, a sixteen-year-old boy whose fear and anticipation for the walk appear to be drastically mismatched. His mother, Mrs. Garraty, drops him off with the knowledge that she might never see her son again. Each year, one hundred boys compete in the Long Walk, where the winner receives everything they could possibly desire. However, the severity of the rules stands firm. Those who falter three times by slowing their pace beyond the limit are eliminated, and the method of elimination is a bullet to the head.

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"Walk or die, that's the moral of this story. Simple as that. It's not survival of the physically fittest—that's where I went wrong when I let myself get into this," says McVries to Garraty. This is brutality made conventional, with the very concept of dystopia suppressed in everyone's mind—just like in real life, where people are desensitised to the extreme. Yet amid the psychological suspense King builds, friendship offers a fleeting sense of ease, a fragile positive among so much dread. Consequently, friendships are both formed and lost along the way.

The recurring themes run deeper, with references to ongoing political unrest and the involvement of government and military in ways that make the walk an allegory. Since the event is televised with exciting commentary, turning life into a game and making it a source of entertainment, it becomes a reflection of reality's darker absurdities. At the end of the finish line wait the friends, family, desires, and dreams. The realisation only comes when you yourself set foot on the starting line.

There are only certain reads that move you so deeply, and The Long Walk is one of them. It takes you on a harrowingly painful journey where you find yourself walking alongside the characters, reliving their never-ending nightmares. For those who are drawn to psychological challenges that push the mind to its limits and who enjoy captivating thrillers, this novel offers exactly that kind of experience. It is a perfect blend of psychological tension and emotion, carrying you on an unsettling journey.

Juhi Rubaba Jurana Jahan is a writer, creative enthusiast, and someone who lives through art.