The Stand Book One - An Intro to the Characters

I know some of you said you're having trouble getting into The Stand.  I did too until I got to Frannie and where she has to tell her mom she's pregnant.  The whole part that describes how Frannie equates her father and mother to different rooms of the house I was able to relate too.  It reminded me of my granny specifically and how the den in her house was where the family got together.  With this scene, I felt so bad for Frannie and her mother's mindset.  She is more concerned about material things (especially relating to the parlor) and her reputation in the town.  It also saddened me that Frannie and her mother's relationship never got to be mended because of the superflu.  I took from this was the message that life is too short and anything can happen to me, Nathan or the girls.  I need to be the best parent I can be every day and love my girls no matter what.

I love that Stephen King includes a variety of characters that range from the good-hearted to pure evil.  I especially love his description of Randall Flagg:

It was the face of a hatefully happy man, a face that radiated a horrible handsome warmth, a face to make waterglasses shatter in the hands of tired truck-stop waitresses, to make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees.

Flagg is the evil man that keeps haunting many of the other characters even though they've never met him.  I'm interested to see how he interacts with some of the "good" characters like Stu and Frannie.
I'm also wondering if Flagg will also recruit Trashcan Man to his group.

Another favorite part of the book for me was when Stu was in the Atlanta facility and he faked coughing to scare Deitz.  I like Stu a lot because he is brave.  He admits he is scared but he does what he has to to get the answers he needs and eventually escape.

I am wondering what the connection is to the survivors of the superflu and how we are going to find out.  It seems like all those in the medical profession are dead and the government couldn't figure out how Stu was immune to the superflu (I also can't believe they injected him with it straight up. Scary, scary.).  It definitely doesn't seem to be something genetic that runs in the family since all the characters we've seen so far have lost all their family.  I realize Book One may seem like a downer but I have to say I loved it. I got wrapped up in the characters and I can't wait to see the interactions that are going to happen as they begin to find each other.