Author: Stephen King Release Date: 1981 Genre: Thriller | Horror Pages: 420 ISBN NO.: 978-0-340-95270 Publisher: Hachette
BLURB
Cujo is two-hundred pond Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. The Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolthole- a cave inhabited by some very sick bats. What happens next, how Cujo becomes a horrifying vortex, inexorably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of Stephen King’s most terrifying, heart-stopping novels yet…
REVIEW
Positives:
Being a Stephen King’s fan, I knew even before starting the book that I’m in for another horrific journey. And believe me when I say I wasn’t disappointed! King is one of the best authors I’ve ever read and this book is yet another masterpiece. The characters were very well built and so was each and everyone’s background story. I loved Tad, Vic and Brett and of-course Cujo (just as an individual character and not personally.) The story establishes and takes direction slowly and steadily and prepares you well enough for what comes next, an unexpected emotional roller-coaster ride. As the story progresses, and as it’s King’s speciality, you come to know each and every character personally and can very well understand their psychology, actions and reactions, in this case, including a dog (Cujo). That said, King’s description of Cujo’s emotional state and things from his point of view, are the best things about the book. At the end I started to feel sorry for his condition and also the end.
Negatives:
The only thing wrong about the book was the ending. It ended on a very bad note. I’m not disclosing the end here, as it will spoil the end for some readers, but I’ll just say that the end really freaked me out! And for that only I’m cutting back on 1 star.
Conclusion:
Cujo is an amazing book with lots of drama, thrill and horror in equal proportions. It’ll be an excellent read for the genre’s lovers but if you hate strong emotional and bad endings, then you’ll better do without it!
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Opening Line: ‘Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.’
Highlights: King’s story-telling.
Low-lights: Ending.
Memorable Quotes: “Nope. Nothing wrong here.”
“Surely they had passed the worst. All the luck had been against them, but sooner or later even the worst luck changes.”
“…it was amazing, wasn’t it, how bad you could hurt when there was nothing physically wrong.”
Memorable Paragraph:
‘Maybe he was as mad as he said he was, but she could see only a species of miserable fright. Suddenly, like the thud of a boxing glove on her mouth, she saw how close to the edge of everything he was. The agency was tottering, that was bad enough, and now, on top of that, like a grisly dessert following a putrid main course, his marriage was tottering too. She felt a rush of warmth for him, for this man she had sometimes hated and had, for the last three hours at least, feared. A kind of epiphany filled her. Most of all, she hoped he would always think he had been as mad as hell, and not . . . not the way his face said he felt’Final Thoughts: Yet another great book for King’s fans.
The Reading Bud 