Cujo

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Summary: Stephen King rabid dog story about the perils of inaction
Review: I always think of Stephen King's "Cujo" as his version of "Hamlet," simply because Donna Trenton's inability to act reminds me of the Prince of Denmark's refusal to do what needed to be done in time for it to matter. Given that starting point it makes sense that this is the first Stephen King novel that avoids the supernatural, save for a small inconsequential moment. This time we do not have telekinetic power, vampires, a haunted hotel, the end of the world, psychic ability, or pyrokensis. In "Cujo" we have a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard who pursues a rabbit into a bolt-hole and is bit by a rapid bat and ends up terrorizing a trapped mother and son in a broken down car. For "Cujo" to be about the perils of inaction, the danger has to be more realistic for the lesson to be worthwhile.

I was really surprised to go back and see how much King crammed into this novel. We are introduced to the cast of human characters, which are basically divided into the Trenton and Chambers families. Vic Trenton is a New York adman with a partner and small agency trying to hold on to his last account who moves to Castle Rock, Maine seeking peace away from the big city. His marriage is on the rocks, which explains why Donna is having an affair, but they both love their four-year-old son, Tad. Joe Chambers does auto repair out of his garage and does not treat his wife Charity right. Cujo is the best friend of their ten-year-old son Brett.

While circumstances align to put Donna and Tad in peril, we learn a whole lot about Vic Trenton's ad campaign for the Sharp Cereal Professor, which blows up in his face. Actually this is my favorite part of the novel and I really like the way Vic finds a way to "bury" the old fellow. The problem is that this is more interesting to me than what is happening back at the Chambers farm with Cujo, which just keeps dragging on and on. Not that the situation is unrealistic, in terms of what happens in the car where Donna and Tad are trapped by Cujo, but that the situation is established fairly early in the book and you know it is not going to be resolved until the end. When you go and see a movie you can lose all sense of time and not know that you have reached the end, but with a book you always have a rough idea of how many pages are left. It would be impractical to have a book where there were 50-100 blank pages at the end, or (surprise) another story, but that would have helped this novel.

"Cujo" is also in the running for being the biggest downer of all of King's novels and the fact that a character we remember fondly from another novel gets killed does not help us think back on the novel favorably. Looking back on King's career "Cujo" seems to be a start of a darker period in his stories where, as King would say, the Dionysian darkness is not dispelled by the Apollonian light. It seems that what bit poor old Cujo when he stuck his nose into that bolt-hole got a piece of King as well.

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Summary: Is Cujo the sequel to The Dead Zone?
Review: it just could be. in the dead zone there was a castle rock serial killer named frank dodd, and in the course of in the book he meets his demise. now in cujo, KING eludes to dodd's evil spirit (or the evil that possessed dodd) somehow entering the dog cujo. an evil that never dies...just takes new forms. now i know most of you think of the lame movie when you hear CUJO, but the book is more about a family struggling to stay together then the rabid dog. you can tell KING was going thru some hard times when he wrote this novel, it shows (by his own admission in his book On Writing, he says he was doing a bunch of coke during the writting of cujo). the rabid dog is almost an after-thought for most of the story...and when ol' CUJO does show up it freaks you out. check it out. -erik

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Summary: The Cujo Review (very original)
Review: "Except that the monster never dies. Werewolf, vampire, ghoul, unnamable creature from the wastes. The monster never dies." This quote is typical to the horror genre, in that most horror novels focus on some monster or beast whose whole existence revolves around killing, maiming, or tormenting the innocent. This book shows how the monster affects the relationships the characters share. Even though the creature happens to be just an ordinary dog, it is their relationships that help them overcome the evil that "...never dies."
In a little town called Castle Rock, Maine a dog named Cujo contracts rabies. His symptoms go unnoticed until he becomes violent. Believing every other person is the cause of his unbearable pain; he begins his rampage around the outskirts of Castle Rock. Having car trouble, Donna Trenton and her son, Tad, decide to take the car to a local mechanics house to see if he can fix it. When they get there, however, they find no one home and soon after their car dies. With Cujo patiently waiting outside they find themselves in a standoff with a mindless killing machine.
Castle Rock, Maine provides an excellent choice for the setting. Many horror novels occur in small town settings. This is because they are the best choice for the genre. Usually in small towns nothing happens out of the ordinary. Almost everyone knows everybody else which makes it easier to connect characters. Characters can be killed off easier without anyone noticing. Quiet, peaceful places, rural areas present a perfect scene for serial killers, or in this case a dog, to roam around killing whom they please.
The characters of the small, peaceful, little town of Castle Rock at first seem fitting for the dull, "little town lives", expected of people that live in a rural area. Mainly dynamic characters all with a dark secret or fear, they seem more fitting for a soap opera rather than of a horror novel. They all have a fear or secret that they conceal. Donna Trenton fears her secret affair with Steve Kemp might one day leak into the public. Tad Trenton fears the beast that comes out of his closet every night threatening to kill him. Vic Trenton fears the loss of the Sharp account that keeps his family afloat during tough financial times. Charity Cambers fears her husband's abuse might one day impact their son. This adds a little too much drama, but still proves positive for the book.
The plot of Cujo is a giant flashback of a mysterious narrator. Only at the very end does someone start speaking in third person past tense. The plot is good, but the many coincidences and happenstances in it make the story a little unbelievable. The fact that someone nearly saves Donna 4 times from her impending doom but something happens or comes up at the last minute that prevents her rescue proves a tad beyond belief. A dog (granted a large dog) gets it's neck nearly severed by a car door, numerous ribs smashed in, and an eye gouged out and still has enough energy or will to take down a full grown human being attests to the inconceivable role that fate plays in this book. Even in a small town scene, 2 of 4 deaths could not go unnoticed for days (people in rural areas are distant but still stay in contact). With all of these under consideration the plot seems a little stretched, but it still retains some redeeming qualities (bloodshed, gore, etc.).
After Stephen King sets the setting, he doesn't really exploit their northern accent very much. He uses a northern "Maine-ish" accent that draws out certain vowel sounds (a's, e's, i's, o's, u's). At some points it seems as if Mr. King is poking fun or attempting to add a little humor to the action/terror-oriented book.
With the typical and not-so typical horror motif throughout this book, combined with the drama and sometimes-unbelievable coincidences, I give this novel a 4-star rating. I recommend that if someone would like to read a Stephen King book to give this one a try. If you like a little drama and comedy mixed with your horror flick then try this novel (plus Stephen King wrote it, so you have his credentials to go with it.).

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Summary: Great book
Review: This book is a real horror.it grasps u and doesn't let go.

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Summary: CUJO by Stephen King
Review: CUJO is a book about a small town in Maine, that gets haunted by a rabid, huge St. Bernard. The story is told from many points of view, but mostly from the members of tow different families. There are a few stories intertwined into this book. One about people trying to get away from the rabid dog. Another is about a family that is trying to stay together after the wife is caught cheating. The last one is about a farm family torn by alcohol abuse and a mother who doesn't want to see her child end up like his no-good father.

The book overall was O.K. It was very violent book, with very graphic imagery. It is also very inappropriate for young readers. It is considered to be a horror story but in fact is only partially suspenseful. It had a good plot and characters and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense and violence, or any of Stephen King's other books. I thought the ending to this book was a little fast and didn't tell much, but was otherwise good. I gave it a 2 because it wasn't very scary and was really gross, not a very good book overall.

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Summary: family dog gone rabid
Review: this book was probably having its golden age when people more feared rabies. that was before my time though, so perhaps i couldn't relate. i never saw what was so great about this work. a family has a big dog. the dog gets bitten by rabies-infected bats. in the end it becomes a treath to a family that seem to be unable to escape. ok. the suspence wasn't that much, that is what i consider to be the greatest flaw. never been much for "people standing around trying to make a stand"- plots. but the way K describes cujo's mind, as it goes through the phases of rabies, and how it considers things, is the book's real greatness. this was between 2 and 3 stars. a little too dull for my taste

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Summary: Cujo: Banned for a reason.
Review: Cujo has been banned from many school's librarys and it is obvious why. It contains graphic violence and other unappropriate content for children. Who could forget the graphic scene with the mother and her son trapped in the car with the dog waiting for them outside. The deatail of each horrific death is so graphic that it must only be read by a mature reader. The language is also completely unapproriate for children. But please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that this book is bad, I actually enjoyed it.

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Summary: King Really Can Write!
Review: This was the first novel I read for Stephen King. I like it a lot. I generally don't give that many 5-stars, but in this case I can't help it.

The story is about a rabid dog. He was not rabid from the beginning of the story. He got rabies from some bats. The dog starts biting people, starting from its owner ... not that interesting, eh?

This was not what I liked. What I liked was the so many characters King had devised in the story.

The story starts with a serial killer becoming a spirit and haunting the cupboard of a young boy. As usual his parents do not believe what he says. The father is a commercial designer and the mother is a simple housewife. The dog was owned by a different family. And at the end there was a big encounter between the mother and her child and the dog. It was marvelous.

Kings style is so simple that even I can understand it. He goes along the story with his simple everyday terms, and knows when to introduce which character. He knows when to stop and when to continue, and you never get bored. This story was the one that hooked me on King's writings.

It remains to say that this story is not your common ghost horror stories, it is more realistic than that, yet is still breathtaking. If you never read any Kings stories and plan on starting pick this one first. If you have already read "The Shining," "The Stand," "Carrie," or "The Dead Zone" you would like this one, because it is plainly better than those.

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Summary: Rabid
Review: A Review by Lela

Cujo is a Saint Bernard owned by Joe Chambers. Joe Chambers fixes cars for a living. One day Cujo chases a rabbit into a small cave and gets bit by an infected bat. Cujo turns on everything and everyone near him.
Vic Trenton, his wife Donna, and son Tad move to Castle Rock from New York. Vic has to go to New York for a campaign. While he is in New York Donna and Tad go to Joe Chambers house to get her car fixed. What happens next will keep your heart pumping.

What I didn't like about this book is that it is slow and dry in the beginning. All it talks about in the first hundred or so pages is basically the character backgrounds and things that lead up to when Cujo traps Donna and Tad in the car. I like when Cujo went mad sometimes it was told in his perspective. Like when Tad and Donna were in the car Cujo said "KILL THE WOMAN. KILL THE BOY. KILL THE WOMAN KILL THE BOY." It's great to see the story from perspective and not just theirs. The other thing I likes about this book is that Stephen King makes you feel like your there with them. Like when Donna is yelling at the guy she was having an affair with you can just imagine the fight taking place right in front of your face.

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes horror. Cujo is not for animal lovers because he ends up dead in the end. Also don't read this book if you are squeamish because there is a lot of death in Cujo and it's very graphic when the people are getting killed.

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Summary: Man's Best Friend Becomes Man's Worst Nightmare!
Review: I first heard about this book by hearing about the movie. As a rule, I always try to read the book first. This book did not disappoint.

The book begins with a side story of a man who is going through many of life's problems. His wife is cheating on him, his company is going under, and his son is suffering from nightmares. Eventually, the family meets Cujo, a loveable dog owned by a auto repair guy and his family.

Then, Cujo is bitten by a rabid bat. He then goes on a rampage of death and terror, written in King's unique style, which somehow makes you able to picture the gruesome deaths and dismemberments in your head. Things really get serious when a mother and her little boy are trapped by Cujo in a hot car that will not start. It then becomes a mother's fight to save her child and herself.

One of the best horror's I've read yet. Don't dare see the movie before you read the book!