Cujo

Rating:
Summary: King at his best; dog at its worst
Review: I have always been fascinated by the concept of the disease Rabies. Ever since I saw the film Cujo as a kid I have wanted to learn more about it. The subject is not touched on as much as it should be; King captured it brilliantly with this horrid situation that really could have happened.

The atmosphere was claustrophic and powerful. The characters rang true, even the dog. The ending was hauntingly depressing - the dog attacks were vicious and exciting - the narration at the beginning and end of the book before and after the characters are 'dealt' with -- King's ability really shows within these paper walls.

Cujo deserves a place in your library.

Rating:
Summary: Delivers tension, but flawed
Review: Contrivance is typically something that authors try to avoid, but obviously most stories and movies will have some element of coincidence or contrivance in them; it's inevitable. However, Cujo goes way beyond the occasional contrivance: the entire book is built on one coincidence after another, to the point in which several events are put into motion by the biggest coincidence of all: a winning lottery ticket. Suspension of disbeleif is no longer possible by the end of the book, and the reader is frustrated. In addition, no mention is made of why the villain, Cujo, has supernatural powers or what powers he has. A thin line is drawn to a murderer in the town where most of the action takes place, (no doubt from another King novel) but I beleive books must be self-sustaining. In addition, the inclusion of one character, an exceedingly annoying and frustrating character who has an affair with the protagonist's wife, is included for no real reason except to function as a red herring for the police (not even a red herring for the reader, we know he is not guilty).

Normally when you say "Person X must have been on cocaine when he wrote this" it is used as a joke, but not here. By his own admission (don't beleive me, read "On Writing") King was doing several lines of coke a day while writing this, and perhaps some of the book's faults can be attributed to that. However, Cujo is by no means a poor read. It develops a lot of tension, has a menacing victim, suitably sympathetic victims, a decent conclusion and likeable enough characters. It just misses the mark a little. 5.5/10

Rating:
Summary: Nothings perfect, and this book is no exception
Review: This is actually one of the cases where I think the movie was better than the book. "Cujo" is about a young woman and her son who are trapped in a Pinto while being menaced by a huge St. Bernard with rabies. On a technical level this is a sound book. I can understand why a lot of people like "Cujo" and think it's a teriffying book. Stephen King takes normal, everyday situations (like sick pets and car problems) and twists them for maximum tension. I have to admit, when I finished this book, I was drained. I thought that Donna Trent was a wonderfully realized woman (a test pattern for later strong female characters like Dolores Claiborne) who is not perfect (she's cheating on her husband) but is strong when things get tough. Cujo is also one of the most interesting of King's creations. Cujo is not evil, he dose not mean to hurt anyone. Everything that happened to him and the family was a huge series of accidents and coincidences. The way everything is set up so that no one should be looking for the woman and her child was so well explined and thought out that it is entirly plausable. As I said, everything in the book is well constructed, I should have liked it. The reason I didn't like it as much as you would think is because of it's claustrophobic, single setting and the fact that I thought it was just a little slow in the middle. The references to Frank Dodd (the seriel killer police officer in "The Dead Zone") I felt was a little unnessesary, and the suggestion of his ghost was not nessesary (though I know why it was included, to examin local urban legends that every town has). As I said this is just a personal opinion, it is open to debate. I have to admit that I did like that it was not a perfectly happy ending. I can not tell you how it ends; except to say not everyone lives happily ever after.

Rating:
Summary: A gripping, breath-taking horror novel!
Review: One night, Tad Trenton sees something in his closet--eyes, red eyes, a monster. Of course, his parents don't believe him; monsters don't exist. But not all monsters are supernatural in nature...

Sometimes, a monster is a virus. A virus that infects a loveable St. Bernard named Cujo. A virus that makes poor Cujo insane, steering him down a path of bloodlust that forces him to trap two unsuspecting people in an automobile in the middle of summer, with no help around for miles...

"Cujo" is a classic horror novel. Whether or not it involves elements of the supernatural (personally, I think it's up for grabs), it is a rivetting novel and among Stephen King's personal best. It is one that will get you terrified of St. Bernards, because the story is all-to-real, and could happen even to you...

Rating:
Summary: More proof that Early King is better
Review: Stephen King may have been coked out of his gourd when he wrote Cujo (by his own admission), but it still holds up better than his more recent books. Or his so-called more ambitious work, such as the ridiculous, bloated novel, IT, which, even at 1000 pages, never convinced me that evil in the form of a clown (!) dwelled in a sewer system.

Cujo, on the other hand, is tight, solid, suspense fiction, typical of his early work. I still think The Shining is King's best and most deeply unsettling book (the *All Work And No Play* revelation still creeps me out to the point where I have to double-check my locks).

But like other early novels such as Carrie and The Dead Zone, Cujo showcases SK when he was still testing his talent, trying to push it. Here, his challenge was clearly: Can I break out of the supernatural niche and still write a damn good book? And he does, though he succumbs to the temptation to hedge his bets with a (never resolved or fully explored) hint at the occult.

In short. Read it. Instead of IT.