Rating: Summary: Fantastic! Review: This is a quasi-graphic novel. There are 12 Pictures - one for each month - and the corresponding full moon. The art is fantastic as is the story. Each month has a theme - but are all connected by the fact that a werewolf is at the root of the problem. This is a wonderful little book - the prose is tight and the fear high. There is an incredible amount of gore but done quite tastefully -if that is not an oxymoron.
I highly recommend checking this out but just to be safe don't read it when the moon is full...
Rating: Summary: A Taste of the Werewolf Myth Review: Much like an adult picture book, you can read this Stephen King offering in one sitting. The illustrations are great, but the story is a bit lacking. Anyway, gives you a taste of the werewolf myth, complete with the gore and savagery associated with the creature. A good diversion for a day or two. A better book, actually a complete novel, on the werewolf theme is Adam Pfeffer's "Kolak of the Werebeasts." That, at least, is a much deeper story that explores the trials and tribulations of transforming into a beast.
Rating: Summary: Hairy doings Review: In the small Maine town of Tarker's Mills, on a snowy January night when the blizzard hides what would have been a full moon, a railwayman holed up in his cabin has his throat savagely ripped out. The same thing happens again on the night of the full moon in February, only this time the victim is a lonely spinster sighing over some valentines she sent to herself. And again in March, April, May... there's a monster afoot, but it's only Marty Coslaw, a small boy in a wheelchair, who first realizes it's a werewolf, and then guesses who it is. We guess, too, and Stephen King lets us know by the middle of the book just who it is. From that point, the book deals with how to stop the horror, as the months roll by and the bodies pile up on the night of each full moon. Most of the months are marked with special days in the calendar, and King tells us in a coda he realizes there is no way the lunar cycle could be skewed the way he tells it, but it in no way detracts from the fun. Copiously illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings and color plates by Bernie Wrightson, it's an enjoyable novella that can be read in an evening. Each little chapter is a story in itself, and together they make up a satisfying horror yarn.
Rating: Summary: King's novella is okay but Wrightston's art is a lot better Review: Actually the chief attraction of "Cycle of the Werewolf" for me is the artwork by Berni Wrightston more than the story by Stephen King. In fact, I like the black & white drawings by Wrightston more than the color plates (remember the stunning black & white line drawings he did for his illustrated version of Shelley's "Frankenstein"?). The story is set in the isolated Maine town of Tarker Mills where each month, starting with the first full moon in January, another victim is ripped to shreds. The key players are young Marty Coslaw, who is bound to his wheelchair, his Uncle Al, who has a fondness for fireworks, and the Reverend Lester Lowe, a guy who just screams "I have a deep dark secret! Ask me what it is!" Each month another person gets savagely killed and Marty is having a hard time convincing anybody else in town that a werewolf is doing the killing. That means that young Marty is going to have to have to be the one that lays the trap to catch the werewolf. "Cycle of the Werewolf" was originally conceived of as a story-calendar, and ended up as this beautifully illustrated 12-chapter novella. King plays around with the lunar cycle so that it came on the day that marks certain months (e.g, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July), but that is a legitimate conceit in a story that is about werewolves, even if it does mean the werewolf will not be caught until December. Although it was conceived of as a short work and the main character is a 10-year-old boy, King's description of the werewolf attacks is violent enough to convince me this one is not especially intended for kiddies. Then there are Wrightston's color plates. A cop getting his face ripped off by a werewolf and disemboweled pigs lying in the rain are not usually children's fare either. However, by King standards this is a cute little story, stripped down to the essentials and forgoing the elaborate character backgrounds and sundry subplots that bloated so many of his novels. Besides, in case you have forgotten, there are the illustrations (what fan of horror literature would not want a calendar of Berni Wrightston's artwork?)
Rating: Summary: An excellent short story... Review: King does a superb job at composing a scary yet fun short story about a werewolf who attacks once a month when the moon is full. King isn't trying to allude to anything and isn't tryiny to make any deep comments about society he is simply, with this story, writing to entertain, and he does it with vigor. The story is easily read and enjoyable all the way through, check it out! By the way the illustrations are excellent and bring the story to life before your very eyes!
Rating: Summary: Not the Best, But... Review: Although this is one of King's less ingenious novels, it is still entertaining. This novel is proof of King's love for old horror stories, especially the grotesque horror comics like "Tales from the Crypt" etc. Along with the artwork that is peppered through the book, King shows his loyalty to this genre of horror. I would not call this novel great, but I would call it fun, enjoyable to read, and still one of my favorites. I would say the same about the horror comics.
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