Thinner

Rating:
Summary: Billy Halleck gets "Thinner"
Review: Stephen King's "Thinner" is a heart-pounding thriller that will keep you awake until late hours of the night. Stephen King, the author of "The Shining" and "Carrie", has constructed an excellent piece of literature. After reading the last page of "Thinner", you'll be left wondering just how close your family ties are.

The main character of "Thinner" is Billy Halleck, a largely overweight lawyer. He has a wife, Heidi, and a daughter named Linda. They enjoy a peaceful suburban life . That is, until the night Billy hits the old gypsy woman with his car. From here on, Billy will continue to lose a tremendous, not to mention dangerous, amount of weight. Billy, with the help of his mob friend, attempts to chase down the solution to his problem. The book closes with a multitude of surprising plot twists. As the pages turn, the excitement grows.

While "Thinner" is a great read, no book is without its flaws. Some of the chapters were repititious, sometimes repeating the same type of occurances. Some of the others, on the other hand, tended to be a bit boring and drawn out.

Even with its flaws, "Thinner" is an excellent novel for any thrill-seeking readers. Stephen King did not rest with this one, it was highly entertaining and well-written.

Rating:
Summary: What America needs: A book to convince us not to lose weight
Review: Of the five books that Stephen King published under the pen name of Richard Bachman, three of them involved making the numbers of the chapters part of the story. In "The Running Man" there was a countdown as the game progressed while in "The Long Walk" the miles added up. In "Thinner" each chapter gives us the weight of the protagnoist, Billy Halleck, as it plummets relentlessly down. As with his classic short story about smoking, "Quitters, Inc.," King took an American obsession and turned it into a nightmare come true. The cataylst for Billy's weight loss is that old chesnut, the gypsy curse. While driving one night Billy is, uh, distracted by his wife and runs down the elderly daughter of Tadzu Lempke, the leader of a band of gypsies who have invaded the town. Billy is a lawyer and his friends, the judge and police chief, make sure the woman's death is ruled an accident. But before Billy can celebrate, Tadzu touches him and utters the one word curse: "Thinner."

What makes "Thinner" the best of the Bachman books is that King works a whole bunch of other elements into the story. Unlike his earlier Bachman efforts with tended to be one note (e.g., walk till you drop), "Thinner" pours on the fun. Billy's family and doctors are overjoyed by his weight loss at first, but then it continues at an alarming rate, even as Billy spends all of his time eating everyting in site. They insist it is a psychological problem, or perhaps physiological, but a gypsy curse is beyond their ability to believe. Not so for Richie Ginelli, a mobster who is one of Billy's most grateful clients. Ginelli is old school and his mother knows about gypsy curses, so Richie is more than willing to fight fire with fire. Tadzu curses Billy. In an act of desperation Billy proclaims the Curse of the White Man from Town. Richie does everything he can to make that curse come true in an effort to force the old man to "take it off."

That campaign is what elevates "Thinner" above the rest of the Bachman books. In the world of Stephen King fighting back is always the most difficult part of the equation and I like the fact that this time around the effort is grounded in the real world. The gypsies have curses but Richie has automatic weaponry and a cunning honed in the underworld. The end result is that as you read "Thinner" you become open to the possibility that Billy might get out of this one alive, if only they can stop Tadzu's granddaughter Gina with her slingshot and ball bearings. There are other complications in Billy's life that add to the fun of the denoument, such as whatever is going on between Billy's wife and his doctor, so that once King gets the ball rolling it keeps picking up speed as it goes down that hill. We are not talking great fiction here, just a story that gives you second thoughts over every trying another diet.

Rating:
Summary: Thinner Than Most King Books, But One of The Best
Review: Originally written as pen name Richard Bachman this is one of King's best books. It is not in the masterpiece league of Christine or It, but is not far off either. Billy Halleck is an obese family man, who is forced to undertake the ultimate weight loss program by an old gypsy avenging his daughter's death caused while Billy was enjoying the hand of his wife instead of concentrating on driving. Thinner was the curse he prophesised, touching him as he walked out of court after not being convicted of the old lady's death. Every day from then he has been losing weight. Although he has quite a bit to lose, if he doesn't stop the weight loss he will eventually die. The only way is to find the old gypsy and get him to lift the curse, but the gypsies have moved on and don't want to reverse it without a good reason.

This is definitely a can't put down thriller. Although you don't have a great liking for Halleck, you are gripped to know if he can stop his ultimate weight loss program before his demise. His psychological terror is also a highlight. One of King's best, definitely buy it.

Rating:
Summary: An A+ book...until the very end
Review: I bought 'Thinner' back when I discovered that Richard Bachman was actually Stephen King under a pen name, and was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining this novel was from the very beginning. What a stunning premise! After an unfortunate accident killing a Gypsy, our handsome lead character has his cheek brushed lightly by another who whispers one word, 'Thinner'. After this incident, he begins to lose weight...a LOT of weight -- and all without trying. Now is this the new miracle diet the world has been looking for? I doubt it. He eats and eats and continues to drop the pounds as though he were experiencing overnight liposuction without his knowledge.

As he goes from overweight to supermodel-thin in a short period of time, his fears multiply on a daily basis that he will die from this curse inflicted upon him and ultimately decides to seek help from Gypsys. This is (for me anyway) where the storyline went from a cool supernatural thriller to a hokey curse-driven

tale. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could have come up with a more believable ending, but for some reason, it just didn't add up. I can't exactly put my finger on what exactly it was that I feel short-changed me in the storyline, but suffice it to say that despite my feelings, this really is a first rate novel of suspense and is told well. Stephen King deserves his status as the greatest horror novelist of all-time, and while this may not be his greatest tale, it certainly was better than a lot of his other books that were hailed as great works of fiction. Judge for yourself, I think you'll like it anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Billy Halleck gets "Thinner"
Review: Stephen King's "Thinner" is a heart-pounding thriller that will keep you awake until late hours of the night. Stephen King, the author of "The Shining" and "Carrie", has constructed an excellent piece of literature. After reading the last page of "Thinner", you'll be left wondering just how close your family ties are.

The main character of "Thinner" is Billy Halleck, a largely overweight lawyer. He has a wife, Heidi, and a daughter named Linda. They enjoy a peaceful suburban life . That is, until the night Billy hits the old gypsy woman with his car. From here on, Billy will continue to lose a tremendous, not to mention dangerous, amount of weight. Billy, with the help of his mob friend, attempts to chase down the solution to his problem. The book closes with a multitude of surprising plot twists. As the pages turn, the excitement grows.

While "Thinner" is a great read, no book is without its flaws. Some of the chapters were repititious, sometimes repeating the same type of occurances. Some of the others, on the other hand, tended to be a bit boring and drawn out.

Even with its flaws, "Thinner" is an excellent novel for any thrill-seeking readers. Stephen King did not rest with this one, it was highly entertaining and well-written.

Rating:
Summary: Read this book!!!
Review: If you like to read mystery and horror stories this book is for you. This book is

about a man named Billy Halleck that is very rich and over weight. One day he is driving

along and he starts to argue with his wife Heidi, and not paying any attention to the road

he hits a gypsy man and kills him and the gypsy man's wife cast a thinner spell on him.

This spell, unwillingly makes you lose weight rapidly, Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

And if it is how is he going to stop the spell?

I think this book was a big success and it was interesting down to the very last word, also

this book is write by the most creative and popular author to every create a book. I

suggest this book to people that like to read horror and mystery stories.

by: D.M.

Rating:
Summary: Kind of slow
Review: Only my second King novel-I started with Green Mile which is superb. I felt Thinner was just too slow and it's the first book I have ever actually skimmed through at times. The last 75 pages or so made up for the slow parts but the book is only 318 pages to begin with.

For those who do not know, the book is centered around a gypsy curse which is placed on the man that kills the gypsy's daughter. The man sees the gypsy outside the courthouse and the gypsy whispers thinner as he caresses the mans cheek. Mr. Halleck loses a very large amount of weight-around 120lbs. Everyone, including family, thinks he is losing his mind when he mentiones the curse. Therefore Mr. Halleck must search for the gypsy to try and reverse the curse. The story begins to pick-up pace when Halleck contacts a mob friend to help.

Would have given 3.5 stars if the choice was there.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Book
Review: People don't give a lot of credit to Thinner but even though it wasn't King's finer books, it still had a great plot and a great ending. This book I would give 4 and a half stars instead.

This book was about a guy named Billy Halleck who was cursed by a gypsy. He is now growing thinner by the day. The only way to get him back to normal is by finding the gypsies and asking them to reverse the curse. Along the way he meets up with hs friend Ginelli and he causes problems with the Gypsies.

What I am trying to say about this book is that it is a great book. People think a SK book has to be scary. This book was his least scariest but very suspenseful. The ending also had a twisted ending. Read it and you will see why.

So, to get this book or not? I think you should get this book because it is a great story and sometimes humorous. Thnk twice about not getting this book.

Rating:
Summary: Thinner the Seaman Way
Review: Thinner by Stephen King, a chilling novel that is bound to break your soul and captivate your knowledge of every day life. Billy Halleck was an ordinary man, lawyer and successful business typhoon. The man even had the whole deal, a family, nice house, and an extra 200 unneeded pounds. Personally the book really took me down for a knockout. The deep detail our famous author brings us really makes you think. Of course as the reader some sort of jealousy comes into place when a fat man has everything including an ego almost as big as him. It¡¦s only human to want him to fall, or shall I say ¡§shrink.¡¨ When I read a novel I want to be hooked, I want to actually crave the next page and unfortunately many novelists today just can¡¦t fit that description. This book does, and does it so well that you can actually see Billy as he shrinks to nothing and feel his anxiety grow with every page. Quote on quote p.236 ¡§WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME¡¨ is just evidence of Billy¡¦s desperation, useless desperation that is. A great example of this and a favorite even, Billy desperately and bravely begged the gypsy daughter for forgiveness and to release the horrible curse off of him. Unfortunately that was returned by a sling shot rock splicing through his toothpick hand, but you get the idea.

Hmmm, through this whole review I¡¦ve been trying to get this one point across, this one idea that is basically the message of the author. ¡§Don¡¦t take life for granted¡¨, call it a theme, a bible verse, even call it a really over weight man who had everything and lost everything all because of his ego and poor morale values. The important thing is learn from it, yes learn from a fiction book. Everything is derived from something and if you look deep inside this novel you¡¦ll find some truth. On a personal level I definitely have witnessed many rich kids go down hard because their just rude or think that they are better than everyone else. That¡¦s why I really relate to this novel, not because I crashed into a gypsy or got a curse, but because I looked deep down and saw the morale¡¦s that King is trying to display.

I¡¦ll be honest, this book isn¡¦t for everyone. If you¡¦re the type who gets your jollies off reading boring text or non fiction books and aren¡¦t ready to open your eyes and look beyond the literature and phony plot than NO, don¡¦t read the book. However if you¡¦re the type of person who likes a good thriller and is willing to except some fake facts for the joy of entertainment while learning a valuable life lesson then get on that horse and check out the book. Either way you really have nothing to loose, other than a trip to the library.

All in all 99 percentile out of 100 on the Seaman Scale, cause no book is perfect ļ

Rating:
Summary: This is not one of SK's finer books
Review: Maybe SK was coming into his own and finding his skills, but this book doesn't illustrate the Stephen King of today. I found this book to be almost boring in a sense. If it weren't for the well developed characters I would have hated it. The scare factor isn't very good at all. Its a bizarre story but nothing to make me look over my should at night. If you want to read one of his scarier books try Pet Semetary. If you want to venture out of the SK world, try Douglas Clegg or Bentley Little.