Cujo A Novel

This took me way too long to review this, my apologies.

This was my first Stephen King and proper horror novel so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

WOW. From the start of this book, I was hooked by King’s thrilling, and straight-to-the-point way of writing. His writing is like that of a style I’ve never read before. There was so much time, energy and thought put into this that I was blown away.

I loved how this book switched perspectives constantly between families, to get the big picture. King does this in a way so that the reader does not get confused and all perspectives are important to the story. This is something many writers today cannot do.

I love how King doesn’t sugar-coat anything, no one and nothing is perfect in this book. So many books I read are stuffed full of perfect, boring girls who are “totally relatable” and can do no wrong.

Not in Cujo. In this book, we have characters that make mistakes, characters who we start to hate, characters we start to love, characters we start to pity and cry for. Everyone’s flawed and human. And that has to be what I love the most about this book. This was so much more than a story about a rabid dog.

My first Stephen King book, and it won’t be my last.

After reading this I'm reminded that Stephen King can write stories based in actual reality, not just absolute nonsense like "Insomnia."

This was my Stephen King book for July. I didn't have any time to read in the month of August due to personal issues. This book was not my favorite King story. Though it has many awesome moments (the monster in the closet has always stuck with me since I skimmed that chapter back in high school) much of the book is taken up with business meeting jargon and a fairly boring infidelity subplot. I think this would have been much better had King cut it down into a short story. Ironically, the character you feel for the most is Cujo. He's more interesting and memorable than the fairly standard main characters. Though I loved the bits from Cujo's point of view, showing his mind slowly deteriorating and the small subplot of the kid seeing the monster in the closet (seriously, what was that thing?) I can't deny that large chunks of this novel got to be a little boring. Not the worst King book, but not nearly one of the best.

All the logic in the world could not blunt the pain. Logic could not blunt her terrible sense of personal failure. Only time would do those things, and time would do an imperfect job. So fucking bleak. The first half or so reads like a soapy small town drama (a good one), and the back half is what you remember from the film. I really enjoyed this one. The scope is small, it gets a little wordy with some of the advertising subplot, but that does a good job of speaking to the larger theme of the secrets people keep. ”Nope, nothing wrong here.” My favorite aspect is the idea of how the breakdown of communication and the smallest choices lead to a life and death situation. If people were honest earlier, if someone had believed what they were being told, if they knew the reality of the situation and weren’t caught up in their own shame, if the car hadn’t had a faulty needle valve, if Cujo hadn’t seen that rabbit, etc. Call it fate, destiny, bad luck, or the indifference of the universe. The consequences of those things are delivered with brute reality and don’t feel out of tone with the story being told. It’s an unreal situation that ultimately feels believable. Cujo serves as a way of forcing people to deal with reality and brings their secrets into the light of day. The two of them had discovered it was all right to open the closets...as long as you didn't poke too far back in them. Because things might still be lurking there, ready to bite.

Absolutely amazing. I have no words. Kept me up at night I couldn't put it down.

This book isn't really about Cujo. It's about family and community and how to keep going when everything goes wrong. And, yes, it's really sad.

Cujo, prometo ponerle tu nombre a mi primer perro.

Stephen King has a talent of taking ordinary things and turning them into terrifying nightmares. Who would have thought that a sick dog, a junky car, and a number of miscommunications can create a perfect storm of trouble? King uses some light supernatural elements to set up the atmosphere, and I thought that certainly turned the novel up a notch in fear factor. On the other hand he grounds the book with a sympathetic central villain - a rabid dog, - who by no fault of his own descends into madness.

Okay, Steve. REALLY? A fucking rabid dog?! A...rabid...fucking...dog?? Oooh, scary! This must've been one of your drunk years. Otherwise, you would've realized what a dumb fucking idea this book was.

Okay! I will say it, I hated Donna and I had some issues with Charity and the way she wanted to control Brett. But... This book is terrific, everything about Stephen King's writing is amazing. 60℅ of the book gave me anxiety and chilled me to the bone because this can happen in real life. I was a little confused with the Frank Dodd plot.

just couldn't really get into this book

Estoy entre un 3.5 y 4 Ya extrañaba leer a King y con este libro recordé el porque me gusta leerlo... Si bien es una historia sencilla que tarda mucho (para mi gusto) en desarrollar a la mitad del libro toma un ritmo que hace que no quieres despegarte. SPOILER Y solo King puede escribir de un perro rabioso, con una madre y un hijo encerrados en un carro, sin agua, comida y con un calor de muerte y tenerte con la incertidumbre de que va pasar con ellos si alguien va ir a ayudarlos, y por otra parte ver como los están buscando y creando un montón de teorías que algunas no cuadraban en nada. Y me daban ganas de sacudir a Vic para que recordar el fallo del pinto, aunque después si lo recordó aunque algo tarde. Bannerman que idiota, bien merecido lo que le pasó. Y lo que pasó casi al final me sorprendió muchísimo, me dejo fría lo leí varias veces... tenía la esperanza.

** spoiler alert ** I'm fucking raging. How dare he? I LOVED HIM!

Deliciously harrowing.

4 starts Well damn, that was a ride... This was nothing like I was expecting, but addicting nonetheless. I read this in two sittings, I couldn't put it down.

** spoiler alert ** WHAT THE HELL WHY DID TAD HAVE TO DIE???? AFTER ALL THAT????

I wasn't expecting this book to make me cry but omg 😭😭 I have found with the Stephen King's books I've read so far that I either absolutely love them or hate them (*cough* *cough* Carrie *cough*). I am a big dog lover so this book hit different, Stephen King really is not afraid to go into those dark corners that other authors usually won't touch which sometimes makes things really interesting and sometimes makes things downright disturbing. I've only read Pet Semetary, Carrie (yawn) and Cujo and Cujo has earned second place after Pet Semetary which is one of my favourite books of all time. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars from me!

Thanks to Scribd, I've been able to listen to a lot of Stephen King books, and my goal is to read all of his works. I have realized, as many will when they actually read King novels instead of listening to condensed hype, that his works are dramatic, often supernatural suspense stories instead of horror. I don't necessarily dislike the drama, story-driven, theatrical side of his stories, but sometimes they are unenjoyable compared to his riveting plots involving supernatural metaphors and symbolism. Cujo isn't just about a rabid dog. It's about two couples and their family, both with a young son. There's a father trying to pursue a failing sale with his friend, cereal a1nd Mr. Cereal Professor, and his wife who he finds out is cheating on him. They have a son who thinks there's a yellow eyed monster in his closet. There is also a man in their town, what's-his-name and I'm sorry because it's been a few hours since I finished and knowledge leaves me when I'm free of capitalism. He repairs cars and what-not, and he's a mean old bastard who puts his hands on his wife and is everything a millennial hates in a father. Their son is a bit older than the latter family's child. This wife wins the lottery and goes on a trip with the kid to try and save whatever relationship she has with him, while her husband takes it away daily. These two families meet and Hell literally breaks lose. I enjoy King's writing, and you can look back on my older reviews to see how I feel about it, and I love how vividly he describes relationships and characters, even the ones that don't matter and only appear shortly, how well he creates them and molds them. The events fold out, however, It would be a five star review if I didn't continuously lose track of certain character's POVs, if I hadn't been so frustrated with a certain detective who says, "But where's her damn car?" Every two seconds... This could have been amazing. I really did enjoy listening to this, could have done without some filler information regardless if it seeped into the plot later on... It was good, it made me emotional, and I'll keep reading his books. I recommend this for people who like family dramas with rabid animals killing people and intense moments of psychological horror.