Cycle of the Werewolf

A good book to read in one sitting, and a fun one too. If you're looking for good illustrations and gore, Steven King and the illustrator know how to deliver it. Hard to tell you much more than give it a read because it's a good one. ( )

One of King's slighter efforts, but it distills a lot of his recurrent themes in quite a tasty, takeaway-meal fashion: the intrusion of the horrific into recognisable (stereotyped?) small-town America; an omnipotent narrator laying bare the unhappinesses and cruelties of people you'd otherwise have walked past on the street; and a big ol' dog. ( )

2.5 ( )

Credo sia il peggior King mai letto… il mio amore per i lupi mannari (che in questa edizione a volte diventano maRinari) e la sua incredibile brevità mi han portato a terminarlo ma… beh… meh… ( )

This one is actually more of a two-star read. The ONLY reason it pulls a four from me is because of Berni Wrightson's as usual gorgeous artwork.

But the story has so many fatal flaws that it's just not a good read. The hero of the piece--aside from a single mention earlier on--doesn't show up until the seventh of the twelve chapters. The man who is the werewolf is the only other character who is brought onstage and doesn't get killed, so it becomes ridiculously obvious in the early chapters who the werewolf is.

And in between, we're fed a hastily-sketched character who is simply there to get in the path of the titular werewolf, and to die in grisly fashion. King's version of a red shirt.

While there's the odd little King flourish here and there, for the most part, he was really slumming here. This is a paint-by-numbers horror tale that was, uncharacteristically for King, mostly about the gore.

I would have loved to have seen what he would have done with this given some more time and more pages. This could have been a new classic werewolf story just as his [b:'Salem's Lot|5413|'Salem's Lot (The Illustrated Edition)|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320478491s/5413.jpg|40802405] is a modern classic vampire story.

One of King's first major misses, as far as I'm concerned. ( )