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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
title: Cujo
author: Stephen King
genre: horror
published: 1981
first line: Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.
pages: 304
rated: 4 out of 5
Cujo is one of those random books I just picked up one day at the supermarket. And being a big Stephen King fan, I usually cannot resist grabbing his books to add to my collection. Nobody can tell a good, scary story like Stephen King.
Donna and Vic Trenton are a couple who move from New York to the sleepy town of CastleRock, Maine with their young son. Tad, who is now 4 years old, often has vivid nightmares about the monster in his closet. Donna and Vic's marriage is on the rocks, Vic found out about Donna recently having an affair.
The local mechanic, Joe Cambers owns Cujo, a nearly two hundred pound, loveable, St. Bernard. Cujo contracts rabies after being bitten by bats and no one notices the dogs condition, until it's too late.
Vic is away on business for a few days. Before he leaves, he forgets to take Donna's Pinto to the Cambers house for repair. Donna decides to take the trip out to the garage with little Tad. Her pinto has been acting up and at times will stall, then completely stop. She debates going to Joe's garage with Tad, and wants to make the trip out alone, but Tad insists on going with her because he is terrified of staying home due to the nightmares he has of the monster in his closet.
So, Donna packs up Tad's Snoopy lunchbox and they head off deep into the woods where the Cambers live. Donna is hesitant to go, she can't shake off an odd feeling she has and she's been trying to call Joe Chambers house, but no one answers the phone.
The Chambers house is 5 miles outside of town, and deep inside the woods, but she figures if the Pinto breaks down, she and Tad can walk to his house and call a cab to get home.
Now, this was the part in the book where I kept thinking 'nooooooooooooo, don't go!'. Being a mom, common sense tells you to wait to get your car fixed instead of dragging your 4 year old into the sweltering heat, in a car that is breaking down and has no air conditioning, through the deep woods, to a mechanics house you barely now. Plus, set in the 80's, there's no cell phones in this story!
Donna's car officially stalls and breaks down within view of the Cambers house. She figures she and Tad will trek up the road and get Cambers to help her.
But as she gets out and starts to walk around the car to get Tad out of his carseat, she hears a deep growling.
She reached the front of the hood and started to cross in front of the Pinto, and that was when she heard a new sound. A low, thick growling.
She stopped, her head coming up at once, trying to pinpoint the source of that sound. For a moment she couldn't, and she was suddenly terrified, not by the sound itself, but by its seeming directionless. It was nowhere. It was everywhere.
Cujo is not my favorite King book, but it was a good read. There's a good dose of horror and suspense here and I enjoyed reading this one.
Cujo was made into a film in 1983, I remember seeing this when I was little and being terrified. Now the trailer just looks corny...lol.
About the author:
quoted from wikipedia
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author, screenwriter, musician, columnist, actor, film producer and director. Having sold over 350 million copies of his books, King is best known for his work in horror fiction, in which he demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the genre's history. He has also written science fiction, fantasy, short-fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, teleplays and stageplays. Many of his stories have been adapted for other media, including movies, television series and comic books. King has written a number of books using the pen name Richard Bachman and one short story where he was credited as John Swithen. In 2003 he received The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
