Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Thinner

This book... was... fine.
I have, as of late, become quite the fan of one Stephen King. I found myself adoring his less popular works, which was the incentive for me to pick up this book.
This book takes place from the point of view of one Billy Halleck. Billy is a very well off attorney, with a wife- Heidi and a daughter- Linda.
Prior to the beginning of the story Billy accidentally hits and kills a woman while driving. After being given less than no punishment, he is given a curse by one Taduz Lamke- of "thinner". After this, Billy, a morbidly obese man, starts to lose weight at a critically fast rate. At first it is the sign of a positive change as he had dealt with being overweight for quite a long time.
But, eventually it becomes worrisome when he eats the same caloric intake but does not have any ceasing in his weight loss.
I like how King wove this story to dance on the line of medical mystery as Halleck goes to his doctor who cannot diagnose him.
It soon becomes apparent that Lamke is seeking vengeance for this entire situation when the police officer present and the presiding judge are both afflicted with some type of supernatural ailment. This leads to both of their deaths via suicide.
Billy opts to track down this traveling troupe of Romanis (called gypsies in the story). IN doing so it reveals what a fucking piece of garbage Billy Halleck is. Now, it is no secret that there are some main characters in King's works that I just do not like. Specifically Louis Creed and Paul Sheldon. But, holy shit, I don't know if there is a main character- one we are theoretically supposed to root for, who I have had more of a dislike for.
For instance, Billy goes through so much of this story bitching that his wife is not being punished for her part in the death of Taduz's daughter. It is revealed that the wife- Heidi- was giving Billy a handjob while he was driving. Would you not... I don't know... be fucking happy that your wife is escaping the hellacious fate and suffering which you are enduring?

Billy eventually tracks down the Romanis and enlists the help of his friend Richard- who is a mobster and all around dirtbag- to get the curse lifted from Billy.
He does this by... well, what you would expect. First, he poisons all of their dogs, and then, as most people would do, he takes a literal AK-47 and sneaks up to the Romani camp and opens fucking fire on them. He makes it clear that he does not kill any of the people, but, rather, destroys their homes and vehicles and terrorizes them.
Now, this eventually leads Taduz to relent and to hand over a literal pie. Whoever eats this pie will be afflicted with the curse that is lifted from Billy.
And who...

who you ask..

does william pick?

Well, obviously he does what any rational family man would pick...

His wife.

What? What the fuck? Why?

But, that is what he does. Upon arriving home he opts to give this pie to his wife, and falls asleep before he makes sure that she eats the pie.
He wakes up to find that not only did Heidi eat some of the pie, but, Linda, who had come home early, ate some of the pie- meaning that both of them are afflicted from the curse. Billy, despondent, or maybe just over everything, opts to consume some of the pie, as well- thereby undoing all of the progress which he had made.
Now, I do give King credit for sticking to the completely dismal ending of this book, but, fucking christ dude Billy SUckkkkkkssssss. He was just such a whiny fucker the whole time.
I thought that this was an entertaining read for most of the story but there were times where the brakes were slammed, and they were not eased up on at fucking all.
I am happy to have read this book but I can say with certainty that I will not ever read this again. It was scary with the whole losing weight thing, and with the uncertainty surrounding it, but, past that, nah. I also had to roll my eyes a bit about the whole "gypsy curse" thing. I know that this was more acceptable of a plotpoint back in the 1980s, apparently, but, man, this did not age well at all.

Oh well.

Content Warnings

virgoblin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

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