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A review by travsbookshelf
Cujo by Stephen King
4.0
After being completely spoiled by this book before ever touching it (also from watching the movie a long time ago), I went into it with low expectations. But man, was I wrong!
Reading this book completely confirms there is indeed a vast difference in simply hearing about a story on surface terms and then actually reading the words of the story to get an entirely different in-depth experience. I was very surprised at how intense, unsettling and downright scary this book is! I was floored at the graphic details throughout. Not just all the scenes relating to Cujo but for all situations involved. It brought such a realism to everything going on, although there were plenty of times there were hints of a POSSIBLE supernatural presence that presented the question of whether or not there was actual supernatural involvement or merely the element of certain characters’ fears increasingly working overtime. It was very cleverly written.
I have to admire the unique writing structure! Absolutely no chapters to separate story arcs. However, while there were still breaks in the narrative to allow story separations, writing the book as just one long, fluid story format also gave a realism to the tale.
I’m giving it 4.5 stars. It was almost perfect. Almost. The only thing that truly irritated me was the Vic Trenton/ad crisis storyline that 1) I felt was a little too long winded in spots and 2) was kind of irrelevant because of number 1. Other than that, I still very highly recommend this book and, honestly, I think would be a great Stephen King starter novel.
You can see my video review of this book here:
https://youtu.be/wxgO_1f4lCg?si=GFReyjUBKEhjWFGM
Reading this book completely confirms there is indeed a vast difference in simply hearing about a story on surface terms and then actually reading the words of the story to get an entirely different in-depth experience. I was very surprised at how intense, unsettling and downright scary this book is! I was floored at the graphic details throughout. Not just all the scenes relating to Cujo but for all situations involved. It brought such a realism to everything going on, although there were plenty of times there were hints of a POSSIBLE supernatural presence that presented the question of whether or not there was actual supernatural involvement or merely the element of certain characters’ fears increasingly working overtime. It was very cleverly written.
I have to admire the unique writing structure! Absolutely no chapters to separate story arcs. However, while there were still breaks in the narrative to allow story separations, writing the book as just one long, fluid story format also gave a realism to the tale.
I’m giving it 4.5 stars. It was almost perfect. Almost. The only thing that truly irritated me was the Vic Trenton/ad crisis storyline that 1) I felt was a little too long winded in spots and 2) was kind of irrelevant because of number 1. Other than that, I still very highly recommend this book and, honestly, I think would be a great Stephen King starter novel.
You can see my video review of this book here:
https://youtu.be/wxgO_1f4lCg?si=GFReyjUBKEhjWFGM