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Cujo

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 88,255 ratings · 1,229 reviews

Cujo slept.

He lay on the verge of grass by the porch, his mangled snout on his fore-paws. His dreams were confused, lunatic things. It was dusk, and the sky was dark with wheeling, red-eyed bats. He leaped at them again and again, and each time he leaped he brought one down, teeth clamped on a leathery, twitching wing. But the bats kept biting his tender face with their sh...more

Hardcover, 319 pages

Published September 8th 1981 by Viking Press (first published January 1st 1981)

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Aug 20, 2007 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dog owners and claustrophobics.

I'm guessing that many of you own or have owned a dog at some point in your life. And, i'm also guessing that you'd consider said dog to be loyal to you and part of your family. So, I ask you, can you possibly imagine what you'd do if your dog went rabid?

Pooch would lose his appetite. Start to become easily confused. Tired. His brain would melt and with that he'd forget about you. Forget the loyalty and love he held for you.

He'd feel intense pain.

In his eyes YOU would become the reason that he f...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Cujo more upon re-reading it than I remembered. I think that the first time that I read it, I was too young at the time to really have a solid understanding of just how screwed up the Trenton's life is becoming before their dealings with a rabid dog.

Cujo is maybe not the most action-packed King novel, I think only four people die in the entire novel. Most of the horror is derived in the tension and frustration involved in the situations that the characters are thrust into. Cujo is a tr...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Nov 28, 2007 Jessica Phillip rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Stephen King fans

Shelves: horror

Cujo slept.
He lay on the verge of grass by the porch, his mangled snout on his forepaws. His dreams were confused, lunatic things. It was dark, and the sky was dark with wheeling red-eyed bats. He leaped at them again and again, and each time he leaped he brought one down, teeth clamped on a leathery, twitching wing. But the bats kept biting his tender face with their sharp little rat-teeth. That was where the pain came from. That was where all the hurt came from. But he would kill them all. He...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Gag.

I thought about just leaving that one word as my review. Or maybe adding "nuff said" as they used to say in Marvel Comics when i was "younger". I thought maybe though you'd like more.

I hate it. This is one of those books I can't say enough about...enough bad that is. You like being depressed? You like looking for the worst? Your real life doesn't have enough CRAP happening in it so you want to add more??? Well, then you've found it. If you are the kind of person who says that novels should r...more

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Oct 12, 2009 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, author_american, fiction, horror, read_in_2009, reviewed, setting_us, 4_stars, gave_away, banned-challenged

Do we all know the basic story of Cujo? Big, lovable St. Bernard gets rabies and goes on a rampage. That's it. Sounds so simple, and it mostly is, but King can tell one heck of a story.

Really, this was about 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding it up because I read it without once closing it, in one 12-hour night shift, without even thinking about getting tired. In fact, I found myself idly wandering around the office, doing things that needed to be done, holding this book in one hand and working...more

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Dec 13, 2007 Zack rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Oh I don't know

Damn this is not what everyone said it would be! I appreciate good suspense, but trust me, after 50 pages in that frickin' car, you get pretty bored.
It started out awesomely, with Cujo getting bit and going slowly rabid. He kills a few, and then I said, "Yes! Here comes the good part!" but that was the end of the good part. It became such a boring book, it was hard to get through.
The sideplots were lacking, especially the cereal crap. I was sick of business. Where's the suspense? I could've pick...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Eva rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stephen King is known in the horror genre as being one of the best authors. I tend to agree with that, but sometimes the idea for the horror is very similar from book to book. It is almost always some sort of horrifying scene or monster that is all very unlikely to happen in real life, so it's easier to remember that it is just a story. Cujo was a different kind of horror and a different kind of monster. Cujo is a dog that becomes rabid and kills. Simple as that. It's real, and most definitely c...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Steen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-books, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 21, 2013 Konstanze rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

This is the second Stephen King that I've read, the first being Carrie (which I absolutely enjoyed). However, I found the book to be both taxing and interesting to read. If it weren't for my goal of finishing more books this month, I might have dropped Cujo off my reading list.

For those who are expecting thrills and action all throughout, you're going to have to read through two-thirds of the book before Cujo takes the center stage. That said, there are times when I wondered whether the story's...more This is the second Stephen King that I've read, the first being Carrie (which I absolutely enjoyed). However, I found the book to be both taxing and interesting to read. If it weren't for my goal of finishing more books this month, I might have dropped Cujo off my reading list.

For those who are expecting thrills and action all throughout, you're going to have to read through two-thirds of the book before Cujo takes the center stage. That said, there are times when I wondered whether the story's about the two families or the rabid dog. But Cujo's short appearances amidst the ocean of family problems compelled me to read further, hoping for the climax every time I pass through a line break. (By the way, there are no chapters in this book. Fortunately, line breaks are present to serve as POV changes.)

The way Stephen King writes his action scenes gets you going, and you won't be disappointed. Instead of simply saying "blood," he twists words in ways that you'd stop to visualize (and perhaps gag at the thought). In a sense, he dances with words and paints a masterpiece when a scene arises. However, there are numerous times when he'd ramble on and on with unnecessary details, weakening the overall punch that Cujo has to deliver.

This, of course, it's just my opinion. My interest while reading this book is like an ocean wave. Or a zigzag line. Thrilled, bored, (sometimes on the verge of discontinuing), then thrilled, bored, and "meh." I tried to really get into the book; but it took me a couple days in between before I finally finished this. Was the ending worth it? The horror does it job; besides, it's Stephen King, so not everyone ends up happy. Sure, the action doesn't leave you behind; but the long introduction (and everything before the climax) journey could have taken less time to finish.

If I had really crossed this book off my reading list, I might have given this a flat two. But since the falling action and the denouement was written impressively, I'll give it a two-point-five. There's no option for that in the ratings, so I'll round it off to a three. This is a book that I won't be picking up again for a long, long time, however.(less)

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May 10, 2013 Thad Castle added it

The book "Cujo" by Stephen King is an amazing thriller. It gives great points of view and the characters are developed perfectly. It shows that you can't trust anyone, not even your best friend.

In the book "Cujo" It describes the actions taken by a friendly dog when it develops rabies. It is from the point of view of two families, Vic, Tad, and Donna Trenton, a simple family living in Castle Rock Colorado, and Charity, Brett, and Joe Camber, and their dog Cujo.

I commonly get excited when I know...more

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May 09, 2013 David Roberts rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am reviewing the novel Cujo by Stephen King which is an excellent horror novel which I bought from Amazon. They made a film from this novel which I saw a long time and it's a very good film but the part of the dog with rabies was played I think by a rottweiler but in the book it's a saint bernard. The dog in the film would probably frighten the audience but the meaning of the story which is about a nice dog being affected by rabies and turning nasty is changed. The plot in the book is a dog ca...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Josh Chen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Suspense That Keeps You on the Edge of Your Seat

Glooming eyes in the closet and a staring face upon the window, Stephen King has shown us the true meaning of fear through the short novel Cujo. “Cuuuuuujo! Cuuuuuuujo!” In the cool summer breeze, a high-pitched call of a skinny and fluffy haired boy sounded through the streets and woods of a small town. The 200-pound Saint Bernard huffed-and-puffed whilst it staggered towards the screeching boy. THE BOY is the one causing all my pain was the one a...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read a few Stephen King before and have quite a number more lined up on my bookcase to finally get through at some point. I recently picked this one off the shelf purely because it was one of the smaller ones and I wanted something that would fit nicely into my bag so I could read it on the lunch break at work.

Being written in the early 80's you can see numerous things that really date this book - a big one being stuck in a car with no way of alerting someone to your whereabouts, well prett...more I've read a few Stephen King before and have quite a number more lined up on my bookcase to finally get through at some point. I recently picked this one off the shelf purely because it was one of the smaller ones and I wanted something that would fit nicely into my bag so I could read it on the lunch break at work.

Being written in the early 80's you can see numerous things that really date this book - a big one being stuck in a car with no way of alerting someone to your whereabouts, well pretty much everyone has mobiles nowadays and I'm sure I remember hearing you can call the emergency services without signal so the only way you could work that now would be for them to a) not own a mobile (unlikely) b) to have forgotten it or c) for the battery to have died. I did find myself thinking that that book would have been over a lot quicker if a mobile phone had been around! Aside from that it's stood up to the test of time quite well as technology isn't overly referenced.

Another thing that did get to me a bit, and I have found this with other King novels, is that he sometimes gets overly wrapped up in descriptions - there is a point fairly early on where he witters on for pages describing different ads one of the main characters companies has done in that past and it just isn't necessary, a description of one or two would have been more than enough to set the scene. I found myself getting a bit bored in these parts and willing on more of the action...

...which to be honest didn't start until about half way through the book, and didn't really pick up pace until the last third. Once it got there though, it was a page turner and kept you going right up to the end.

As an animal lover I was slightly wary about reading this - I knew it was about a rabid dog and I thought it might upset me in parts, especially as the dog has his own voice throughout the book, but while I sympathised with the situation and really felt for what happened to Cujo, I didn't find it too upsetting so I wouldn't say you should necessarily avoid reading this if you love animals.

What I do like about Stephen King is that he's not one for happy endings, that's not how real life works and I always feel cheated by books where everything works out alright in the end. In this respect Stephen King doesn't disappoint, he keeps you guessing right up to the end, but works it out in a way that feels quite realistic.

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Nov 19, 2012 Chris Querrard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes good things can turn bad especially in Cujo by Stephen King. Cujo is set in Castle Rock, Maine. Cujo starts off with a boy named Tad Trenton. Tad being only four years old sees an evil figure in his closet at night and screams for his parents Donna and Vic Trenton. They show Tad that what he is seeing isn’t real and it’s his mind playing tricks on him or is it? Tad’s family meets a friendly Saint Bernard owned by Joe, Charity, and their son Brett Camber. Cujo enjoys roaming around and...more Sometimes good things can turn bad especially in Cujo by Stephen King. Cujo is set in Castle Rock, Maine. Cujo starts off with a boy named Tad Trenton. Tad being only four years old sees an evil figure in his closet at night and screams for his parents Donna and Vic Trenton. They show Tad that what he is seeing isn’t real and it’s his mind playing tricks on him or is it? Tad’s family meets a friendly Saint Bernard owned by Joe, Charity, and their son Brett Camber. Cujo enjoys roaming around and is a good dog until he chases a rabbit into a hidden cave. Barking at the rabbit, he wakes a group of bats in which one bits him on his muzzle. Little did Cujo know that he was not a good dog anymore and an evil coursed through him. Changing internally, he first attacked Gary Pervier because he meant nothing to him. Next it attacked Joe Camber. Finally, Donna and tad Trenton went to go see Joe Camber. Cujo sat at the Camber’s house watching the car pull up and die down with its screeching noise. Cujo only wanted to kill and attempted to kill Donna and Tad but they were only slightly safe in their dead car. After awhile Donna went out to try and grab a weapon to fight off the dog and was mauled and injured. Eventually an officer named George Bannerman went to go investigate the missing women and boy and was attacked and killed by Cujo. As time slowly ticked and the cloudy red eyes of Cujo mocking Donna she ran for the base ball bat and confronted Cujo for the last time.

Cujo was a good book. Although it was a little difficult to understand at times and dragged on a bit. The scenes with Cujo fighting were filled with action and gore. Stephen King uses very descriptive language to capture the reader into a visualization of the scene as if you were watching a movie. He is not afraid to go into great detail of what is happening unlike other authors. I would recommend this book to horror fans because this book belongs in that category. What makes the book scary is the way he leaves these gruesome images in the readers mind. What makes the book even better is that it is set toward a “real” world not an imaginary place in the authors mind. Stephen King uses things such as Star Wars and cars such as a Jaguar. The best part is even though this is a fictional book, it really could happen which creates an ominous scene.
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Oct 16, 2012 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Late this summer, I re-read a few old Stephen King novels. I was intrigued to see what held up and what didn't. I admire King. He is prolific and dedicated to the life of an artist and author. I find his world fascinating and I think a lot of his work stands the test of time.

But not Cujo. Oh, dear. This book, in more ways than one, turned my stomach.

He has said he wrote this drunk and fucked up. It shows. The world is so dark, so evil and so mean, it is utterly without redemption. I don't mind t...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Crysalis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Per essere sinceri, la storia di "Cujo" non colpisce certo per la sua originalità o per i suoi temi innovativi. La storia del cagnolone buono che viene morso da animaletto con la rabbia e comincia a seminare il terrore nella sua zona, non è nè nuova nè vecchia. Fa parte del bagaglio culturale di ognuno di noi, credo.
Ciò non toglie però che come sempre King riesce ad avvincere il suo lettore, coinvolgendolo in una serie concatenata di eventi e coincidenze che porteranno fino allo spasimo la situa...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Lucas Rodriguez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cujo: antigua palabra india que significa 'fuerza imparable'. Ya con ese prontuario uno sabe pordónde va a transitar el libro del tío Stephen. Escrito durante sus años de gloria, donde también la fama le costó un alto precio, ya que el mismo King asegura que poco y nada se acuerda de haber escrito este libro debido a la pesada influencia del alcohol en su vida durante esos momentos. Pero, si tenemos en cuenta la calidad del libro y las condiciones bajo las que fue escrito, hay que hacerle un mon...more Cujo: antigua palabra india que significa 'fuerza imparable'. Ya con ese prontuario uno sabe pordónde va a transitar el libro del tío Stephen. Escrito durante sus años de gloria, donde también la fama le costó un alto precio, ya que el mismo King asegura que poco y nada se acuerda de haber escrito este libro debido a la pesada influencia del alcohol en su vida durante esos momentos. Pero, si tenemos en cuenta la calidad del libro y las condiciones bajo las que fue escrito, hay que hacerle un monumento porque es un trabajo bastante sólido con los muchos toques macabros con los que el autor se ha hecho su fama.

El hecho principal que actúa como disparador de la novela es sencillo y a la vez, francamente fascinante: persiguiendo un conejo, el San Bernardo Cujo mete la cabeza en una pequeña cueva, donde un par de murciélagos lo muerden y lo contagian de rabia. Tan simple como eso y ya tenemos la receta para el horror casi lista. Por otro lado, los protagonistas en el centro del huracán son la familia Trenton: el papá, Vic, dueño de una firma de propagandas que está por irse al garete con un problemita que tuvieron los cereales que ellos patrocinaron; la mamá Donna que, aburrida de su vida de ama de casa comienza un affair algo turbio con el semental del pueblo, y el pequeño Tad, que le teme a una criatura escondida en su ropero. Claro, hay más personajes en el ruedo (la familia Camber, dueña de Cujo son los secundarios más relevantes) y cada uno se mueve cual ficha de ajedrez para que la situación asfixiante sea propicia: Donna y Tad, encerrados en su auto, a merced de los ataques incontrolables de un rabioso Cujo.

Hasta llegar a ese momento crucial en el libro, King se encarga de construir una historia para los personaje principales: si bien la novela por momentos sigue la odisea de Vic Trenton de mantener su firma intacta con el problema de los cereales, el mayor peso dramático recae en Donna, la esposa infiel, quien piensa que el ataque del perro y todo lo que les sucede es un castigo divino por haber traicionado a su esposo. No sólo es eso, sino que la explicación de la infidelidad no la justifica, sino que la hace más humana, frente a su marido y al lector; por otro lado, Charity Camber tiene una historia secundaria enfrentando al retrógrado de su marido, un neandarthal social que pretende arrastrar a su hijo Brett hacia una vida vacua y sinsentido. Yo no sé qué habrá estado tomando King mientras escribía, pero ha debido de ser alcohol del bueno, porque los personajes son fascinantes y están bien construídos.

Una vez llegados a la trampa del auto, King se desata de nuevo provocando una vorágine de horror y confinamiento muy bien narrados, tanto desde el punto de vista de Donna y su hijo encerrados en el auto, como tomando el punto de vista de Cujo, quien necesita atacar a esas personas dentro del auto, a las que cree, fueron causantes de su situación actual. No puedo dejar de expresar la genialidad con la cual narra la historia desde el punto de vista del perro, llamando a los personajes HOMBRE, MUJER y NIÑO con mayúsculas. Aplaudo este recurso narrativo. No hay muchas muertes en el libro, la mayoría son esperables pero la última, con eso King se despide brutalmente con un toque de ironía y mala leche que no pensé que iba a suceder. Es triste, pero encaja dentro del horror que pretende demostrar el libro.

Dos años después de la salida del libro se realizó una adaptación fílmica del libro con Dee Wallace como Donna Trenton; la película me pareció francamente fascinante ya que adapta muy fielmente la historia del libro, con algunos cambios menores para darle un poco más de acción y suspenso a la cosa, y también un cambio radical en el final, cortesía del propio King (quien ayudó en la escritura del guión de la película), que luego de muchos años decidió ser un poco más benévolo con el final. Ambos, el libro y la película, fueron vastamente infravalorados, ya que presentan grandes trabajos de la mente del Maestro del Terror.(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Alex rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Name: Alex Koepke
Class: Language Arts
Block: B
Date: 5 - 31 - 12

Cujo by Stephen King

Cujo by Stephen King is a very repetitive novel that has many interesting ideas. Due to poor execution these fall flat leaving the reading with only bits and pieces of an impressive book scattered across an ocean of repetition and poor writing.

Cujo by Stephen King is about former Camber’s family dog Cujo turning into a ferocious killer. The story begins with King talking about Frank Dodds a local serial killer wh...more Name: Alex Koepke
Class: Language Arts
Block: B
Date: 5 - 31 - 12

Cujo by Stephen King

Cujo by Stephen King is a very repetitive novel that has many interesting ideas. Due to poor execution these fall flat leaving the reading with only bits and pieces of an impressive book scattered across an ocean of repetition and poor writing.

Cujo by Stephen King is about former Camber’s family dog Cujo turning into a ferocious killer. The story begins with King talking about Frank Dodds a local serial killer who killed himself before he was arrested. Then it abruptly changes settings to a little boy’s room where a monster in his closet tells him that he is Frank Dodds and that he will eat up the boy whose name is Tad. After several loud screams Tad’s parents come in and calm him down. They tell him it was all a dream and to go back to sleep. The next day an old dog by the name of Cujo chases a rabbit down to a cave where Cujo gets stuck. Instinctively Cujo barks frightening a bunch of bats who attack him. One of the bats are able to get a grip on Cujo biting him contracting rabies. A few days later Donna Tad’s mother is having car trouble. Her husband Vic is also having trouble. A new cereal he helped produce makes all extremities such as vomit and feces turn red. This causes the company name to be disgraced since many parents thought that their kids were bleeding internally. Over the course of the next few days Cujo begins to act strange until he foams at the mouth and sets out to kill any living thing he can find. Eventually Vic has to go on a business trip related to the incident at the same time that Donna has to go to the same garage as Cujo to get her car repaired. Before Donna can get out of the car Cujo tries to attack them. Soon heat puts Tad into a respiratory attack killing him. Frustrated and pained Donna sets out to kill Cujo. Successful in her indevers she is taken to a hospital where her rabies is treated.

I was really expecting something else when I picked up this books. After having watched the movie and reading the back of the book I thought that I was going to get a psychological thriller that would frighten me with a realistic approach to a horror book. Instead I was greeted to a book that completely throws basic grammar out the window, spends more time talking about cereal than Cujo, and has has a car sequence so long that it makes me hate cars. Before I get ahead of myself I would like to acknowledged that Steven King did start out with a good idea. Make a book about something that could really happen. Since plenty of dogs do have rabies it’s likely enough to send a chill down your spine since this isn’t like reading the shining, Carie, or Pet Semetary where the events could never happen.(That is unless you believe in ghosts, telekinesis, or reanimating the dead) The problem is that their are so many fewer moments with Cujo than there is with Vic talking about cereal. While, I would never read this book again I would have to say the moments with Cujo outside of the car are amazing, especially the final battle between Donna and Cujo. It helps show what fear and hatred can do to a person. King brings personality to Cujo and shows the struggle he goes through with his rabies. He does this by giving Cujo a conscience where he talks like you or I would. It’s really interesting to hear from the monsters point of view instead of Cujo just killing people. While I do like the parts with Cujo in them the section of the book with Donna and Tad in the cars goes on for far to long. The first two chapters are really well written. By the fifth chapter you want to cry. It could just be me but I don’t understand why Donna didn’t just do something in the first place while she still had strength. For some reason she decided to stay in a car while a rabid dog tries to break their car. Had she done something she may have been able to safe Tad and not have broken bones and scars for the rest of her life. As I stated in my opening paragraph, King throws grammar out the window. Not only is the writing strange he mainly addresses people by his or hers. This can get really confusing when you have three guys in the same room talking to each other. While , we are on the subject of grammar King doesn’t use chapters for Cujo. This made it really hard to be able to reread a part that you liked to get better understanding plus it’s just strange to not put chapters in a fiction book or any book for that matter. It’s actually kind of disappointing that a really good idea like Cujo got wasted. There is a reason for it though. After a little bit of research I found out that King made the book while he was an alcoholic. In an interview he even state that he didn’t remember writing Cujo.
All things considered for a book written by a heavy drinker this is pretty good. King finds a way to bring his horror into our everyday lives and makes the monster a character too. Just because of the scenes with Cujo other than the car I loved them all. For that I give the book a 2/10(less)

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Mar 27, 2012 Ann rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books, rws-spring-12, owned

I hated this book.

I went online to see if this was written while King was still an active alcoholic, and yes indeed. It comes out. It is a long-winded, just plain mean, drunken rant of a book. It felt very personal, like he was deliberately trying to wound himself and/or his wife. When it was published King's youngest son was 4, just like Tad. My oldest son is 4 right now, and frankly, the book made me really mad. Little kids being terrified is not my thing.

In a way, that makes Cujo very success...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Ruben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not really a fiction reading kind of guy, but I thought I would expand my genre-horizons. So, why not start with a book/author furthest from my normal routine, right? Everyone knows Stephen King, but other than seeing a TV commercial in the early 80's for the movie release, all I knew about Cujo was that it was about a rampaging dog. And when I finally read the book, my initial perceptions were confirmed: "A dog goes wild in a sparsely populated town." The main storyline itself was interesti...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Visceral, raw. In this 1981 novel, King reaches for the reader's jugular and never lets go. You have a cheating wife, a workaholic husband, a fearsome child who believes a monster lies waiting in his closet, a raging mad sex-fiend who vows to tear a family apart, an abusive and alcoholic husband, an emotionally and physically tortured wife, a confused little boy...and then you have Cujo, a friendly, gently, hulking St. Bernard who's been the victim of a nasty bat-bite. Before long, all of these...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Marcella rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 22, 2011 Marvin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, autographed

This is my pick for King's worst novel. That opinion is both subjective and objective.

First the subjective part. If you peruse my book list, you will have deducted that I am a big horror fan. But the horror of Cujo is maybe a bit too close to home. At the age of six I had my upper lip partially ripped off by a collie that attacked me for no reason. That would have been enough, but we were in a rural part of the country where it had to be sewn back on immediately by the emergency team...with none...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Michael Mckinney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've only read a few of Stephen King's canon, his nearly liturgical works, his compendium of horror, suspense, macabre, human suffering, pain and the supernatural. What strikes me with every book or short story though, is his ability to develop a psychotic and dangerous precedent for the inevitable mayhem which is to ensue. I realize this is just an employed literary device, and has all of the originality of a cheese sandwich, but his ability to accept that his work is strictly fiction, and util...more I've only read a few of Stephen King's canon, his nearly liturgical works, his compendium of horror, suspense, macabre, human suffering, pain and the supernatural. What strikes me with every book or short story though, is his ability to develop a psychotic and dangerous precedent for the inevitable mayhem which is to ensue. I realize this is just an employed literary device, and has all of the originality of a cheese sandwich, but his ability to accept that his work is strictly fiction, and utilize the base vulnerability all people have while seamlessly integrating childhood fears, supernatural caveat emptors and actual, clinical disease often leaves me feeling awestruck.
The Shining is a perfect example, and likely the only one I will present. The main character is an alchoholic, that is a given. He goes into throes of alchohol deprivation and induced paranoia, hallucinations and psychoses as the book develops, but King plays into the disease and furthers it by adding a mixture of supernaturalism and potent reality- the loss of a job, writers block and acute isolation all mix into Jack Torrance's eventual descent into madness; however, all of that is coupled with a demonically haunted hotel issuing forth its own violence, as if beckoning Jack to abandon his reality and accept its own final solution.
King's approach to Cujo is similar. There is a forementioned serial killer, a lurking monster, two children of two separate families who are both set up to lose something profound and a cast of trivial characters whose importance is only to fill plot and dialogue. Rabies is manifest in the Saint Bernard, but the coincidence which draws the victims into fatal confrontations are symptoms of King's ability to manipulate the supernatural element of his story, (Tad's lurking monster in the closet) and a serial killer whose attacks foreshadow Cujo's own rampage.
Within the story are countless examples of King's understanding of the reader's ability to question their own reality, to deduce truths which are not accurate, to second guess the solid ground on which their cognition relies. The characters within the story show clearly their own frailty and constant vulnerability in the face of imminent demise, yet question their comprehension of its reality. That sense of unknown is King's very own sickle.(less)

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Feb 15, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading "On Writing", I am embarking on a mission to re-read many of the Stephen King books I loved so much in college...has it really been almost 25 years? Yikes. So I started with Cujo and I have to say, it came close, but didn't quite hold up to my glowing memories. Yes it had King's trademark character-driven approach, which I love. Yes it was suspenseful and brutal and raw and terrifying on many levels. Yes, it was unpredictable and found a way to touch a nerve about the darkness deep...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Dalton Unruh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Im reading cujo and this book is about a St. Benard that gets rabies because he gets bit by a bat on his nose in a cave because he was chasing after a bunny rabbit and the rabbit went into a cave and he was barking and he woke the bat up and it flew down and bit him on the nose and it took a while for the rabies to kick in and the kids dad never really noticed anything until the owner went to his friends junkyard and they were making a lot of rucus and he didnt like it so like next week he came...more

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Jan 25, 2010 Phillip rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: advisory-10th

Well if anyone like to read a story about how a disease can spread around like rabies or is interested in things like that, then this is the book that is right for them. This book mainly is about a family who owns a dog that has rabies. They didn't know he had rabies which is more interesting since the family didn't get him vaccinated. This book shows how a dog can become a monster after being bitten by a rabbit and catching rabies.

I really though this book was weird in a way because usually his...more

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May 26, 2009 Graham rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

King’s addition to the glut of ‘nature runs amok’ novels that flooded the market in the early 1980s is a well-written, often engaging story that tells of a rabid dog and the people it kills. Of course, there’s much more than that, as King practices the technique (later perfected in the likes of NEEDFUL THINGS) of drawing together totally separate characters and families across a town, chronicling their everyday lives and routines before dropping them all into a blender and sitting back to see wh...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Anna rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Only sort of about a dog? I was surprised to find that the title character barely appears in the first half or so; instead there is a tremendous amount of backstory for the two main families - the middle-class Trentons and the working-class Cambers - the town of Castle Rock, and the state of Maine in general. The class difference theme isn't uninteresting, but it goes on forever when maybe a third of forever would have sufficed.

The final portion, once the action gets going, is very suspenseful....more Only sort of about a dog? I was surprised to find that the title character barely appears in the first half or so; instead there is a tremendous amount of backstory for the two main families - the middle-class Trentons and the working-class Cambers - the town of Castle Rock, and the state of Maine in general. The class difference theme isn't uninteresting, but it goes on forever when maybe a third of forever would have sufficed.

The final portion, once the action gets going, is very suspenseful. I found myself shouting at the characters, even while I had to acknowledge that they were doing what made sense for them at the time. Another theme is introduced, order and predictability upended by a chaotic element that nobody knows about until it's too late (here Cujo is compared to a policeman/serial killer who menaced Castle Rock in the past). But in the end, it's so hard to parse any kind of meaning from what happens to the various characters that the whole thing descends into nihilism.

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Stephen King Fans: CUJO	95	313	May 09, 2013 06:59am
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Chapter Chatter: What we thought - "Cujo"	6	8	Apr 14, 2013 07:41am
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Glowy Eyes--SPOILER ALERT	6	55	Nov 06, 2012 01:49pm
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About Stephen King

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of the elderly couple. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. He met Tabitha in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, where they both worked as students. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.(less)

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Quotes from Cujo

“The monster nevers dies.” — 32 people liked it

“We'll just have to get along. That's what people do, you know? They just get along. And try to help each other.” — 25 people liked it

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