KATIE MARIE

Who let the puppers out?

Today I am writing to you to talk about a well known Stephen King story.

What happens when mans best friend goes bonkers in a violent way? Well Cujo happens.

This novel was made into a well known film in 1983 and had in the previous year won the British Fantasy Award. Despite these awesome achievements King barely remembers writing this book, as it was done at the high of his personal struggles with addition. King morns the loss and has said previously that he wishes he could remember writing the good bits of this book. The book was apparently partly inspired by Kings own encounter with a large dog that was none to pleased to see him at a mechanics yard.

Summary

We open in Castle Rock, a well known town for King fans, where the Trentons have recently moved to from New York. We learn the family is none to happy, Donna the mother f the house has recently had an affair, Vic, the father, is suffering with a failing business and the four year old lad Tad is stuck in the middle of it all. Vic travels out of town for work, leaving Donna and Tad alone.

The Cambers have live in Castle Rock a long time, Joe, the father of the family is an abusive asshole to his wife Charity and their son Brett who is ten years old. Charity has come into some money and tricks Joe into letting her leave town with Brett. Jow agrees and plans his own trip with a buddy of his, Gary. While they are all getting ready for their respective trips their doggo Cujo chases a rabbit which leads to him suffering a bite from a bat and thus becoming rabid.

Cujo, even in his rabbid state is a good boy and kills the abusive asshole Joe, but also his friend Gary.

Donna brings Tad and her car to Joe’s place, as he is the local mechanic. The car breaks down on arrival and Cujo attacks while Donna is tryng to find Joe. She makes it back to the car, but Cujo is waiting outside and in the summer heat the car gets very hot. Donna tries to escape but is bitten in the stomach and leg by Cujo. The police are looking for Donna as they believe the man with whome she had ana affair ha kidnapped her and Tad. One of the deputies comes to the yard and is killed by Cujo.

Donna, fearing for her sons life, due to the increasingly hot car tries again to escape. The manages this time and kills Cujo. As the cavalry arrive it is revealed to be too late. Tad died from dehydration and heatstroke.

The book ends with the families trying to patch up their lives. Donna and Vic remain married and she compleates her treatment. Charity has given Brett a new puppy which is vaccinated. The books final lines point out that Cujo was a good doggo, but he just got sick.

My Thoughts – General 

As always I love Kings world building and his characters. That man can write mundane slice of life and keep me hanging on every word.

I also love that King points out that Cujo was not bad or evil, he was sick. It struck me as oddly sweat the extra length he went to not to demonise doggo’s.

Lastly, I enjoied that the threat in this book was multiple. Vic was obviously an asshole and Charity escaped him which is always nice to see. Cujo was an obvious threat, after all the book is named after him. But the thing that killed Tad wasn’t a monster doggo or an abusive asshole, it was the heat in the car. It added an effective ticking clock to the whole situation. They couldn’t just wait for someone with a gun to turn up, they had to get out.

My thoughts – Characters 

As always King does characters well, the man is skilled. All his charaters are three dimensional, flawed and believable. I particularly enjoied it when Donna was trapped in the car and considering making a run for the house but decided against it because she thought the door would be locked and then she’d die. She was more worried about leaving her son alone than she was dying. It made her such an empathic character.

My Thoughts – Setting 

It’s Castle Rock man, it’s gonna be good. King was well into establishing his own location for so many of his books and it pays off because every time we pick up a book set in Castle Rock we know what to expect. We know what the town looks and feels like without King have to world build every single time. It keeps the pacing lightening quick.

My Thoughts – Plot 

As with all of his stories the plot is about people. While the book might be called Cujo and on the face of it seem to be about this monster doggo (who was a good boy, just sick) its really about the people, their relationships with each other, their actions and their reactions to their circumstances.

I never read this book for the scary doggo, I read it for the characters.

The suspense is crafted masterfully, the ticking clock when Donna and Tad are in the car is very effective and raises the stakes high. They can’t stay put but they can’t leave either. Survival is always a well-used stake in horror fiction. Things don’t get much higher staked than that.

Overall, this is a simple book, but well worth your time.

Have a non rabid puppy to soothe you.