Book Review: Cujo from Stephen King

(First of all I want to apologise for being absent from the platform for so long, but I was just starting my studies and it has taken me a while to organise my time and adapt, so I won't be posting as regularly as before but I will try not to be absent so much).

Technnical data:

Year of publication: 1981

Publisher: Viking Press

Pages: 320

Genere: Psychological horror, suspense

Summary (from Casa del Libro Colombia): All his life Cujo was a good dog, a big, peaceful, playful and child-loving St. Bernard. He really was a good and happy dog. Happy until something happened to him, and Cujo's dog-brain was covered with one of those blood-feeding darknesses. Now, he has become a killer dog; doubly cruel because people don't know about his mutation and still see him in his former goodness. Herald of a small apocalypse, Cujo will unleash a hurricane of panic and death on a model village.

Review:
The book already begins in itself in a disturbing way, as it tells as an introduction the story of a murderer who committed his crimes in Castle Rock (fictional town in which the story is set), and then shows us the Trenton family, who, although at the beginning seem like the typical American family that lives a happy life, in reality we are getting into their family dynamics, with things like Donna (the mother) committing infidelity, Vic (the father) suffering from a problem with some cereals manufactured by the company in which he works, In reality we get to know their family dynamics, with things like Donna (the mother) committing infidelity, Vic (the father) suffering from a problem with some cereal manufactured by the company where he works as a publicist, and Tad (the son) having nightmares and nightmares at night. On the other hand we have the Camber family (who are the owners of the dog Cujo), having a difficult family dynamic, as Joe (the father), is quite alcoholic and constantly gets angry with Charity (his wife) and handles his son Brett quite a lot.

Although to many it may seem that all the family "drama" is unnecessary and pure filler, I think it's needed to understand and relate to the characters, because as usual with King, the characters have an excellent construction. This helps to add to the feeling of dread when the furious action kicks in, which I won't describe much to avoid spoilers, I'll just say that because of a difficult situation, Donna and Tad get in trouble because of Cujo's now rabid behaviour, and this is much more distressing when you see that Vic the rest of the characters can't help them. You're really afraid of what's going to happen to Tad, since he's only four years old. It is also terrifying to see how Cujo, who before was a loving and available being for everyone around him, becomes a complete monster, but not by his own will but by nature itself, showing us how ruthless reality can be.

But without a doubt, the ending completely destroys you, being for me the best ending of Stephen King (of the books I've read so far), only behind Pet Semantary, since, as many of you know, many of King's endings are not so good, some examples that disappointed me were Buick 8 and Rage, and if they are not completely bad, it leaves the ending open, but the ending of this book is concise and closes the story, leaving you with a feeling of sadness and pessimism because of how hard it is.

Perhaps the only bad point is that the parts that show Vic's work and how he solves the company's problem are a bit slow for me, and if they cut it a bit I think it would be much better.

A curious fact is that Stephen King wrote much of this book when he was totally drugged, and he claims not to remember when he wrote the best parts of the novel.

Conclusion: This is one of the most stressful and claustrophobic books Stephen King has ever written, totally terrifying if you are afraid of terror. On the other hand, the construction of the characters is very good and you might get attached to them, and if you do the ending is going to hit you hard. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 9/10

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)