Preist's with wear wolf this fall. It's all the rage.
I find it a little hard to write a blog post that has to be longer than this story felt. This is a complement, not a criticism because I didn’t go into this book thinking I’d finish it in one sitting, but I did. I couldn't put it down. It was a fun and rather exciting way to experience this story. I would suggest that anyone who has not read this book to pick it up and read it from front to back in a single sitting.
This monster story was an interesting tale told through the eyes of many people in the town. It was good to see the different viewpoints as they experienced this horror that plagued their little haven. I enjoyed the hopping from month to month and didn’t feel ripped off to not have experienced the days in between, because really, when I am watching something that has to do with werewolves, I only want the changes, I don’t want the in between days where nothing happens and the town has a parade or baked bean supper. To correlate this story with a favorite TV show as a kid, I'll say this, I never watched The Incredible Hulk hoping that David would stay David the whole show.
Even though this was a monster story, I think it was geared more toward the campfires or backyard tents of boys and girls sharing scary stories. Maybe a little too gory for some children and I’ll be sure to reread it before I let my children read it. Adding to the kid appeal, the pictures were great, but on occasion, they gave away the secrets of the story. For instance, I saw the picture of the priest with the eye patch before the kid in the story did. Because of this, I was even less surprised to find out he was the werewolf. Children may not pick up on this, but it kind of took some of the mystery out of it for me. That was okay though.
I’ve read a lot of Stephen King novels and this is my one criticism, he sometimes reveals the secret or a death long before it happens. I guess we readers feel the little poke at our imagination and hopefully go running toward the inevitable, maybe it amps up the suspense knowing the character is going to die because we are waiting to see how and when and by whose hand.
I really enjoyed the narrative structure of this story. It focused on the meat of the story and nothing more. Yes, it could have been longer, we could have been jerked around more, saw the town implode as they pointed fingers and blamed transients, but I think moving to the important parts of the months was fantastic.
This story fits pretty well in the monster world even though we don’t see the monster all that often, but that’s okay. We get to see people’s reactions to the monster and that’s really what we’re here for, right? The monster was believable as a werewolf can be and I was pretty interested to see where it would go and how the monster was taken down. If I had a criticism, it would be that the monster was taken out way too easily.
On another note, I believe I saw the movie version of this book when I was little. I remember staying at a friend’s house to spend the night and his parents were a little more lax at my television viewing than my parents. Silver Bullet came on and I sat for the hour or two I could handle and then proceeded to have nightmares for the next few weeks. I couldn’t go near a window at night and peer outside for fear there was a werewolf on the other side, ready and waiting, to break through. I remember never being able to walk through a park at night without fearing there was a werewolf hiding in the bushes. I guess one of these days I’ll have to rent it or watch it if it comes on television to see if it holds the scare it did for me when I was a little kid. I doubt it.
This monster story was an interesting tale told through the eyes of many people in the town. It was good to see the different viewpoints as they experienced this horror that plagued their little haven. I enjoyed the hopping from month to month and didn’t feel ripped off to not have experienced the days in between, because really, when I am watching something that has to do with werewolves, I only want the changes, I don’t want the in between days where nothing happens and the town has a parade or baked bean supper. To correlate this story with a favorite TV show as a kid, I'll say this, I never watched The Incredible Hulk hoping that David would stay David the whole show.
Even though this was a monster story, I think it was geared more toward the campfires or backyard tents of boys and girls sharing scary stories. Maybe a little too gory for some children and I’ll be sure to reread it before I let my children read it. Adding to the kid appeal, the pictures were great, but on occasion, they gave away the secrets of the story. For instance, I saw the picture of the priest with the eye patch before the kid in the story did. Because of this, I was even less surprised to find out he was the werewolf. Children may not pick up on this, but it kind of took some of the mystery out of it for me. That was okay though.
I’ve read a lot of Stephen King novels and this is my one criticism, he sometimes reveals the secret or a death long before it happens. I guess we readers feel the little poke at our imagination and hopefully go running toward the inevitable, maybe it amps up the suspense knowing the character is going to die because we are waiting to see how and when and by whose hand.
I really enjoyed the narrative structure of this story. It focused on the meat of the story and nothing more. Yes, it could have been longer, we could have been jerked around more, saw the town implode as they pointed fingers and blamed transients, but I think moving to the important parts of the months was fantastic.
This story fits pretty well in the monster world even though we don’t see the monster all that often, but that’s okay. We get to see people’s reactions to the monster and that’s really what we’re here for, right? The monster was believable as a werewolf can be and I was pretty interested to see where it would go and how the monster was taken down. If I had a criticism, it would be that the monster was taken out way too easily.
On another note, I believe I saw the movie version of this book when I was little. I remember staying at a friend’s house to spend the night and his parents were a little more lax at my television viewing than my parents. Silver Bullet came on and I sat for the hour or two I could handle and then proceeded to have nightmares for the next few weeks. I couldn’t go near a window at night and peer outside for fear there was a werewolf on the other side, ready and waiting, to break through. I remember never being able to walk through a park at night without fearing there was a werewolf hiding in the bushes. I guess one of these days I’ll have to rent it or watch it if it comes on television to see if it holds the scare it did for me when I was a little kid. I doubt it.