Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephan King

Coming off of Rawhead Rex, I was a bit eager to sink into something more familiar.  I've only read one other King story (The Shinning from last semester) but I was curious to see what he could do with a traditional monster like werewolves.  He didn't disappoint.

First, the formatting.  This is probably my favorite aspect of the book.  The twelve short chapters following the twelve months.  The artwork.  Even the way he played with moon cycles to line them up with important days of each month were great.  And then there's his writing.  It sucked me in just as effectively in a few pages as it did in a few hundred.  Though he doesn't spend more time with most of his characters than Barker does with his in Rawhead Rex, he does eventually pick one.  Which makes the story infinitely more interesting.  Marty becomes that main character, the one you can get behind and root for.  He's immediately endearing, both in the way he needs the 4th of July and in his pure determination.  The fact that he is handicapped and still manages to fight off the beast is just icing on the cake for me.

But this is a class on monsters.  So how well is the werewolf done?  In the end he is pretty typical.  Slain by a silver bullet, shifting with the moon, all the usual tropes.  The one twist I found that interested me was the way it began to make the Reverend feel.  He didn't want to get rid of it.  Even after he knew what was going on, he made excuses to himself to keep it.  It was God's will after all.  This emotional twist was great.  As was the cause of the change in the first place.

But really this book is about the town, and the way the beast changes them.  Especially Marty.  And in that sense, King did an excellent job.  A really great read.