The whole story is elevated considerably by the accompanying drawings by Bernie Wrightson, the legendary comic book artist who helped create Swamp Thing, arguably mainstream comics’ greatest gift to the horror genre. The short chapters are a result of the book’s original form as a calendar with text written by King, the length of which eventually lent itself to a small novel instead.

The story spends a bit of time as a tense whodunit literally, anyone could be the wolf (who has a knack for showing up on special occasions). A werewolf is on the loose and the bodies gradually pile up, the town’s paranoia building alongside the mound of corpses.Ī serial killer who acts like an animal is what the town’s residents assume. Every month, when the full moon shines out through the blackness of the night sky, illuminating us all underneath it, someone gives in to a pang of insatiable hunger, and lo and behold, man, becomes beast. His uncle, whom he’s closer with than his own parents, encourages him to live as fully as he can, surprising him with gifts and always making him feel loved and appreciated.Īt the tender age of ten, Marty has no idea his coming of age arrives early this year. He just wants to enjoy himself like everybody else his age. Marty is an average kid who isn’t solely defined by his disability. His bravery opposes the ferocity of the beast that descends upon Tarker’s Mills. Our hero is the young, wheelchair-bound Marty Coslaw. Not even in an ideal community can you truly hide from the monsters. The lesson here is obvious: for all the happiness and serenity that comes with suburban life, there’s always something hiding under the surface. And this year, someone is hiding a particularly fucked up secret one that’s going to result in people getting killed. The darkness and death of the winter season is an omen for things to come. On a cold, snowy January, the story begins.

The American Dream takes the form of quiet home life in the Northeast. These are simple people just looking to go about their lives in peace and comfort. It’s the quintessential small town: everybody knows each other, public events are held in high regard, gossip abounds, and everybody knows their way around by heart. We set our scene (as we often do in stories written by our man Stephen King) in a town sitting comfortably within the confines of Maine this particular one is a place called Tarker’s Mills. A stellar werewolf tale that inspired a less-than-stellar 80’s film ripe for a remake, King’s “Cycle of the Werewolf” is an essential read.

Stephen king book about werewolves