Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (2017 prompt - a book from a nonhuman perspective)


TW: Harm to animals, harm to children, violence, gore, racism, sexism, infidelity



Stephen King's Cujo is a classic in terms of horror. Even not having read the book or seen the film, most people would likely associate the name Cujo with a horrible monster of a dog. There's a reason this book is a classic - it's haunting, terrifying, and outright sickening.


There's a lot of bad luck going 'round the small town of Castle Rock. There's infidelity, a downturn in business, toxic masculinity, emotional abuse, a monster in the closet. Not to mention it wasn't very long ago a police officer was found guilty of the brutal murder of multiple women and girls in the town. Now there's a different monster in town, one that used to be so innocent. When Very Good Boy Cujo chases a rabbit down a hole, his life changes for the worst, and the town along with it. 



This book was likely the least supernatural King book I read. There's just a touch of supernatural within the pages, and it could be argued there's none at all. I've seen the movie version, years back, and for the most part, remembered the plot. But I was severely shocked multiple times throughout the novel, which I'm unsure of the attribution - did I forget these integral pieces of the story or was it actually different? I'll definitely have to rewatch to find out. Either way, this book made me sick to my stomach at times because it is horrid, in a way that's terrific for a horror story, but would be seriously traumatic in real life. Stephen King certainly knows how to creep into the crevices of your imagination and scare the living daylights out of you.





I would 100% not recommend this book to anyone with children, which may be safe to say for mostly any King novel. As always, his character development is otherworldly, almost to a fault. There's so much back story, so much detail and history, it can almost spin you into a web of this world he's built. It's truly genius, because you'll forget about the horrid details of one piece of the horror tale while getting lost in the totally realistic horror of other family dynamics. He really is the master of horror, and this novel is on par with his others. Terrifying, nightmare-inducing, gorey horror.

Sleep with the lights on, and maybe put your pup in a different room for the night.



Goodreads rating: ★★★★★