by Jay Wilburn
The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s novels and collections in their order of publication. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance set out the challenge for himself and invited others to join in. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my long fiction and storytelling. I think there are secrets to be discovered or rediscovered in it, too. As Chizmar posts his after read posts and Bev Vincent posts his accompanying history, I will add links to those in my corresponding posts.
Here is Bev Vincent’s historic essay.
Here are Richard Chizmar’s thoughts.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
Much of what I write in these posts will really be notes for me. I will do my best to make them into coherent observations for you. I will also style my comments to be as spoiler free as possible for those who haven’t read the book, but in a way which will also work for those who have read the books. Be warned though that I am discussing the content of the book and the writing.
Let’s be ready as the Moon grows fat every month of the Werewolf Cycle …
“The Moon grows fat in every one …” A threat in any story about werewolves. I find myself searching every corner of every illustration for hidden clues. October is my favorite title lead plate illustration.
I read this all on Christmas Eve. I took a break for Christmas Eve dinner and finished it up before time to stuff the stockings.
It is set over 1984 with an alternate universe schedule for full Moons, although King addresses this in the author’s note about having taken these liberties with the calendar. Another liberty, or possibly a screw-up, is that the artist included a picture of a Baptist minister wearing a priest’s collar which Baptist ministers don’t do in any sub-denomination of Baptists I’m aware of. Many Baptists are religiously phobic of anything remotely Catholic.
It’s written in present tense which I’ve always found tricky for me in storytelling both as a reader and a writer. The writer protagonist of “The Body” had a present tense story he wrote while young, but then after sharing it, called it a technique of inexperienced writers. King might be having an internal argument there. Maybe part of writing Cycle of the Werewolf this way is about proving something to himself.
Grace Baptist Church is used as a name again. There are a lot of churches named this across Stephen King’s world.
The slow reveal of the creature over the monthly vignettes is performed well in an economy of space that is not typical of King’s storytelling. Characters mentioned in one short line in one section are chewed apart in later installments. It serves to make their presence in the story fuller and deeper than would normally be, if they only got mentioned as they were exiting.
The longest vignette yet brings us our first unlikely survivor. A clue about who the “killer” must be after the fireworks incident isn’t put together before we lose another character to the monster.
Twice, King uses “He forgot all about …” for several items in a row as a character experiences ultimate terror.
“There’s been enough. Time this thing was ended,” a few characters decide.
A character wears a “Don Post” Yoda mask. I had to look up Don Post to find out he made the first latex masks several decades earlier.
The werewolf was revealed and we kind of saw him earlier without realizing. King described the internal feelings and thoughts of a werewolf as well as he has ever described anything. By that, I mean he describes many things very well in his work, and this description from inside the werewolf’s head is some of the best.
The description of sisters within the family dynamic in this story echoes the sisters in Christine that I just finished reading. By sisters, I mean siblings not nuns. I’m sure he could describe nuns just fine too, if he wanted.
This is a great story. I wish I had found it sooner. My next post will be Before Pet Sematary which will be linked on Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
— Jay Wilburn, sorely lacking in silver bullets
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