Hardcore Weight Loss (Thinner - Stephen King)

Member Name: wastingtime

Product:	Thinner - Stephen King
Date:	03/03/09 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable horror fiction

Disadvantages: Not the most inspired story line

Over the years I had gone through phases of being a big Steven King fan and reading all I can get my hands on, to the opposite end of the spectrum where I can go a couple of years without picking up one of his offerings. I wasn't actually aware when I picked this book up that it was a Steven King as it is written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, and author I knew literally nothing about. On closer inspection it became apparent that for a number of years King wrote under this alias - it is however quite clear to see how people could have joined the dots as the general writing style and morbid content is very similar.

This book is based around William Halleck, a successful man living in a small town where the Country Club mentality rules, the people in power all help each other and it is a very much you scratch my back I scratch yours mentality. William or Billy as he is called throughout may have enjoyed success on a financial front, he may even have a loving family at home, but his major weakness is food - eating what can only be described as a monumental amount of food daily he has developed major health risks and is in danger of having his very comfortable life cut short by his own greed.

One day while driving with his wife in the passenger seat she begins to conduct oral sex on him, at his moment of climax, clearly not concentrating on the road a gypsy girl steps out in front of his vehicle and he runs her over and kills her.

Now, because of the local system and the way the town is run any ordinary man would be sentenced to a custodial sentence and that would be in, however, thanks to the local law enforcement and the local judge who are both on good terms with Billy he manages to walk away from his crime. On leaving the courtroom Billy in confronted by a very old gypsy man who while touching his face speaks the words 'thinner' before the two are separated; this understandably spooks Billy but he doesn't give it too much attention.

Quite predictably Billy then begins to start losing weight, this comes as quite a shock as he is doing no form of exercise and he certainly is curbing his eating patterns, his wife is elated, the concerns about her husbands health begin to subside and Billy begins to behave in a much healthier way beginning to be able to do things that he has not managed in years, hill walks for instance. This is all well and good until Billy realises that he is still continuing to lose weight, he now begins to be a little bit more realistic about his predicament, speaking to local health officers and experts he tries to understand what is causing this rapid cause in his decline - what takes him a while to figure out and leaves him perplexed about how to resolve the situation is that he has been cursed!

The story itself isn't exactly a great plot line, I mean a man getting thinner cannot really be that scary or command much attention when it comes to a whole book, but thanks to Kings writing you begin to understand just how dangerous this situation is, Billy having lost so much weight is just a mass of excess flesh and he has become the local freak while trying to resolve his situation having people stop and stare at him.

It is a tremendously dark book, taking twists and turns along the way and ending in style that I had not expected, so if your a twist fan then this is a good possibility for you. All in all I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of horror fiction, it kept me interested to the very end and it restored my faith in Kings work again to the point where I will be making certain that I get through some of his more recent works when I have have finished the mass pile of books that I already have to go through.

Priced on amazon at new for £7.99 with an average rating of four and half stars out of 5.

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: New English Library; New Ed edition (1 Feb 1986)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0450058832
ISBN-13: 978-0450058837
Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.2 cm

Summary: A good effort in the Bachman/King collection