He really tried to be a GOOD dog

This book made me sad, upset, infuriated, and frustrated; but overall was a great story and if you get the chance to read it I highly suggest it (no surprise since as I have always stated I am a huge Stephen King fan). This was one of Stephen Kings smaller books at only 319 pages, but it still gave you the terrified bone chilling thrills. What I found truly amazing about this book was that King not only gave you the perspective of the human characters but what was also going on inside the dogs mind.

Spoilers Ahead

Lets get one thing out of the way I am a huge dog lover (if you haven't checked out my introduction blog, head over there and see my adorable pup). I absolutely adore dogs so to imagine a rabid, crazed, blood thirsty hound was a little difficult for me.

The story starts off with a murderer (Frank Dodd) who was terrorizing the women and children in the town of Castle Rock. He ends up killing himself and the whole town is relieved that their monster who haunted many of their dreams was dead. After we get the little introduction about the towns monster; four year old Tad (son of Vic and Donna) has a nightmare of his own and is awakened by a real monster in the closet who looks like half man half wolf who growls with red eyes. Tad like all kids at this age screams and alerts his parents that something is wrong. They of course close the closet door and his father (Vic) gives him the monster words to keep monsters away and tell him to go back to sleep. Of course classic Stephen King this isn't the last we see of the monster and I think that this "monster" is the spirit of Frank Dodd.

That summer Vic was having problems with his Jaguar and the town mechanic was Joe Cambers, they all decided to take a drive up there so Joe could take a look at and fix Vic's Jag. While they are up there they meet Joe's wife Charity Cambers, their son Brett, and Cujo Brett's St. Bernard (if you aren't familiar with dogs, these dogs can weigh up to 200 lbs they are huge). Donna of course was nervous of Tad going over to play with the dog because of his size, but Brett had reassured her that Cujo wouldn't harm a fly, this didn't ease her anxiety. Cujo did very well with Tad as Brett had pointed out Tad chased the dog and even road on his back like a horse and Cujo didn't show him one ounce of anger or aggression. Joe fixed the jag for an amazingly cheap price and the Trenton's went on their way back home laughing about the great time Tad had with Cujo.

That same afternoon Cujo went for a walk behind the property and got to chasing a rabbit he knew he shouldn't chase the rabbit but he did he knew he could catch it. He chased the rabbit all the way into a hole and began barking at it to try and come towards him. While Cujo was barking he awoke the bats who were sleeping inside this small hole; they began to fly around his face and he starting biting at them. Cujo ended up catching one in his mouth which tasted very badly and another had scratched his nose. He left the hole pawing at his nose and walked down to the stream to drink water and clean off the scratch he went back home knowing something didn't feel quite right.

Vic ended up having to go out of town to New York for work with his partner Rodger. While Vic is getting ready to leave he finds out about Donna's infidelity by a letter and decides the best thing to do at the moment is go on the business trip. Donna called off the affair with the other man and he didn't take to that so well, when Vic arrives home they have a conversation and decide they will discuss things more when he returns home from his trip. Tad is worried about his dad leaving because of the monster in the closet. Vic reminds Tad of the monster words, types them out and tapes them to the wall so Donna can read them to him every night just as Vic has. While Vic is gone Donna runs into car trouble. Vic tells her to run it by the Cambers house since Joe is always probably there, Donna explains to him again about her anxiety about the dog. Vic tells her everything should be fine and she ends up taking the pinto up to the Cambers to be fixed.

Donna was not prepared for the vicious three day long, enduring heat, fight with the dog. As she arrives to the Cambers the car finally gives out and she can't restart it. She looks up and sees that Cujo has dried blood on his fur and foaming at the mouth. She begins to beep the horn hoping that someone will hear her, well little did she know the only people left nearby were already killed by Cujo. The beeping irritates his ears so he begins to attack the car all the while in his head he keeps blaming the woman and the boy for all of his pain and suffering. For three hard hot days (mind you they are trapped in a car in 90° weather, its probably about 115° inside) Donna tries to escape the car and fend off the dog. The third time she tries to get out and beat him, Cujo attacks her scraping her stomach badly with his teeth and biting her leg. She gets the door closed eventually and covers up her leg all the while Tad is hallucinating more and more he has two convulsions and she saves him from choking on his tongue. Finally when she has lost all hope a cop pulls up to the Cambers house who also ends up dead Cujo completely rips him apart. While Cujo is taking a nap Donna puts Tad in the back seat (explains how he feels like a sac of rice but is still breathing); she gets out of the car not focusing on Cujo and grabs the bat that has been in the grass feet away from the car. Cujo charges at her and she is prepared she beats him with the bat repeatedly but of course he gets one more bite in on her forearm once she has him on the ground she begins smashing in his head repeatedly. Every encounter with the dog Donna and even the cop have with Cujo they tell themselves there's just no way he could outlive this; he cant be just a dog. This is where my little theory that Cujo just isn't a rabid dog, but has the demon spirit of Frank Dodd inside him (the monster as Tad likes to call him).

While Donna is bashing in Cujos head Vic arrives and is yelling her name she of course can't hear him he has to physically grab her in order for her to stop. He then asks where Tad is and checks the car he grabs Tad and asks her frantically how long Tad has been dead. She can't believe this she won't accept that everything she has done for him has resulted in his death. She begins giving him CPR for ten minutes until the paramedics arrive on scene and they explain that Tad is dead and cover him with a sheet. She rushes over to Cujo and starts beating him again with the bat until she collapses.

There is way more to the story than just the brief highlights that I have given. I will say this, I think Donna was already hallucinating and Tad had passed that night when he went to sleep. She believed she had saw him still breathing because her mind told her that was what she was seeing. Donna explained before that; that his eyes were purple, lips blue and tongue grey and swollen (common signs of death). Also at the end of the book Charity and Brett come back home and receive the ashes of Cujo and throw them in the trash. I was sad about this because yes he may have been rabid and killed people, but before that he was a dog that you loved, your protector and you just threw him away. This is how Stephen King rolls never a happy ending just a practical real life one.

Overall I was very impressed with this novel, again a huge King fan; but still his writing never fails and is always disturbing and thrilling.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the book, if you've read it, or if you are wanting to read it. Lets start a conversation!!

As always thank you so much for reading my blog review and I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!! Until next week, stay reading Selena Torres.