Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)

A cliched, but intriguing account of a werewolf stalking the residents of Tarker's Mills over the cource of a year. Would have liked to see this as a calender, as originally inteded. Interesting that the text calls the town "Tarker's Mills." Blubs call it "Tarker Mills." ( )

A cliched, but intriguing account of a werewolf stalking the residents of Tarker's Mills over the cource of a year. Would have liked to see this as a calender, as originally inteded. Interesting that the text calls the town "Tarker's Mills." Blubs call it "Tarker Mills." ( )

A cliched, but intriguing account of a werewolf stalking the residents of Tarker's Mills over the cource of a year. Would have liked to see this as a calender, as originally inteded. Interesting that the text calls the town "Tarker's Mills." Blubs call it "Tarker Mills." ( )

I saw this at the library yesterday and snagged it, so excited to read it! I actually liked it very much, simply because it is so different from the usual King offering - lengthy, intricately described works of brilliance. Not to say that this wasn't brilliant, or up to par, it was just different. Like comparing a golf ball to a ping pong ball. Yeah, they are both small, round, usually white balls that are used in sport, but other than that, they are not really similar to each other at all.

From what I understand, this book was originally intended as a calendar, with each month telling a little bit more of the story. I read it in book form, and unlike a friend of mine did NOT wait for each month to actually read that month's story. I don't think that I could have done that even if I had had the actual calendar. I skip ahead with those Page-A-Day calendars, so a monthly story by King would never stand a chance. I have no willpower. *sigh*

Anyway, getting back to the story itself, I really enjoyed it. I feel like it might have been a little bit of a test for King to write something so short. He is used to writing short stories of course, but this is a bit different. Each month from January to August, we meet a different resident of Tarker's Mills, and learn about their run-in with the werewolf that has been stalking the town. Each story is only 2-3 pages long, and in my opinion, does a really good job of characterization, while still moving the story along at a pretty good pace. The writing is much simpler than I'm used to with King, out of necessity, but he still manages to get his point across and make me feel like I knew these people, even though many of them only live for about a page.

I really liked the artwork here as well. Bernie Wrightson does a great job of bringing King's words to life. There are pen and ink "month" drawings, which represent the month for each story, then there is a color story panel depicting a scene from each month's chapter, and then at the end, there is a little ink sketch which kind of sums up the chapter, and is generally a forgotten or cast aside "leaving" of one of the characters.

I did notice that there were a few typos and errors here, which brought this down from 4 stars to 3. I also wished that there was just a little bit more to the story, especially in regards to the origins of the werewolf. But all in all, I really liked it. :) ( )

Simultaneously my introduction to King, as well as my introduction to a lifelong love of werewolves.

I first read this in sixth grade and it haunted me quite a bit until I was able to come by my own copy. ( )