Nineteen. Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

1985, Berkley Signet, 128 pages. Written in English, read in English.

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Once, when I’ve been a more enterprising fan of Stephen King’s work and sought out every single book he wrote, I’ve been told that Cycle of the Werewolf was a pretty rare book to find, and have therefore dutifully snapped it up as soon as I’ve found it. Recently, finding myself in search of short books to read in order to meet the five books a month quota, I’ve discovered that I haven’t actually ever read this book.

The premise of Cycle of the Werewolf is pretty simple, and it is announced in the title — the token monster in question is a werewolf, a man who turns into a wolf as the full moon appears, and therefore the short book is divided into twelve chapters, each dedicated to a month of the year, starting with January and ending in December. Each of these depicts the werewolf’s encounter with the residents of a sleepy (fictional) town in Maine, and the story of the werewolf’s rise and fall is told through those constraints. It is conveyed surprisingly well — actually, not surprisingly, as Stephen King could (and probably still can) be counted on to take a mundane horror subject such as the concept of the werewolf, and turn it into a suspenseful story, even if you do know how it’s going to pan out. This edition also includes beautiful drawings — two per chapter — made by Bernie Wrightson, which turn the story into a much more vivid affair (but prevent this book from being kid friendly).

(The book can be found here. Its suggested prices indicated that it may indeed be a rare book.)