Rating: 2 out of 5 fireworks safety warnings
Preview (i.e. no spoilers)
Cycle of the Werewolf is a curious little number. It was originally conceived as a calendar, with Bernie Wrightson (of Swamp Thing fame, among other comics) providing the big-impact pictures and Uncle Stevie penning a short vignette to go with it. As a calendar, it didn’t quite work. As a book, it doesn’t quite work. As a hot-air balloon, it most certainly doesn’t work, but then it never laid claim to that.
The artwork, it must be said, is beautiful. This may depend upon your definition of beautiful, since it does include gore and bones and, in one instance, a knocked-over salt cellar that nobody has thought to clear up. But more than the images that tie into the story, the pictures that represent each month are superb, with light and dark being used to magnificent, atmospheric effect.
The story itself is also broken up into 12 short chapters, and while I’ll go more into it in the review below, it doesn’t quite stick. The writing is Kingsome as ever, and enjoyable in-and-of-itself, but doesn’t hang together into a consistent and gut-catching story.
Overall, it’s not a bad book by any means, but it’s one to get around to, not to gobble up like a hungry wolf.
Review (i.e. more spoilers than a boy-racer’s bonnet)
The problem with Cycle of the Werewolf is the approach King takes to writing. Now, I am in no position to criticise this – not until I too have sold 350 million books and helped to redefine an entire genre. But while his technique of ‘start and see where it goes’ worked wonders for The Shining, for example, in this case it leaves the whole novella shivering and exposed like a werewolf pumped full of silver bullets.
It’s clear (or at least, very much feels as though) King didn’t really have an idea for a plot when he began. The book starts with mysterious beasty killings, which are fun in themselves, but don’t really have a narrative to hang off. It isn’t until May that you’re introduced to Rev. Lowe, the antagonist of the piece, and it’s July – over halfway through the year! – before you actually get any other characters introduced who stick around long enough to pull a plot together.
When you finally do get introduced to Marty, the wheelchair-bound 10 year old protagonist of the piece, the plot kicks in as thick and fast as a professional footballer. It actually feels like you can hear the click! in King’s mind as he finally gets a story behind the words. But by this point, it’s too late to do any of his signature foreshadowing or careful cranking of tension – he’s only got 6 short chapters to deliver a rounded and satisfying plotline.
And, for his sins, he does deliver that. Both Marty’s storyline and that of the shapeshifting Reverend are completed. But there are no real twists or turns, or any sense that Marty won’t win the day, to get your big wolfy fangs into.
It’s worth buying for the artwork alone, and it’s not exactly a bad book. You can get through it in an hour or so, so it’s not even a poor investment of your time. But it’s like a waning moon: it’s not full, and it won’t change you.
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