Hello everyone and welcome to the Stephen King cast one man's musings on the works of Stephen King.

Each week I'll review one of Stephen King's entries in the chronological order of publication,

and this week I review 1983 Illustrated Short Story, Cycle of the Werewolf.

Cycle of the Werewolf is an incredibly short read.

I just finished reviewing last night the Pet Cemetery, the book, and Christine the movie podcasts.

And I sat down today just to start Cycle of the Werewolf forgetting how short it was, and I finished it in like a half an hour.

And so basically, if you haven't read Cycle of the Werewolf, what it is, it's just a collection of vignettes, really, with powerful illustrations by Bernie Wrightson.

It's going to be a very short review, but in order for me to get to the review, I'm going to read the Wikipedia summary.

The story is set in a fictional small town

of Tarkers Mills, Maine. A werewolf is viciously killing people and animals, and a strange

incident takes place at each full moon. The otherwise normal town is living in fear. The protagonist

of the story is Marty Kosslaw, or Kohl'slaw, Kosslaw, let's just say Kosslaw, an 11-year-old boy in a wheelchair. The story goes back and forth from the terrifying incidents to Marty's youthful day-to-day life and how the horrors affect him. In July, the town's Independence Day fireworks have been canceled. This is very upsetting to Marty, who has been looking forward to them all year.

Because he feels bad for him, Marty's Uncle Red.

That's an error, Wikipedia.

The uncle's name is not Red in the novel.

His name is Red in the movie, played by Gary Busey, but it's Uncle Al in the book.

So Marty's Uncle Al brings home some fireworks, warning Marty to set them off really late so his mother won't find out.

While outside enjoying his own private Independence Day celebration, the werewolf attacks Marty,

who manages to put out the monster's left eye with a package of black cat firecrackers.

The werewolf escapes and the police ignore the report because they're looking for a human murderer, not a werewolf.

As the summer continues, the bloodshed occurs every full moon.

Fall comes on and so does Halloween, to celebrate Marty ghost trick-or-treating.

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