I love this book, but I can think of just one reason it doesn’t entirely succeed as a novel: The ending. It’s why I I usually prefer the film version; I don’t often appreciate young children dying in horror stories. To me, it works if there’s a point in writing such a story this way, as in Suffer the Children by John Saul. But by making Tad one of the main characters in this book and focusing on his struggle for survival alongside his mother, it feels like a huge disappointment and makes it seem pointless to have come with him so far on his journey.

Whether you view this as an article, a review or the start of a discussion, I apologize to any and all readers who read this and have not read the book for providing this spoiler. But if this is often how you start a conversation on this website, as a guest or otherwise, here’s a great conversation I can get started right here: I usually read paperback books and, when I read horror novels as old as Cujo or, let’s say, any horror novels or horror fiction old enough to have been published in the 20th century, I always like looking for old paperback editions, which is why I shop for them in thrift stores. Any reader of nonfiction books on the subject of horror fiction who has read Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix knows why: I love those old school covers!