“Written in masterly King’s signature translucent style and set in one of his trademark locales, this uncharacteristically glimmering fairy tale calls unabashedly for us to rise above our differences… succinct, magical, timely…charming yet edgy.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
This novel is sort of reminiscent of Thinner.
A short book at 160 pages our story begins with Scott Carey discovering that he has been steadily losing weight. Without dieting or exercise. And his health is good. And his clothes still fit the same way, and he still looks the same way. But he is losing slightly over a pound a day. He doesn’t want to go to just any doctor so he makes an appointment to see Dr. Ellis, an old friend who is retired. The Doctor can’t believe what he sees, especially when Scott removes the coat he was wearing while being weighed and shows him the rolls of quarters he had stuck in his pockets, and they have no effect on his weight.
The other part of this story is about a lesbian married couple who own a vegetarian Mexican restaurant that is being avoided by almost the entire town. And Scott already has had his own problem with the ladies.
King is obviously writing about intolerance, and the feelings of being different. He has a message to send and he does it quickly and cleanly. But, as a King book, I was disappointed in it. Not for the message, which is fine. But the story seems forced and is very predictable. I have always enjoyed Kings efforts which are not horror stories such as The Body, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the aforementioned Thinner and others. This one however I felt while making the point he wanted to achieve, the story suffered for it.
As a King fan I try to read everything he publishes, as do most King fans, so those of us that will read this book, will like it and for what it stands for, But many of us will probably still be hungry for more meat in the story.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 6th February 2019
