Thinner by Stephen King (on CD)

Thinner
by Stephen King [Compact Disc King]

Thinner is a book that was written by Stephen King back in 1984, but under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. King had gained enough popularity with his earlier novels that he realized people were buying his books just because they had his name on them. So he wrote a novel and a few short stories under the pseudonym to see if those books would stand on their own. However, it was leaked fairly shortly after the release of this novel. When Bachman was an unknown, it sold over 28,000 copies. Once it was leaked that Bachman was King’s pseudonym, the novel sold over 280,000 copies!

I read this book back in 1986 or so, shortly after it was written, but after the truth came out about it being a King novel. I remember loving it so much, I lent it to my best friend–she, then, lost it. She became frightened while reading it, hid it from herself, and was never able to find it again!

After thirty years of rereading various other King novels, I remembered Thinner and decided to give it another go–see if I loved it as much as I did the first time. This time, however, I opted to listen to the audiobook, which was read by Joe Mantegna (who, it turns out, plays one of the characters in the movie version). It was even scarier than I’d remembered, and listening to it made it even more so! I knew what was coming, at times, but I couldn’t remember specifics… so when I heard the story unravel once again, I was pleased and often surprised.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try King’s novel ‘Salem’s Lot.] [ official Thinner page on the official Stephen King web site ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read or listened to this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
 
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!