Thinner by Stephen King - Book Review

If gluttony had a photo next to it in the dictionary, the face in that picture would be Billy Halleck. A morbidly obese lawyer, Billy doesn’t mind the finer things in life, even if it means stepping on some toes once in a while. But when Billy is charged with vehicular manslaughter after running over an old woman, things will change forever.

Having the charge dismissed, thanks to his connections, Billy is confronted by the elderly father of the woman he killed. After touching Billy’s cheek and whispering a single word, thinner, this nightmare is about to make him lose more than his wits.

As the weight begins to drop at an alarming rate, Billy soon realizes that some curses are real and vengeance can come in many different ways. Desperate for the old man to reverse his spell, this lawyer is about to face a power no court could ever save him from. 

Thinner was written under King’s Bachman label and when I first read it instantly loved the premise. I knew who the author was by then and so ingested the tale with the same enthusiasm as many of his other books.

What stuck out for me with this one though, was the imagined terror Billy must have felt. As I read the story, my mind kept pondering about the idea of losing weight uncontrollably and just how terrifying that would be.

And that’s where King really stands out above the rest. This tale, like so many, touches an emotional part in my mind which goes beyond any horrific gore he writes into his books.

If you want simple horror, try one of his other books, there’s plenty to choose from. But if you want a truly frightening story that will play with your mind a little, definitely give Thinner a go. You won’t regret it.