Book Talk

I'm not exactly familiar with King's works but Thinner was an enjoyable read! Enjoyable in a sense that it provided me with the right amount of creepiness to maintain the interest but not too much to deter myself from reading it any further.

As the title clearly suggests, Thinner is a story about Billy Halleck, an overweight lawyer who keeps steadily losing weight without any plausible medical explanations. This bizarre circumstance takes place right after he is cleared from the charge of killing a Gypsy woman. Turns out Billy only gets a slap on the wrist from the judge. In other words, he gets off easy. And this, of course, causes some dissatisfaction among the Gypsies. So, on the day of the hearing, the leader of the tribe comes to Billy and whispers that one word that will haunt Billy thereafter, "Thinner..."

In the beginning,it has been a joyous moment. Billy has been trying to lose weight for some time but to no avail. But when Billy keeps losing weight EVERYDAY, Billy and his wife start to become suspicious. They put the blame on cancer, metabolism but nope the bad guy is still not in sight. The story just gets better and better until the ending.

The ending especially. Oh God, I don't know. I liked how King had ended it, I think it's fitting and it's twisted enough, but deep down I'm still hoping for a different ending (read: a much meaner ending).

Story-wise, I think it was great! Sent chills to my bones, alright. Yes, it was typically based on the myths surrounding gypsies, how they come to possess mystical power, curses and whatnot. At some point, I was irritated myself coz of the prejudice we hold against them but it made a good story.

Billy made a believable character. I felt his misery of losing weight and kept on losing more. I felt his fear, clinging dearly to life every single day. And most of all, I felt his anger to those people who should have stuck around for him. I felt everything he felt, and it was terrible.

"The definition of an asshole is a guy who doesn't believe what he's seeing."

Fantastic read! :D