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Thinner by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers)
Billy Halleck has a good life- great income, large house in a nice neighborhood, happy teen daughter, loving wife. And he has grown "comfortable" around the waist (spare tire). His doctor warns of entering heart attack territory, but he's not putting any serious effort into taking care of himself. One ride home on one afternoon changes everything, and Billy ends up thinner- much thinner.

Category
Thriller

Why I chose this book
I'm a closet Stephen King fan. I like to feel the thrill of the thought, "Is this horrific thing actually possible?!?" I say "closet" fan, because I'm not supposed to like this kind book. He's a potty-mouth (uses foul language) and quite often some "adult" themes, and this book is no different. But sometimes some of King's novels end up relatively clean.

My personal opinion (the review)
I give it an F for my review, for language alone. I didn't even finish a novel previously for that very reason, but I give Stephen King a bit of slack in that one area. Several of his stories are really good and not too bad in language, so I was hoping this would turn out that way. It didn't.
The language was awful, there were "adult" situations, and the end will make you scream, "Oh, no!" But I don't take away any points for an unhappy ending- it's a thriller/horror! You know what you're getting into here- you get horror, not happy endings.
If you hate "bad" endings, then steer clear of this one. If you block out the language and if you don't mind an unhappy ending, then this one's okay. Not amazing, but okay.

Warnings
Language - rampant
Violence - some, but pretty minor
Adult situations - several, not graphic
Death - yes, and of major characters

Movie rating equivalent
R, at least. King uses the F-word like Billy uses butter on his bread

Protagonist description
Billy is a good man, and has a strong ability to measure people up, to hear what they're not really saying, or what they're thinking. It leads to funny, internal, virtual dialogues. He's just trying to make a good life for himself and his family.

Point of view of story
Third, focused on Billy

Book length
Long, more than a week

Story flow
Excellent, no dragging parts. Typical Stephen King

Grammar and spelling issues
Some misspellings

Character connection (no spoilers)

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