Thinner

I would describe this story as okay, however it does have a bit of dullness to it. For example,

(SPOILER!!)

when the main character goes searching for the Gypsies, the story starts to drag.
After that, it did manage to re-acquire my interest, but not fully.

Not one of King’s best…that’s for sure.

After many disappointing experiences with the latest King's books (most recent one being "The Cell", which is probably one of the worst books I've ever read), I have been very glad to come across "Thinner". This book is dated back to 1985, and it is a real page turner, in the best King's tradition. The story is unfolding at a very fast pace, and the way it ends is just...unpredictable!
If you liked books like "It" and "The girl who loved Tom Gordon", don't miss this book, you will not be disappointed!

The novel itself is three to four stars. However, the Kindle version is littered with spelling and grammatical errors that are not present in the print version. The sheer amount of these errors is often distracting (more than a half-dozen in some chapters). If you want to read this book, opt for the print version.

Hmm, Thinner. One of the most forgettable books that Stephen King has written. I hate to say that about a King book, even though he was writing as Richard Bachman again, but it has to be said about this book. That’s not to say that I still don’t have the three categories of the book lined up.

The Ugly: Okay, there is a lot of ugly in this book. I don’t even know where to begin with some of a lot of the things I don’t like in this book. I have to say the worst thing of this book, and I’m sorry about the spoiler here, but why wouldn’t Billy hide the damn pie so his wife or daughter wouldn’t find it. And on top of that, how could he blame his wife for the situation. It wasn’t like she was the only one having fun when the old lady was killed.

The Bad: This necessarily isn’t about the story itself, but about the book. I don’t know, things could have been better if the book had more exposition to it. It seemed really short with no substance to the book. It was like King wrote the book just so Bachman’s name could still be relevant. Maybe he just didn’t have his heart in this. I know mine wasn’t into reading it, or ever reading it again.

The Good: The best part of the book was that there were connections to other books, mostly Bachman’s, in this story. It seemed to be set in the same universe as Road Block, which is my personal favorite of the Bachman books. And that’s about all the good I can say about this book.

Final Thoughts: If you find yourself having read almost all the other books in the world, you can give this one a try.

I first saw the movie for this back in the 90s, long before I read this book. And if you've never seen the film, believe me when I say, it's bad. It’s AWESOMELY bad. Overacted, terribly-paced, full of dumb effects and the worst “fat suit” I’ve ever seen. But, for some reason, I can't help but love it. I’ll watch it over and over again on Netfilx like it was reruns of The Office. Maybe I just like terrible movies. I don’t know.

But, that said, I've never read this book. Never even thought about it, until I saw a used copy for sale at a local bookstore for just a few bucks. “Why not?” I said. And I picked it up.

Let me just say: THIS BOOK IS GREAT. Soooooooo much better than that crap movie. I’m not a huge Stephen King fan by any stretch, but he really nailed it with this one. Maybe I’m a Richard Bachman fan then? THINNER never rambles, or wastes times. Everything is tied into moving the plot forward. And King fills in the blanks with interesting and varied metaphors that never seem forced or tired. It's a book built to be read quickly. And that's just what I did.

As far as the plot goes, it’s pretty simple. A body horror story about a fat lawyer who accidentally kills a gypsy’s daughter, who is then cursed to lose weight until he (presumably) dies. It doesn’t really revel in the supernatural - aside from the entire story being catalyzed by a “mysterious force” - and instead focuses more on the visceral breakdown on the protagonist’s body, sanity, and life. As such, it’s easy to lose yourself In Billy Halleck’s plight, and to connect with the “hero” who is really more deplorable than he is likable.

Again, not being a huge reader of King, it’s hard to say where this ranks amongst his other works, but for me, this was my kind of story delivered in my kind of style. Bloody good times.

Recently, I've been reading a lot more. I bought as many Stephen King books as I could find. I read Christine and soon after finishing it, I decided to read Thinner. Overall, it was very entertaining and kept my interest. King wrote this under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman (There was even a part in the book where the main character references Stephen King. That was funny and clever)

Billy Halleck is an obese lawyer who loves to eat and loves to win cases. One night when he's driving home, his wife is giving him 'sexual pleasure' and that's when he accidentally hits the Gypsy lady. During the court case, it's easily dismissed as an accident, but the main Gypsy, Taduz Lempke was justice for what he did to his daughter, so he curses Billy by rubbing his face and simply says "Thinner" Soon enough, Billy is losing weight like crazy. His wife and daughter are worried and demand that he checks in to a hospital.

He begins his search for the Gypsies in hopes they will take the curse off. He requests the help of his Mafia buddy, Richie Ginelli who resorts to brutal tactics to get the Gypsies to take off the curse. Will Billy be free, or will he keep losing weight and erase from existence? If you want a classic Stephen King thriller, I definitely recommend THINNER!!!

Billy Halleck is a successful lawyer, and a loving family man who lives in middle class America, surrounded by good friends, good neighbours in a good town. Life is good. Billy Halleck needs to lose weight. A lot. And as quickly as possible. He is balancing the stress of work with family life and then the gypsies arrive in town. Which is only a problem if you have a problem with gypsies. Apparently the whole town does.

Billy is involved in a fatal car accident, involving the death of one of the gypsies. Despite being charged and brought to trial for appropriately negligent driving, he is found not guilty in all charges and walks from the courtroom completely free. In the eyes of the gypsies, however, he is as guilty as sin. Their punishment is enacted in the open air, in front of the world. Their punishment is death by starvation, enacted in the form of a curse. It is a pity no one is watching the gypsies now.

Four chapters in, and the curse is playing on Billy's mind. Five chapters in, and we learn that Big Bad Billy has lost thirty pounds in three weeks. Chapter six opens with a visit to the doctor. As you would expect. The tale has morphed into a classic horror story by the end of chapter ten. King fans will rejoice at this point; readers new to the genre may revolt and turn away in disgust. There is no denying however, that this is a pivotal point in the book, and that your reading experience and perspective may never be the same again. So be it.

Stephen King has always had a strong ability to play on the emotions of his readers. That is one of the keys to successful writing. Mr King does not simply "play" with his reader's emotions, however. He picks up a vegetable masher with one hand, grabs you by the lapels of your coat with the other, and manages to pummel your emotions and feelings to pieces on the nearest chopping board until they are nothing but a giant bloody mess. He manages to convince you at that point that nothing is the matter; nothing has changed, and so you continue to read whatever words appear in front of you in a state of complete and utter trust.

Big mistake.

The book really shines in the second half. Billy teams up with the "family" hit man from New York and the story evolves from a chase (for vengeance) across America into a highly charged, action packed, emotional (there's that word again) case of righting something that has gone on for far too long. With a climax that is as satisfying as anything you can find in the genre, you will find yourself flying through it so mesmerised that you bump your head on the book's back cover when you close it. But such is the power and abilities of a genius. Stephen King (in this case, Richard Bachman) is brilliant. The world knows this. THINNER is proof, if any is needed, that he will go down in history as one of the greatest imaginists of the 20th century.

So do yourself a favour. Read this book by all means. But make sure you wash your hands before and after handling it. Better still, wear gloves. And for goodness sake, don't read it whilst you are driving.

You might run over a gypsy.

BFN Greggorio!

"...misery loves company, and I guess we've all got a streak of one hundred percent gold-plated bastard in our natures, tangled up so tightly with the good part of us that we can never get free of it."

I was all prepared to freak out about Stephen King. But I think I picked one of his less freak-out-worthy books as my first ever King read. It's probably considered sacrilege to have made it to my 20s and not read a King novel until now, but I never thought horror, paranormal or supernatural genre fic was my cup of tea. I kind of found my cup of tea awhile ago (literary, some YA) and stopped trying other teas…

ANYHOW, death to that metaphor, and here goes: Guy gets cursed and is damned to rigorous, unending weight loss. Imagine Weight Watchers for mortal sinners, brought to you by powerful, justice-hungry gypsies.

The story is really simple, but in the end it kind of worked because it was so simple. Would I have liked a couple more subplots to keep the middle narrative from sagging like a pair of XL pants on a skeleton? Yes. I had a feeling the end would be the pay off, and I wanted to know Billy's fate, so I kept reading. But jeez did it slow down for me around the 150 page mark. Because no duh he'll go to doctors and his sanity will be thrown into question. Drawing out those events made me lose interest and it took the urgency out of Billy's daily weight loss, which was pretty freaking urgent.

But the book became less predictable as it pushed on to its conclusion so I devoured the last 120 pages. Mostly thanks to the introduction of Ginelli, a NYC dealer of all things illicit. Smooth talking and clever, he was unpredictable and exciting - far more intriguing than our main man, Mr. Skeletor. I wished Ginelli was a bigger player earlier in the book.

For years and years I always named THINNER one of my top favorite Stephen King novels. Of course, I was going from the memory of having read it in high school, most likely my freshman year. Now, having revisited the novel at 40 as opposed to 14, I'm not sure I'd place it so close to the top of my list, but it's still, in my opinion, a pretty good read.

Connecticut lawyer Billy Halleck has recently escaped justice after accidentally running down an old gypsy woman when the judge presiding over the case--a friend of Halleck's who just happened to not dismiss himself from the case--lets Billy off without so much as a slap on the wrist. So the gypsy woman's father, Taduz Lemke, decides to take matters into his own hands in the form of a curse. After the hearing, he touches Billy's cheek and whispers to him the word, "Thinner". Billy shrugs it off at first, but later that word comes back to him when he steps on the bathroom scale and sees he's lost a few pounds.

Losing a few pounds is a good thing at first as Billy is a portly fellow, and he needs to drop a few pounds anyway. But when he starts eating even more than he did before, and yet the weight still flies off him, he becomes worried.

And when he discovers the judge who let him off and the officer in charge of the case--the one who didn't bother giving Billy a breathalyzer test after the accident--have also both been cursed, he realizes he has to do something before he wastes away to nothing.

Meanwhile Billy's wife Heidi and his doctor insist there's no such thing as gypsy curses and they try to have Billy involuntarily committed. But before they can act, Billy takes off in search of the gypsies, intent on persuading Lemke to take off the curse. But when his efforts fail, he resorts to less legal means in the form of a former client and current Mafioso, Richard Ginelli.

If you're one of the five people who still don't know, THINNER was the final Richard Bachman novel released in the 1970s and 80s when Stephen King was trying to discover if his fame was the result of talent or luck--and to publish more novels without over saturating the market. Shortly after its publication, King was outed as Bachman and the book re-released as a Stephen King novel, "writing as Richard Bachman".

Sandwiched between behemoth books THE TALISMAN and SKELETON CREW, THINNER is a very small book at only 309 pages. But those 309 pages contain plenty of action and the story moves along at a great pace. King's writing was tight and sharp and his characters, while not exactly the kind of people you root for, come across as believable and solid, especially Halleck in his relationship with his daughter, and Ginelli in his efforts to help free Billy from the curse. While it's never stated outright, there's a real respect on Ginelli's part and a desire to do right by Billy, a man whom he sees as a friend in a life with few real friends to begin with. There's even mention earlier in the novel of Ginelli telling Halleck, once he makes partner in his law firm, that he should probably not come around much anymore in order to keep his reputation from being tarnished by his association with Ginelli. And even though several years pass between visits, Ginelli doesn't hesitate to jump at the chance to help his old friend the moment Billy needs it. I think that was always one of the aspects I liked most about this book over the years. It's just a little thing and probably not as big a deal as it came across to me, but the respect and devotion Ginelli shows Billy, the lengths he goes to to help his friend, who is in desperate need of help, was excellently portrayed by King.

Another aspect of the story I felt King really pulled off well was Halleck's feelings toward his wife which go from loving and appreciative in the beginning to the end where things have taken a complete 180. I won't give details, but Halleck sort of blames his wife, in part, for what happened and when she totally dismisses his theory of the gypsy curse and then tries to have him committed, the honeymoon is obviously over. Granted, I felt that note was a little overplayed at times and does not help the reader to sympathize with the Halleck character at all--like I said, these aren't people you root for--but it was managed with King's usual gradual touch. That touch is, for me, what made THE SHINING and `SALEM'S LOT such successful novels, and it's used to great effect in THINNER as well.

I don't think the novel, as a whole, is quite as effective as I remembered it being for 20+ years, but it's still a good novel and a worthwhile read. It's a vicious story with equally vicious characters and it doesn't waste a lot of time on unnecessary subplots or sidetracks. King's focus was clearly on telling this story as succinctly as possible, the end result being a quick, energetic read, offering a terrifically horrifying situation, and told in a way that doesn't waste a single word. It may not be in my top five anymore (considering he's written over 40 novels since then) but THINNER is still, in my opinion, a dmn good read.

Years ago when Stephen King wanted to be left alone to write something other than straight out horror, he used the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Thinner was such a novel. Thinner was the last novel of the 1980's using the Bachman name.

Thinner doesn't have any scary monsters or things to jump out in the night. What Thinner has is a gypsy who has been crossed. Rightly, he's upset. He casts a curse on obese Billy Halleck, a lawyer who, while distracted by his wife, runs over one of the gypsy women. Billy begins to lose weight. At first Billy is elated. "Look at me," he would tell people, "I'm losing weight and I'm not even trying". True that. He wasn't trying.

Thinner is a pretty decent novel. I has a lot going for it and makes you yearn for more.

This book perfectly shows the flaws and skills of Stephen King.

Yes, it's a rip roraring ride of chills and thrills - just wacky enough to be entertaining but not too far gone to be too implausible. A simple enough premise: An overweight lawyer accidentally runs over a gypsy child and is cursed by her grandfather. He starts to lose weight rapidly. He knows soon he will wither away to nothing. He loses the pounds, and his mind. He needs to stop the curse before he dies.
Along the way he discovers others affected by the same gypsies curse.
It's a good conflict. His family and friends - bar one - all think he has lost his mind and he realizes he needs to fight this alone.
So begins his journey.

There's plenty to applaud here: Great writing, great characters, great suspense. The main character is likable and we root for him from page one. The other characters are predictably one-sides, but then they dont need to be otherwise. You turn every page in excitement. You end up reading more than you intended and the world falls away as you turn to the next page.

However: There are obvious sloppy mistakes. King falls prey to clichees once too often, with suave phrases and action-hero remarks. The eventual side-kick is a little to stereotypical and slightly too convenient (as are some other characters and scenes). King glosses over in one phrase what other writers would cover more in depth, like the racist undertones of the "gypsy curse", or the nature and implications of an actual "curse".
This is, however, all within the genre. We get what we should expect. We get a great story, not socio-cultural lecturing. Which is, really, a good thing.

The gypsies are supposed to talk the "romani" language, but any scandinavian reading this book will know they are, incorrectly, speaking swedish in the book. Swedish? Really? Not only that, the engligh translations of the words spoken do not correspond to what is actually said in swedish. Did Stephen King just pick random words from a swedish dictionary? Was it a joke from a swedish friend? Or did Stephen actually believe that gypsies in the U.S would speak swedish?
It's a minor thing, but typical of the sloppyness of sloppy genre writing.

The twist ending - and yes there is one - had me thumped, but was wrapped up a little too quickly.

Not King's best, but certainly not worst. Not Carrie or The Shining, but not Tommyknockers or Insomnia either.
Well worth the price and one of those books you finish it a few sittings, this being early-ish King, before the pages reached 400.

Good horror, I guess, is sort of the negative of true comedy.

Whereas true comedy is a series of delights leading to that final and satisfying one that concludes the story itself, true horror is that series of little terrors that finally culminates in that "big one" the concludes the story.

Because the big terror which ends this story is so disturbing I find this to be one of Stephen Kings better horror stories.

For those who haven't either read the book or seen the movie, Thinner tells the story of a New England lawyer dealing with the aftermath of an automible accident where he's inadvertantly run over and killed an old gypsy woman. Because the gypsies themselves are itinerant they find themselves forced to rely on a curse instead of justice in order to right the scales when the lawyer uses his connections to evade traditional justice.

As the tale unfolds, and this lawyer's curse, growing ever thinner by the day continues we join the lawyer as he tries to catch up with the gypsies and convince them to lift the curse they've laid upon him.

While other reviewers have rightly pointed out noticeable holes in the plot (i.e. just why the accident occured and just what the lawyer's feelings come be about it) these holes still don't take away from the dramatic tempo King sets and keeps in this piece.

I wasn't really a big fan of this book, which puts me in the minority. I like a lot of King's other works, Different Seasons and The Shining were terrific. But this one left a lot to be desired for me.

Billy Halleck is a local lawyer who has more than just a few pounds under his belt. He's fat. Or at least he is until he's cursed by a gypsy after running over one of the clan. The problem is he got away with the manslaughter, and the man wanted revenge. So now Billy is losing weight at an alarming rate and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Short of finding the gypsy and reasoning with him, Billy is going to die.

Billy is not a sympathetic character. He whines and moans and blames others for his problems. In fact, I don't really see any growth in him at all until perhaps the very last chapter of the book, and by then it was too late for me to really care for him as a character at all. And then there's the gypsies. They're pretty much stereotyped and not in a kind way at all. In fact, there weren't any redeeming characters in this book at all. No one to root for, which aside from a cheap thrill doesn't really make the book worth reading.

I do have to say that the descriptiveness of the writing was very good and up to King's usual standard. You can't complain that it wasn't filled with horrifying detail or scenes that you could absolutely picture through the description. But when broken down the plot just didn't hold up because of the stereotyping, lame attempts at humor using racist jokes, and other flashy tricks with no real substance. This could have been a great book for showing a man trying to do right and correct things to make his suffering go away; but instead you have him whining and blaming everyone else the entire time and ending up just the way you predict he will at the end.

I'll still read King's books, he's got some decent stuff out there and few clunkers like this one. But I can't say that I'd recommend this particular book to anybody.

Thinner
Copyright 1985
318 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2013

Stephen King always amazes me. Even in the case with 'Thinner', which is a pretty silly story, the man writes with such fluidity. His prose and characterizations are always great and seemingly natural, as if the author isn't really trying hard. But make no mistake: King is an excellent writer. Too bad then 'Thinner' isn't one of his better efforts.

In 'Thinner' we have a fat suburbanite who falls under a curse bestowed by a gypsy. And yeah, the guy loses weight. A lot of weight. Other people receive other yet different curses. What then ensues is a journey where our now skinny guy tries to resolve the issue rather than wither and die. No, the story is not believable for one moment. The author is also a bit harsh with stereotypical views of gypsies in America. But being a Stephen Kind novel 'Thinner' moves along at a good clip and is never dull.

Bottom line: not among his best but 'Thinner' provides modest if forgettable reading entertainment. Recommended.

There are no real heroes in this story, only bad people who mostly get what they deserve, except for young Linda.

Billy Halleck is the biggest lawyer in town, both by reputation and size. He is only 36 years old but he weighs in at 251 pounds he is nagged by his wife who wants him to lose weight. Billy just won a big lawsuit for his client Richie Ginelli who is an underworld crime boss. He celebrates the victory with dinner with his wife and while traveling home he is distracted and kills a 75 year old gypsy woman who is in town with a local carnival. Being the biggest lawyer in town and friends with the sheriff and the judge he barely gets into trouble even though he is clearly at fault and lies about what really happened. Knowing the system he manipulates the truth and he doesn't accept the responsibility for his careless driving and actions. He doesn't even get points on his driver's license.

After the court hearing the 109 year old gypsy grandfather of the victim touches Billy's face and says one word, "Thinner." Billy begins to quickly lose weight and no matter what he does he is facing death. Everyone involved in the case and the release of Billy including the judge and the sheriff are dying of strange diseases. The common cause seems to be the old gypsy grandfather who touched all those men and said one word to each one.

Billy begs forgiveness from the grandfather who tells him that if he doesn't leave the gypsy camp that his curse will get worse. Billy curses the gypsies as the White Man From Town because that is what the gypsies call him. Vengeance turns out to be a pie served cold!

I own the DVD and the book and I actually like the book better as it goes into much more detail as books often can do. The book is worth reading and is a good story line and entertaining. If you love Richard Bachman (Stephen King) it is hard to criticize him but this is a good story but not one of his best. It is still 5 stars and some of King's average books are far better than other author's best efforts.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it to you!

I found Thinner to be a rather surprising read. I had previously seen the movie, but the novel definitely gets into Billy Halleck's head much more and that's what really drives the story.

The premise of the story is fascinating. What could possibly be horrific about losing weight, especially for someone who is majorly overweight and lacks willpower and motivation? It would seem that Billy had found the miracle obesity cure. The cost - accidentally killing an old gypsy woman with his car and getting away with it. The victim's father curses Billy with a single word: thinner, and the weight just falls off.

What I found interesting about Thinner is Billy's attitude towards the entire ordeal. He begins to lose weight and knows something is wrong. Even in his denial, he somehow knows the weight loss is a bad thing connected to his accident. Billy isn't exactly a likeable character and while you can feel and relate to his terror, it's difficult to be sympathetic towards him. He's incapable of taking any sort of responsibility for his actions. He blames the accident on his wife even though he was driving. He blames the curse on the gypsy even though he isn't even remotely repentant for his actions. Everyone is to blame from the cop at the scene, to the judge who let him off, to the victim herself. Everyone except for Billy, who believes himself just as much a victim as the dead woman.

The real question in Thinner is who the evil party actually is. Is it the gypsy who's just looking for justice he can't find through legal means? Or is it Billy who escalates the violence against the clan, costing many more lives. As with many of the best King novels, the heart of the story resides within the main character's thoughts and personality.

Thinner isn't one of the most well known of King's books, nor one of his best. It is a solid read though. It's an intriguing, quick read that'll make you wonder who the real bad guy is.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=ZikvWB48LCQ
Please people with the money, if you buy a new book, include a used one in your shopping cart. That will help the store enormously in their storage, and it can help you too. At some places the price can’t lower to lesser a penny. Take a used book for a 0.01$ anywhere.
It has many usage including, “Cash4Books.net”
Recycle or Burn it for survival heat. Use two books as spacers to raise your monitor because it’s always better to view at eye leveled to the center of your screen. Even better, send it to donation, any library would take it, or the third world too.
Do not fear a book because it has no teeth!!
When you open your used book, wear gloves if you have to, then you’ll realize, “This book ain’t that back after all.”
Good read and peace!!
- Ricky

I didn't realize that books about gypsy curses were in my wheelhouse, but apparently they are. I enjoyed pretty much everything about this novel, from the gypsy curse to the reason for the curse to the main character's journey to break the curse. This is a rare case of Bachman/King including just enough information without overwhelming the story with too much detail.

Thinner is a captivating story about gypsy curses and "bigger than life" people who think they are above the law. Somewhat similar to a Kardashian vs. Little Orphan Annie. Billy Halleck is an overweight, prominent attorney with lots of friends in high places. He literally gets away with murder and because of his connections, gets off without even a slap on the wrist. However, the gypsies have something to say about that, and so the story unfolds. Talk about losing the baby weight, Billy finds out that a few pounds are a blessing once old man Lemke decides to help his dieting along. My favorite character is mafia man, Ginelli, and I was happy to see that the movie version turns out to my liking more so than the book. Both are definitely worth the read and the watch. Enjoy.

Steven King originally wrote Thinner under the pen name of Richard Bachman. The Bachman pen name was used as an outlet for King's darker side and this book fits right in with that theme. Billy Halleck has accidentally run down an old gypsy woman who was crossing the street. When he judge and sheriff whitewash the whole thing and Halleck gets off without so much as a warning, the old woman's father takes matters into his own hands, laying a curse on all three of them. Halleck's curse is "Thinner" and the overweight man begins to shed pounds no matter how much he eats. The curse continues to waste him away as he struggles to find the gypsy band and get the old man to remove the curse. When a mobster friend of Halleck's comes into the picture, things really start to heat up.

Thinner is an interesting book because the subject matter is fairly grim, and gets more so as the book progresses. At the same time, there's a type of gallows humor that is laugh-out-loud funny at times. This is one of King's shorter novels and the pace moves along nicely as a result. The main character is Halleck but his gangster friend, Richard Ginelli, steals the show. He's funny, larger than life, and very entertaining. Halleck isn't perfect but I did empathize with him and couldn't help pulling for him to get out from under the curse.

This is one of the more enjoyable King books that I've read, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. The ending is what one could call offbeat, so you have to be okay with just taking an enjoyable ride and not worrying too much about the destination.

Slimy lawyer Billy Halleck gets what's coming to him when he successfully evades prosecution after killing a Gypsy in a driving accident. Cursed by a surviving Gypsy to grow ever-thinner, the 246 pound Halleck begins dropping weight in a major way. As he seeks to remove the curse that's been placed upon him, Halleck enlists the help of a mafioso to escalate his battle with the gypsy tribe.

This is one of the books that marks Stephen King as a master of horror, even if it doesn't really contribute much to his legacy as a literary talent. The writing brings us a level of immediacy, and the language is so realistic that it draws you right in. The characters are believable, even if the mafia violence gets a little over the top.

The book is interesting because it leads us to sympathize with Halleck throughout his troubles, even though, when you think about it, getting off scot-free for murder isn't one of the traits that we admire in our fellow human beings. Halleck's repentance isn't even all that sincere, given that it comes after the gypsy has a leg up on him, and the one thing that he doesn't do, even when desperate, is turn himself in to the authorities for the murder. Nevertheless, we want Halleck to get his curse removed, if only because the specter of him shedding weight relentlessly is so disturbing. It's like The Biggest Loser on steroids.

In this early work, King does what he does best, and that's tell an engrossing tale that keeps us enthralled. Much more straightforward than his epics or even his shorter later works, the lack of sophistication is replaced by a kind of keenness that cuts right to the bone of the story.

If you've never read a book by King, you could do a lot worse than to start with Thinner. It may not be his best work, but in many ways it exemplifies what makes him so popular with his audience.

A man begins drastically losing weight after a brief encounter with a gypsy. Pound after pound drops away no matter how much he eats. Our hero is literally falling away to nothing, as mothers everywhere have warned would happen if one does not properly clear his plate.

But this whittling away has nothing to do with dietary habits. It's all about the gypsy and a strange, sly curse. Who but Stephen King could conceive of such an idea and then deliver it in such gripping, plausible fashion?

I'd like to assert that I would have recognized King's stylings in this had I read it before the Richard Bachman story broke. King was writing under the pseudonym and may have been enjoying the freedom of writing in relative anonymity. "Thinner" is an energetic book that doesn't linger long with backstory or anything else that detracts from the action.

It is with the same fascination that draws you to a carnival freak show that you will read this novel. There is a ghastly thrill about watching a successful, well fed man drop ten or fifteen pounds a day until he is little more than a flesh wrapped skeleton searching frantically for the gypsy who cursed him.

Whether you want to classify "Thinner" as a horror novel or not is entirely up to you. It is frightening but in a way vastly different that the spooks and chills administered by the leering vampire or crouching ghoul. "Thinner" is the story of a man betrayed by his own body. And few things are more disturbing than such a personal mutiny. With this one, King has done it again, no matter what name he listed on the book cover.

I bought 'Thinner' back when I discovered that Richard Bachman was actually Stephen King under a pen name, and was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining this novel was from the very beginning. What a stunning premise! After an unfortunate accident killing a Gypsy, our handsome lead character has his cheek brushed lightly by another who whispers one word, 'Thinner'. After this incident, he begins to lose weight...a LOT of weight -- and all without trying. Now is this the new miracle diet the world has been looking for? I doubt it. He eats and eats and continues to drop the pounds as though he were experiencing overnight liposuction without his knowledge.
As he goes from overweight to supermodel-thin in a short period of time, his fears multiply on a daily basis that he will die from this curse inflicted upon him and ultimately decides to seek help from Gypsys. This is (for me anyway) where the storyline went from a cool supernatural thriller to a hokey curse-driven
tale. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could have come up with a more believable ending, but for some reason, it just didn't add up. I can't exactly put my finger on what exactly it was that I feel short-changed me in the storyline, but suffice it to say that despite my feelings, this really is a first rate novel of suspense and is told well. Stephen King deserves his status as the greatest horror novelist of all-time, and while this may not be his greatest tale, it certainly was better than a lot of his other books that were hailed as great works of fiction. Judge for yourself, I think you'll like it anyway.

Thinner is the last of the Bachman books before the world officially knew that Richard Bachman was actually Stephen King (although by this point most fans were at least 90% sure.) As such, this novel is more in the style of king than in the more raw style that I found in the other earlier Bachman books.

Thinner is a great "revenge" novel. The story moves quickly and the main character's race against time keeps the pages turning at a fairly rapid pace. The nice thing about this one is that, in true King fashion, nobody is truly safe and almost everyone, in some way, truly deserves what they get in the end.

I really did enjoy this one and, though it's not amongst King's very best, it's right there on the second tier. It's a fun book (and the movie follows the novel fairly accurately) that I'll most probably enjoy again someday.

With a sickening thud, Billy Halleck realizes it is too late to turn around and re-do the last scene that had just occurred. If he had been paying attention, he would have seen the old gypsy woman crossing the street. Halleck never knew the long-lasting effects of the gypsy man with the rotting nose who had caressed his cheek afterwards and uttered the fateful word, "Thinner." But six weeks later and over ninety pounds lighter, he knows that it is too late to think about the past. Billy Halleck, a once good husband and loving father, finds himself on a wild goose chase down the coast, starting in Connecticut. He is searching for the gypsy who cursed him. Billy must also deal with the knowledge that everything thinks he is crazy, and no one believes his insane story. But it is only a matter of time before Billy is slowly killed by the curse.
Thinner, a horror novel by Stephen King, weaves together a book with all the elements of a suspenseful thriller. With his descriptive words and your imagination, he paints a picture in your mind so vivid, you would swear you were there with the characters in the book. Although it is an advanced book, it is a great read for anyone who needs a good, thrilling mystery with a twist that leaves you thinking. If Thinner appealed to you, other books such as Desperation or Firestarter would be wonderful books to read. Thinner is one of the best books you will ever read, not only because of its plot and interesting characters, but because you never quite know how it could turn out�

`Thinner' was written when Stephen King was writing under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman and although it definitely has the slightly unusual or scary influence King is renowned for, I wouldn't call this an outright horror novel. This follows a lawyer called Bill Halleck who is cursed by a gypsy so that no mater how much he eats, he continues to lose wait and get thinner. Halleck then tries to track down the gypsy to get the curse lifted until we reach the books inevitable conclusion. By King's standards this book is relatively brief, but you wouldn't want it to be any longer. In my opinion it is the perfect length and manages to keep you engaged right until the end when a minor twist is revealed. If you know King's writing style then you can tell this was written by him and as it's no secret that Bachman is/was King these days it even manages to sit well amidst his greater body of work as well. Worth a look if you a fan of Kings other books.

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So I saw the movie years ago and thought it was just ok. Needless to say I hardly remember the movie. I am currently trying to catch up on all of the Stephen King novels I never read and for some reason this jumped out at me. It was pretty good, I enjoyed this much more than the movie (or what I remember of the movie) and I'm glad I read it.

My only real complaint about this was King's portrayal of weight seemed a little off. I know 246 is over weight but it didn't seems to match just how obese the character was portrayed. Plus he says he is getting bone thin at 190 and I know that isn't the case.

Overall, I was intrigued by the whole story and it held my attention very well. Glad I read it but it was not one of my favorites by King.

Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, may have released this novel under a pseudonym for good reason. While King's work is never terrible, THINNER certainly isn't his best. Nonetheless, it is worth a read - but only for a true King fan. I don't think I'm a loyal King fan yet, but with works like THE STAND and PET SEMATARY, I think I am well on my way.
THINNER is about an overweight lawyer named William Halleck. Despite the fact his doctor has warned him he's nearing heart attack territory, other aspects of life are better. He's got a good job and earns a living that is more than adaquete. He has a wonderful wife and despite the fact he's a big guy, the two of them have an active sex life. Billy also has a 14 year-old daughter named Linda with whom he is quite close. Besides the weight issue, life is just peachy for Billy Halleck.
Until the gypsy's curse. He accidentally hits and kills the 75 year-old gypsy daughter and her family, including her 106 year-old father, yearn for revenge. So now, Billy is losing weight at a drastically alarming rate of about 9 or more pounds a week. He's being erased off the face of the earth, pound by pound. If he enlists the help of friend and Three Brothers restaurant owner Ginelli, will the livid, vengeance-seeking gyspsies surrender and remove their curse? Or will Billy eventually waste away to nothing but skin and bones?
Eh. I read on and found out. But if I hadn't, the suspense wouldn't have killed me, if you get the gist of what I'm saying.
"THINNER" is not as remarkable as other reads by King - and not nearly as memorable. Usually, his novels boast well-developed characters and an exhilarating plot filled with twists and turns. With the exception of the ending, I found this book to be more predictable than his others.
Whatever. You can't expect the man to churn out continuous hit after hit, can you?

This is really the only "Bachman" book that feels like an out-and-out Stephen King tale. And I don't really mean in tone, as King can get pretty dark in his own right, but "Thinner" just doesn't feel like a topic 'Bachman" would've written about. The Bachman stories are normally grounded in reality, even his stories that are set in the future, "The Running Man" and possibly "The Long Walk", both feel grounded in their reality. There are no magical or supernatural elements to any of the Bachman stories, but "Thinner" is steeped in both. I don't think it's a coincidence that not long after "Thinner" was published, King was outed as Bachman. "Thinner" reads exactly like a King novel.

Bill Halleck is a wealthy lawyer, living in a small Connecticut town with his wife and daughter. Sure, Bill has a weight problem, and may have to peer around his growing belly to see the numbers on the scale, but all-in-all, he's leading a good life, the "big fish in small pond", making all of the right friends and belonging to the right places.. One day when he takes his family to the town common to watch a band in the small park, a band of gypsies converges on the grounds. It's not long before they are hustled off by the local cops. The patchwork caravan take up residence in a farmer's field just outside of town. Bill Halleck's fortunes soon change when he's accidentally runs over one of the old gypsies as she jaywalks in town. Because of his connections and his position in town, the case is pushed through and Bill will face no legal ramifications from the accident. But the gypsies don't plan to let him off so easy.

"Thinner" is a good book, and something really different. There's no ghosts, no vampires or demons. I actually can't really think of too many other "curse" centric horror novels I've read? Bill's story is entertaining, but it could've gotten pretty stale. Luckily, just in time for the third act King introduces one of my favorite characters from any of his stories, Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli. A mob boss that gleefully takes up the fight against the gypsies on Bill's behalf. Ginelli is having so much maniacal fun, you can't help but get caught up in what the character is doing! I almost wish Halleck had brought him into the struggle at the beginning.

The best of the "Bachman" books for sure, with fully fleshed out characters and it packs one huge wallop of an ending.

This is definately King at his best--King as Bachman (the only time he failed with this name is with The Regulators.) This novel proves to be short, quick, and easy reading, but no weaker in quality because of it--stronger, in fact, than his several hundred page long works. The story is interesting, and adds original elements to the Gypsy Curse plotline. Many readers may find thereselves initially envious of our Lawyer/Protagonists new found diet plan; hit one Gypsy who isn't watching where she's going and you can shed the pounds quickly. But the envy is quickly replaced by horror as a formerly rotund man finds himself anorexic (minus the critical part of the medical deffinition: he does not think he is fat.) This book also makes you question certain aspects of justice and revenge: who is really the "good guy" and who is really the "bad guy." I find that the lines here sway back and forth until they are finally blurred beyond visibility. Also, should revenge be allowed to extend to the avenged against's innocent loved ones? Probably not, but you are still made to think.
This is a very worthwhile read, and one of King's Semi-masterpieces.

I thought this was a good book. I don't think it drags on like people say, although im the kind of person that likes details after details. I haven't read many Stephen King books so I can't really judge it based on others(which seems to be what reviewers are doing).

"A lot of guys don't believe what they are seeing, especially if it gets in the way of what they think or believe"(Page 220)

So for the story, its very good, and a very original idea. After running over an old lady from a gypsy group, her creepy father places a curse on the man who did it, as well as others who help him get out of surving time in jail. The curse gradually makes him thinner day after day no matter how much his body takes in. People begin to look in wonder at the man who was, before, overweight, and now thin as a stick. Problem is who will believe that a gypsy put a curse on him and help him get revenge on the evil gypsies before he thins himself to death? Read the book and find out.

This is not a Stephen King book, but a Richard Bachman book. A lawyer, one day, has some clintonian activity in his car with his wife while driving. he hits a jaywalking old gipsy woman and kills her. The police chief will excuse the driver. The judge will acquit him. But the father of the old lady will curse them three. And then it is a fight between the lawyer and the old gipsy man, a fight to death. The maffia will be brought into the picture and they will victimize the gipsies all along the Atlantic coast of New England. Finally the old gipsy man will take his curse back but in such a way that the lawyer will have to pass it to someone else, and he chooses his wife. But unluckily his daughter will be caught in the trap too and the lawyer will take the curse onto him again but with no possible return on the passing it on to other people. There is thus no escape, no future. The curse has to run its course to the end. This book is both suspense and total absolute fate. No way out of it. The simple reason why it is so fatalistic is because there is no light in man, just the dark side, dominant and all-invading. No fight between light and night, but only between night and night, between two darker shades of darkness. A thriller that has the taste of a moral tale about the deepest nature of man. But a moral that brings no salvation....

I can go ahead and put my finger on what's wrong with the ending for you, but that'll have to wait until after I get through the preliminaries. It's really unfortunate that this was the last Bachman Book, since the next one was supposed to be Misery. In terms of raw storytelling and characterization, this is pretty much on par with King's average, but the construction of the book itself is severely lacking.
This book is either intended to be a pretty bad story or a pretty confused tragedy. I cut it some slack and gave it three stars as a confused tragedy. The problem with this story in either incarnation is a truly terrible cast of characters. Generally speaking, you want your story to have a protagonist. This one doesn't, really--you can't identify with the gypsy because he's a jerk, and you can't identify with Billy because he's a cringing fool who refuses to take responsibility for anything.
It's that flaw that led me to think of this story as a tragedy--Halleck's tragic flaw does eventually lead to his own downfall, as well as a number of other people's. As a tragedy, the book isn't so bad, especially since tragedies really aren't written any more. The problem that it faces here, however, is that there is absolutely no denoument. You jump directly from crisis to....nothing whatsoever. The story ends quite abruptly, as it had to, considering the way King wrote it, and that doesn't work for a story where there's supposed to be some manner of catharsis.
Don't get me wrong--at least one of the characters is truly charming (the mobster), and that's to be envied, but even he can be hard to understand. This whole novel seems to have been written with little thought given to the direction that King wanted to take with it, and it shows in the final product. This isn't a bad book, but it's not one that I'd recommend to anybody other than a tried and true King fan.

Originally written as pen name Richard Bachman this is one of King's best books. It is not in the masterpiece league of Christine or It, but is not far off either. Billy Halleck is an obese family man, who is forced to undertake the ultimate weight loss program by an old gypsy avenging his daughter's death caused while Billy was enjoying the hand of his wife instead of concentrating on driving. Thinner was the curse he prophesised, touching him as he walked out of court after not being convicted of the old lady's death. Every day from then he has been losing weight. Although he has quite a bit to lose, if he doesn't stop the weight loss he will eventually die. The only way is to find the old gypsy and get him to lift the curse, but the gypsies have moved on and don't want to reverse it without a good reason.
This is definitely a can't put down thriller. Although you don't have a great liking for Halleck, you are gripped to know if he can stop his ultimate weight loss program before his demise. His psychological terror is also a highlight. One of King's best, definitely buy it.

After a successful Connecticut lawyer runs over and kills an elderly gypsy woman on a public road (while in the midst of being illicitly pleasured by his wife) he finds himself cursed by the dead woman's kin, who impose their punishment on him via uttering a single word, "Thinner..." The lawyer, an obese, cocky man, finds himself wasting away, dropping weight so rapidly day by day that his health is endangered. The lawyer's family and friends are aghast at his hideous transformation, which comes on him in the matter of a few short weeks, but nothing the man or even his doctors do arrests his radical weight loss. Facing death from a condition similar to anorexia, the lawyer fights back against those who have cursed him and enlists the aid of a thrill-loving gangster he once successfully defended against racketeering charges. With time running out and the lawyer's health spinning downward as fast as his weight itself, there comes a deadly confrontation between the migratory gypsy clan and the modern people who oppose them. Thinner was the longest and most success of the Bachman books King anonymously released at a point in his career just before he became the pop-culture icon he went on to be. It is a fast-moving story without clear delineations between good and evil, but its cast does run to the shallow side, unlike many of Stephen King's other novels and stories which feature characters who all-but radiate "life". Worth reading for a fan or by someone who wants a nice light tale, but not a classic or in the top half of King's works.

Thinner is a book of ups and downs. Some parts will have you sweating with suspense (The scenes with Hopley, with Leda, etc...) while others you'd wish you were reading another book (what's with the gypsy chase? That was dangerously boring). The characters were pretty average (I guess it's King's formula. Good people, evil situations) but still human. But the ending, oh boy.
I've read all over the internet, people keep complaining about the ending. Mainly because it's not the Hollywood ending, everyone hugs and walks towards the sunset. It really seems that King came up with an excelent idea for an ENDING, not a story. And he developed it into a nicely sized novel. And he managed to make it very interesting. The whole gypsy scenario, curses and everything isn't really the focus. It's just one of the million ways King could've used to get to the real message. And trust me, the message isn't "watch your diet".
Oh, that is definately NOT the real message.
Buy this book. Enjoy the good parts, bear through the boring parts, and watch in awe as the ending unfolds.

Warning there are spoilers in this review.

I have the hardcover book of Thinner which has a picture of a man that is not Stephen King on the back jacket cover. I don't know who this man is but the book definitely had lots of hints dropped seeming to be asking the question" who will be sleuth enough to discover Bachman is Stephen King ?" . Hints such as the setting being mostly Bar Harbor and Bangor Maine which is King's home stomping grounds and references like "this sounds like a Stephen King Novel" just screaming at subliminal messaging. There were probably some I didn't even catch. I especially am glad he mentioned Waldenbooks. I used to work for Waldenbooks a long time ago.
Any way the story was kept pretty much to the point without a lot of wandering off. It kind of had that eye for an eye feel to it. How many times have we heard or seen people getting off light for charges that would have been more severe if palms were not greased or they just happened to know someone with enough power to lessen the penalty?
The old gypsy seems to represent the eye for an eye kind of justice he knew he would not get from the legal system of our society. In the end the gypsy made it clear to Halleck that even though the curse would be lifted off of Halleck someone would be paying the price because it could not just go away. There was a blood debt to settle one way or another and the only way Halleck would get out of the curse was to pass it on to someone else and this was thru a Pie that the gypsy brought to their meeting. After Halleck put his own blood into the pie he was to choose who is to eat the pie and pass the curse from himself to someone else. Halleck wanted his wife, who he sees as the cause of the whole mess, and whom he seems to believe has abandoned him to eat the pie. Halleck brings the pie back home to his wife as a disguised as a peace offering. His daughter has been staying with an aunt to separate herself from all the emotional distress going on between her parents. However the daughter comes home unexpectedly the same night Halleck did after Halleck has gone to bed. When Halleck wakes up and realizes that not only did his wife eat a piece of the pie but his daughter It's too much for him and the story ends with Halleck also eating a piece of the pie.
I could see the ending being what it was because Halleck never wanted to see his daughter hurt and he is not going to be able to live with himself and watch his daughter die from a curse originally meant for him. His daughter after all continued to believe in him all the way and did not deserve it. What I'm wondering is just how much of the curse is really supernatural and how much was really brought on by subconscious beliefs. The cursed people seem to have this preconceived notion that the gypsies have supernatural abilities and that is what gypsies do when they are crossed is cast spells and curses. I'm thinking this may have contributed their decline in health more than anything. Heidi his wife did not suffer any effects from the curse and disbelieves Halleck and thinks him crazy to believe a curse was put on him. Also the old gypsy did not seem to concerned about Halleck putting a curse on him, the gypsy just had the problem eliminated by having Ginelli killed.
So by Halleck eating a piece of the pie in the end I have no doubts he would die however I'm not so sure that his wife and daughter would suffer the same fate. Because of all this the end of the story kind leaves an uncertainty for me. But I believe that is what makes it a good story because it keeps me thinking about it.

This book was exciting enough. It enthralled me for several nights. I got into the charactors, and my mind was gone for hours and hours while I read. The charactors are all dark. You really can't root for any charactor in the book, bacause they all have so many flaws. The mobster is a great charactor, but, he is a mobster after all, and enjoys hurting people. The gypsy's are made out as rogues. They are told to be unfeeling and rough, and only caring for themselves. There is no happiness, or goodness in this tale and that is why I liked it so much. Not everything turns out well if we wish it so. I would have given the book 5 stars, except I didn't like the ending. Oh, don't get me wrong, it goes well with the wishy washy charactor. I was just expecting something else is all. I read it, then put the book down, and said to myself, "That's how he's going to end this book?...Odd!". If you like Mr King, then you should, keyword being should, like this book.

Billy Halleck, a rather plump man, ran over and killed an old gypsy lady. Her father, also a gypsy, then placed a curse on Billy by caressing his cheek and saying "thinner". Billy starts to lose weight, but no one believes that it is the gypsy's fault. Billy's family and friends think that Billy is just thinking himself thin. At one point, Billy was quite slender and je just could not take it anymore. Billy left home and went to a hotel. Billy found out about a gypsy fair in town. Once Billy went to the fair, one of the gypsies shot a ball bearing through his hand as a way of saying "leave us alone". A few days later Billy returned and the old gypsy man had a pie. The gypsy cut a hole in the crust and then opened Billy's scab and put the blood in the pie. The gypsy explained that now the pie had the curse and unless Billy got someone to eat the pie and get the curse, then Billy would get the curse again. Billy did not know who he should give the curse to. Read the book to find out!!

To start out with, this was the very first novel of Stephen King that I have ever read (I am currently working on Pet Sematary). I heard that King was a very spooky author who made his books eerie and creepy. Thinner, well... It wasn't 'scary', per say; definitely eerie, but nothing that made me cringe or wince painfully.

It was, however, very suspenseful. Every chapter made me want to read more and more (there were some rather slow parts in the beginning, but...). There are also lots of flashbacks in the book, from when Billy hits the Gypsie man with his car to the end of the book.

Looking back at this book, I have to say that the plot was kind of... Not random, but... Odd, in a bad way. So a fat guy hits a Gypsie man's daughter with his car, and the gypsie man curses him, making him losing a couple of pounds a day. While this does make for a suspenseful plotline, it does not make for a very solid plotline (to me anyway). Overall, the book was good, and you should definitely read it if you're a fan of Stephin King.

This being the first book by him that I read, I'm definitely coming back for more and, after reading this, you definitely should too!

Thinner is one of Stephen King's more disturbing novels, one that sort of drags along without giving any hope for the protagonists. King goes out of his way to hammer home the point that everyone in the novel must be held accountable for their actions one way or another, and throughout the story you're hoping that at least one character gets unscathed having learned their lesson, but this is not the case. Unlike most King books, this one starts off fast, with Billy Hallek under the gypsy's curse and losing weight when the story begins before going back and explaining how Halleck got into such a jam using multiple flashbacks. In this book King heavily relies on his patented internal dialogue and has Halleck arguing with himself quite a bit when he initially notices that he's lost some weight and tries to reassure himself the loss is healthy. This becomes increasingly difficult as the pounds continue to drop off and his weight loss becomes more apparent to others, leaving Billy to his own devices as her tries to rationalize the doctor's explanations for his disease with what is actually happening to him, all while being aware, but in denial of, the fact that his problem has been caused by the supernatural.

Whenever Hallek tries to forget about his problems and reconnect with his wife, the word "Thinner" persistently appears in the text. Most of the horror sequences in the book are relayed via recurring dreams that bring to mind the scariest portions of "The Library Policeman" from Four Past Midnight. Also this book continues the trend of King characters having at least one inexplicable laughing fit at some point during the story, this one occurring near the end which distorts Hallek's thinking and ultimately seals his fate. The book has a herky jerky feel to it due to all of the flashbacks and dream sequences, and as a result never gets beyond the premise outlined in the first couple of pages. The message will stick with you, but it's unlikely you'll want to read it again.

This is not the best or worst from Stephen King based on the novels of his that I've read. The idea is great and the story has an evil undercurrent running through it which is a trademark of Kings.
The basic story is how lawyer Billy Halleck and two others from his town cross a gypsy elder who then lays a different curse on each of them. Billy's curse is that he just keeps getting thinner, regardless of what he eats, every day he loses a few more pounds. The two other townsfolk have horrid curses inflicted on them, I don't want to give too much away but the reason for the skin disease is a bit confusing to me.
The curses themselves are absolutely disgusting and if King's idea was to make me feel a bit ill, it worked. Only thing is that it detracts from the enjoyment of the book. I prefer the scary approach to his novels. He also has a tendency to paint his main characters with flaws that leave you unsure as to whether you should hope they get out of the predicament or are happy for them to meet the fate they deserve. Once you meet the gypsies and find they are just as despicable as the cursed characters the book just becomes a race to the end to find out what happens. You don't end up barracking for anyone.
One character I did enjoy was the Ginelli, the New York mobster who comes to save Billy. He has an honesty that the other characters seem to lack but his motivation for getting involved in the situation as deeply as he does is unclear, and his fate is predictable.
Plenty of shocks and horror but it appears to be one that was done with less care than many of his others. However it is comparitvely short so if you are a fan and don't want to commit to one of his lengthy efforts then this is worth a try.

This is the second Stephen King book that I've read, and like the other one (pet semetary), I noticed the intriguing writing style that he posseses, which makes it impossible to put down. Also the story and the plot are interesting.
This is about a fat lawyer who runs over an old Gypsy woman, and is then let off by a womanizing judge and a police chief. Our fat friend is then tracked down by the woman's very elderly gypsy father, and is cursed by him. I won't reveal what else happens, except that he loses alot of weight.
Books are very personal to each of us, and to me this one just did not have characters that I could relate with. They are all pretty sleezy. The ending also was also kind of lame in my opinion. Still, this was an easy read, and I must admit that I was entertained. So there you have it.

If you like to read mystery and horror stories this book is for you. This book is
about a man named Billy Halleck that is very rich and over weight. One day he is driving
along and he starts to argue with his wife Heidi, and not paying any attention to the road
he hits a gypsy man and kills him and the gypsy man's wife cast a thinner spell on him.
This spell, unwillingly makes you lose weight rapidly, Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
And if it is how is he going to stop the spell?
I think this book was a big success and it was interesting down to the very last word, also
this book is write by the most creative and popular author to every create a book. I
suggest this book to people that like to read horror and mystery stories.
by: D.M.

This is the book that resulted in Stephen King being forced to reveal that he was Richard Bachman. It's very clear why. From the first page, this can only be a Stephen King novel. Looking back on it now, I'm amazed that King thought he could get away with this one being published under a different name. It's an excellent story that moves along at a quick page. At 300 pages, its one of Kings shorter works, but it will stick with you well after you read it.

I said that this is the book that killed Richard Bachman, because after this, Bachman "officially" died of cancer (though King did eventually release two more books under the Bachman name).

wow, have many reviewers misunderstood this book. in this book SK avoids any stereotypes, and everyone misunderstands him. SK never describes his main character as a hero, the old gypsy is never described as a villain, and he feels his wife has betrayed him. she doesn't understand, and she actually does betray him (sort of), and she wants him in an institution. it's not about how you feel the guy should be, it's about how the guy is. i understood the character perfectly. not how i would have thought of things, but it was still realistic. anyway, this guy runs over a gypsy. through the trial he gets help and gets off. as a result he and his helpers are cursed. in his case: he will besome thinner untill he dies. he ignores the whole thing at first, but as he loses weight he begins to take it seriously. he must hunt down the one who cursed him. there is a lot of chemistry in the family in this plot. other reviewers have given away the plot, but i still won't. it was an okay read. but the plot wasn't that great, the suspence just okay carried out. all in all it was very mediocre. but i did not feel that anything was hard to get, or find anything unrealisic.

Stephen King is the master of giving me the creeps. This book was no exception. Billy Halleck, an overweight well-to-do lawyer, messes up big time and hits an old gypsy woman with his car and kills her. Billy gets off scot-free which pisses the gypsies off, so they curse Billy. Billy loses weight faster than an anorexic, wasting away to nothing. I guess what really creeped me out the most was how the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. It got me thinking about how much we depend on doctors to fix us if we get sick and how scary it would be to have a mysterious disease no one had seen before. Needless to say, this was worth a read during a long summer day.

'Thinner' had an interesting 'Twilight Zone' premise, a good, fast-moving beginning, and a suspenseful conclusion, which just made the rest of the book worth reading. Unfortunately, the middle section, in which Ginelli takes over the action, and merely reports back to Billy, brought the story's pace to a near-standstill.
King/Bachman might have been better off reducing this to a short story, and eliminating the tired cliches of both "mob boss" Ginelli and "foreigner with bad command of English" Lemke.
Halleck and his wife, at least, were developed beyond the shallow, superficial level. But, as others have pointed out, neither of them were truly deserving of the readers' full sympathy.
Even the scary, unknown nature of Halleck's plight was diminished by the similar afflictions of other characters, which lent to the repetitive nature of the majority of the story.

Fans who 'hunger' for a great SK story may need to look elsewhere to really satisfy their appetites.

This just goes to show that bad things happen to bad people. Billy is a stereotypically bad, ruthless, selfish lawyer, who failed to do the right thing.

As a result he is curse by a gypsie. He laughed it off, but started seeing the results of the curse. All parties involved were being punished too.

It is a simple reminder to me that do the right thing and Karma won't step up and bite you in the ass.
The ending was perhaps one of the best I've ever come across.

I read this book little after King had to step out as the man behind "Richard Bachman". Hiding under a nom de plume allowed King to make some of his most creative work. This novel is proof of it.
O.K. So maybe a gypsy curse doesn't seem a fresh, new idea. But the whole scenario he builds for Billy Halleck after he is touched seems possible, making it the more horrific. In the book, Billy thinks at first he is wasting away because he might have cancer. These days, AIDS would be another good option about the "sickness" he catches.
With just one single supernatural element (the curse), the story is left to play on the grounds of "reality". The effect is haunting.

For my book review for the mystery story “Thinner” by Stephen King a lawyer named William Halleck. During his visit to the doctor, he warns about William nearing a heart attack. Despite that, other aspects of his life are better it gets because he earns more wages with his career. He also has an active sex life with his wife despite his weight. He also has a 14-year-old daughter named Linda who he is close with. He accidentally hits and kills the 75 year-old gypsy daughter and her family, including her 106 year-old father, yearn for revenge. This leads to a gypsy's’ curse that he loses 9 pounds per week that gets him “thinner”. Now he has two choices either enlist to the Three Brothers restaurant or waste away off the face of the Earth. This story I would describe as one of Stephen King’s suspenseful novels.

Over the years, Stephen King used the psuedonym Richard Bachman to put out a few paperback novels that really weren't the typical Stephen King efforts. Rage, The Long Walk, The Running Man & Roadwork were all mildly received with little or no fanfare and that was that. Then came a little ditty named Thinner. Dedicated to his imaginary wife Caludia Inez Bachman, Richard Bachman's 5th shot at dark fiction would prove to be his last. More supernatural than the previous Bachman books, Thinner reeks of Stephen King. Reading it back then, and reading it now, maybe insight plays tricks with use, but Thinner is so Stephen King it's obvious.

Billy Halleck plows into an old Gypsy woman while his wife is fondling him and winds up in court on charges of vehicular manslaughter. The charges are cleared and up and coming lawyer, country club member Halleck is exonerated without so much as a slap on the wrist. Out of the crowd comes the old Gypsy man with the rotting nose, he caresses Billy's cheek and whispers the word "Thinner".

Enter the modern day version of the old Gypsy curse. Billy, like old man says, starts getting thinner and thinner and thinner.

Misery was supposed to be the final book by Richard Bachman, but he never made it that far. Are we sad. Not really. Thinner is a helluva way to got out. Straight-forward horror. Dark and dreadful and filled with tight clusters of laughs as only Stephen King can deliver. Highly entertaining. Written at a time when Steve-O was still at the top of his game.

Dig it!

I just finished listening to this audiobook, and I really don't know where AudioFile gets off slamming Joe Mantegna's performance. He did a wonderful job with the different character's voices, especially the old gypsy and mobster. His performance certainly kept me entertained while commuting to and from work.

Stephen King also did an admirable job, and I enjoyed the book a lot. It has its warts, but overall it was a clever parable about revenge and indulgence. There was really only one scene that gave me an, "Oh, come on!" reaction, and that was when the main character conveniently encounters the retiree in the bar who tells him the anecdote about the gypsies. What were the chances that in such a crazily crowded resort town that Billy would run into this guy? Kind of thin, I would say. The ending of the story was also a bit predictable, and I think King relied way too heavily on dream sequences as a plotting device.

But still, it was a pretty good book. I particularly admired King's invention of the Italian mobster character as a way to escalate the story's conflict without exacting a price against our sympathy for the main character. If it had been Billy Halleck committing all those deeds--poisoning dogs, shooting cars full of holes, and threatening to kill pretty young women--then we would've liked him a lot less. But by assigning those actions to a secondary character who reacts to these events with shock and abhorrence, the story could advance and leave our sympathy for the main character intact.

Even then, those clever mechanisms of characterization weren't enough for me to completely like Billy Halleck. From the beginning, he was a repellant character: an overweight lawyer who, through his town's good ole boy network, escaped a vehicular manslaughter conviction. That's a tall deck to stack against your own protagonist at the beginning of a story and still hope to generate reader sympathy. And yet King still managed to make me like Billy, somewhat, through most of the book.

The only other thing I have to say is that I wish the character of the young, pretty gypsy girl hadn't just dropped off the map towards the end of the story. Yes, she served her purpose well, but there was such a great setup about her that I wish she could have taken a more meaningful role towards the end.

I like this book pretty well, though it wasn't my favorite of King's yet.
William Halleck a lawyer with a happy family needs to lose some serious weight, or he's headed into heart-attack field. One day though, when he runs over a gypsie's daugther, and kills her. He is let off the hook however, except for being cursed by the girl's father."Thinner," he says to William. And from then on, William loses more and more weight to the point of emaciation.
William may die unless someone can do something to remove the curse.
This is all I will say in my brief review of the book. It is a bit of an exciting read, but not the overall best of King's talents as a writer.

Of the five books that Stephen King published under the pen name of Richard Bachman, three of them involved making the numbers of the chapters part of the story. In "The Running Man" there was a countdown as the game progressed while in "The Long Walk" the miles added up. In "Thinner" each chapter gives us the weight of the protagnoist, Billy Halleck, as it plummets relentlessly down. As with his classic short story about smoking, "Quitters, Inc.," King took an American obsession and turned it into a nightmare come true. The cataylst for Billy's weight loss is that old chesnut, the gypsy curse. While driving one night Billy is, uh, distracted by his wife and runs down the elderly daughter of Tadzu Lempke, the leader of a band of gypsies who have invaded the town. Billy is a lawyer and his friends, the judge and police chief, make sure the woman's death is ruled an accident. But before Billy can celebrate, Tadzu touches him and utters the one word curse: "Thinner."
What makes "Thinner" the best of the Bachman books is that King works a whole bunch of other elements into the story. Unlike his earlier Bachman efforts with tended to be one note (e.g., walk till you drop), "Thinner" pours on the fun. Billy's family and doctors are overjoyed by his weight loss at first, but then it continues at an alarming rate, even as Billy spends all of his time eating everyting in site. They insist it is a psychological problem, or perhaps physiological, but a gypsy curse is beyond their ability to believe. Not so for Richie Ginelli, a mobster who is one of Billy's most grateful clients. Ginelli is old school and his mother knows about gypsy curses, so Richie is more than willing to fight fire with fire. Tadzu curses Billy. In an act of desperation Billy proclaims the Curse of the White Man from Town. Richie does everything he can to make that curse come true in an effort to force the old man to "take it off."
That campaign is what elevates "Thinner" above the rest of the Bachman books. In the world of Stephen King fighting back is always the most difficult part of the equation and I like the fact that this time around the effort is grounded in the real world. The gypsies have curses but Richie has automatic weaponry and a cunning honed in the underworld. The end result is that as you read "Thinner" you become open to the possibility that Billy might get out of this one alive, if only they can stop Tadzu's granddaughter Gina with her slingshot and ball bearings. There are other complications in Billy's life that add to the fun of the denoument, such as whatever is going on between Billy's wife and his doctor, so that once King gets the ball rolling it keeps picking up speed as it goes down that hill. We are not talking great fiction here, just a story that gives you second thoughts over every trying another diet.

When people talk some of Stephen King's strongest horror novels, invariably Thinner gets overlooked. I'm not sure why. It's a terrifying novel that provides everything that good horror needs. There's a protagonist who goes through all the necessary arcs and challenges. There's a powerful motive in the curse of a gypsy. There's a great amount of chase/action as the protagonist goes about finding the gypsy and having the curse lifted. And there's the resolution which in both premeditation and execution is 100% horrifying.

I read Thinner when it was first released and knew nothing about it. It scared the crap out of me! The gypsy curses alone on the three men were enough to give me nightmares. And, if that's what you're looking for...nightmares and crappy pants...then look no further than Thinner.

People don't give a lot of credit to Thinner but even though it wasn't King's finer books, it still had a great plot and a great ending. This book I would give 4 and a half stars instead.
This book was about a guy named Billy Halleck who was cursed by a gypsy. He is now growing thinner by the day. The only way to get him back to normal is by finding the gypsies and asking them to reverse the curse. Along the way he meets up with hs friend Ginelli and he causes problems with the Gypsies.
What I am trying to say about this book is that it is a great book. People think a SK book has to be scary. This book was his least scariest but very suspenseful. The ending also had a twisted ending. Read it and you will see why.
So, to get this book or not? I think you should get this book because it is a great story and sometimes humorous. Thnk twice about not getting this book.

Under normal circumstances, I would hail Stephen King as a great writer, at least within his own genre. He's imaginative, original and intelligent. But, "Thinner" was a horrible excuse for a book. It was written more like a bad TV-movie than a story to be enjoyed by his hardcore fans. Well, I'm not a hardcore anything.
Perhaps if the last half of the book wasn't spent chasing the Gypsies Matlock-style it wouldn't have been so bad. Needless to say, I was entirely bored with Halleck and Ginelli's shenannigans(sp?).
Furthermore, I think Stephen King should watch his ethnic stereotypes. All this book needed to validate it as a piece of dog turd was the tiresome cliche that Ginelli was:a gangland type killer. Mr. King's white-guy-makes-good status is getting to his head.

"Thinner" is SK having a "bad hair day". As far as I know, "Thinner" is one of the first stories written by this excellent author, brought back to life when he was already famous and wanted to "make an experience" using a pen-name. The plot itself is interesting. The way the young Mr. King/Bachman wrote the book is not.

Billy Halleck is a fat lawyer who ran over an old gipsy lady and unwillingly killed her. Because of that he was cursed by one of the other, older gipsies. The curse was only one word: "Thinner". As the chapters pass, Billy looses his weighy, his family and seems to be loosing his mind too, while he goes after the gipsy camp in order to have the curse taken back from him.

"Thinner" is not that bad a book when viewed alone. But if you compare it to other Stephen King books - or even Richard Bachman with "The long walk" and "The running man" - "Thinner" is clearly one of his weakest efforts. Apart from Billy, only one character is worth mentioning - the others are all thin ideas of people, even the supposedly bad guy of the story, the old gipsy Taduz.

I think this book should be read as a way of knowing how an author can evolve during his career.

Grade 4.5/10

After knocking down the relative of a gypsy,a lawyer now faces the wrath of the gypsy's relative.A way of suffering that is unthinkable.Imagine getting thinner by the hour.Until death is on the corner...Nigel

"about an obese lawyer who experiences a dramatic and ultimately dangerous weight loss as a result of a Gypsy's curse. It was the penultimate novel which King released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym; the initial hardcover release included a fake jacket photo of "Dicky".

The novel deals with social issues such as materialism and how people gain and express power within their daily life. Additionally, the Gypsy curse provides ample opportunity for numerous musings on the nature of guilt."
Reference:[...]%28novel%29

I remember watching the movie and I really liked it. When I was looking for ebooks through the Public Library system, I saw this book and decided to rent it. I enjoyed the book also. I've liked everything by Stephen King so far. He's never let me down

I liked this book. A lot. Stephen King is good at writing lengthy novels that don't really scare, but make you think "Hey, that was pretty damn cool". This book isn't very long; but that seems to be of little importance. The fact is that of all the books Stephen King has written, this is the one with the scariest ending. Gypsy curses and the overall moral message of the book "You Are Responsible For Your Actions!" all come to a nice crescendo. An actual feeling of horror (ok, maybe not horror but a feeling of unease) sticks with you after you read the book. There is actual impact in retrospect of this book. It will bother you (provided you possess a soul). By the way, DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE FIRST!!!! It will ruin the book. Read the book first, then watch the horrible movie. If not for anything other than the small part the author plays.

Under normal circumstances, I would hail Stephen King as a great writer, at least within his own genre. He's imaginative, original and intelligent. But, "Thinner" was a horrible excuse for a book. It was written more like a bad TV-movie than a story to be enjoyed by his hardcore fans. Well, I'm not a hardcore anything.
Perhaps if the last half of the book wasn't spent chasing the Gypsies Matlock-style it wouldn't have been so bad. Needless to say, I was entirely bored with Halleck and Ginelli's shenannigans(sp?).
Furthermore, I think Stephen King should watch his ethnic stereotypes. All this book needed to validate it as a piece of dog turd was the tiresome cliche that Ginelli was:a gangland type killer. Mr. King's white-guy-makes-good status is getting to his head.

This tale reminds me of The Mist, a short story he wrote, or a B movie. You know it isn't real, and it's disgusting, but you can't walk away. I suppose you could say that about all of SK's books, Salem's Lot being the lone exception--that was true horror, in my opinion, if you allow yourself to loosely accept the myth of vampires, and it was done with style. However, this book disappointed me with its repetitive phrases, which were mediocre at best. The plot kept me intrigued but it was too unbelievable. It was like a dream where its so unreal you know its a dream. I like to be swept up in the plot where that doesn't happen. Even so, I can't rate it any less than three stars because it did hold my interest. I also thought it clever that at some point in the story the character says, "this is almost like a Stephen King novel." That cracked me up.

THINNER, which was originally written in 1984, is a very effective novel. I've read most of King's books, and I would place this one in the top half. This book isn't necessarily horrific or scary, but it's pretty suspenseful. Unlike some of King's later books, this novel is short and tightly written, and it kept me interested until the very end.

This novel deals with a overweight lawyer who is rapidly growing thinner, due to a curse inflicted upon him by gypsies. THINNER is unique in the sense that the main character is not a particularly heroic person, and in many ways is trying to escape responsibility for his own actions. This may turn off some readers, but I enjoyed this story's moral complexity. The ending of THINNER won't please everyone, but I felt it was appropriate and consistent with the overall point of the storyline.

This novel isn't a classic, but it's a solid effort by one of the best genre writers around. Highly recommended for King fans.

I really enjoyed this story. I would have liked a slightly different ending, but I was surprised which was a good thing. This story had good imagery and pace, and I connected with Billy Halleck, the main character. His journey was interesting and spooky. I know one thing: I don't want any old drifter touching me after reading this story.

I really enjoyed Thinner. I read it during Halloween for book club. We each chose a Steven King book, and this is the one that I chose. I had seen the movie, so I wanted to read the book. I think the book is a lot better than the movie. I enjoyed this book because of all the taboo things that occurs to the main character. I loved the aspect of the gypsies and this big curse that the main character was dealing with. The idea of how they were going to remove the curse opened a whole new can of worms. I was very interested, and glad to obtain more details about the story from the book than what I got from the movie! I loved the characters in this book, and it was interesting to see how the curse played a key role in their lives as well. Great book!

Stephen King's "Thinner" is a heart-pounding thriller that will keep you awake until late hours of the night. Stephen King, the author of "The Shining" and "Carrie", has constructed an excellent piece of literature. After reading the last page of "Thinner", you'll be left wondering just how close your family ties are.
The main character of "Thinner" is Billy Halleck, a largely overweight lawyer. He has a wife, Heidi, and a daughter named Linda. They enjoy a peaceful suburban life . That is, until the night Billy hits the old gypsy woman with his car. From here on, Billy will continue to lose a tremendous, not to mention dangerous, amount of weight. Billy, with the help of his mob friend, attempts to chase down the solution to his problem. The book closes with a multitude of surprising plot twists. As the pages turn, the excitement grows.
While "Thinner" is a great read, no book is without its flaws. Some of the chapters were repititious, sometimes repeating the same type of occurances. Some of the others, on the other hand, tended to be a bit boring and drawn out.
Even with its flaws, "Thinner" is an excellent novel for any thrill-seeking readers. Stephen King did not rest with this one, it was highly entertaining and well-written.

"Thinner", more than some of the other King fiction I've read, is a fun book. Yes, it's gruesome, and yes the end is a downer--but it's also a clever, darkly comic exploration of classism, vanity, loyalty, and the danger of passing the buck. Though the book noticeably slows in the middle, and the characters are mostly threadbare and unsympathetic, the ending may get you thinking at length about the guilt and innocence--exactly when *is* murder wrong, or vengeance unjustified?

All in all, a good book.

The novel, as the title and back flip suggest, is about a man losing weight. And as he loses his weight you can see his sanity and family ties go with it.
The book is my favorite Bachman choice so far as it actually has an ending I didn't expect and I can usually pick out an ending a mile away. One thing I will always commend King for is his ability to make stories realistic. The story line is good and he gives his characters different takes on the situation which brings it together as a whole. The book reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode dragged out as the eeriness of a Rod Serling story can be seen on every page. Definitely a must read for Stephen King fans and it still remains a nice novel to pass the time with.
4 stars because Bachman never seemed to pack that winning punch that allows me give out that rare 5th star. It and the Stand stand as a few King exceptions. Its a fun way to take some time off.

I started the book a few weeks before I saw the movie. I enjoyed book. To me, I thought about the moral. Revenge doesn't pay. I thought about how I would feel if I were placed in Billy's shoes. His wife turned on him and sided with the doctor. His daughter didn't understand what was going on and he certainly couldn't explain it to her, no time. But in the end, he realizes that he took all the time trying to get the curse off and it just got him back to where he was in the beginning...nowhere

I never thought I'd find a Stephen King book that deserves such a low grade... The story tends to repeat itself: looking back, I can't distinguish between the scenes where Billy's friend harrasses the gypsies, nor between the different towns and places Billy himself was chasing them through... The worst part for me though, was having a scene from "The Pet Semetary" recreated almost word to word: the husband trying to hide something from a wife that's coming slowly up the stairs, and stops at the last one when the husband finally finds the "magic words" that do the trick...

This book is very good. The narrator is OK, but I've heard better. I have read other of King's works and have to say that I liked some his others better. This book is still good though, with a very imaginative and creepy story. Some of the language and sexual discriptions were a bit unnecessary though...not that I'm a prude, but I didn't see where they contributed.
I have read every review on this website and have to disagree with some of them. To me a boring book is one that I put down, before I finish the first chapter. If someone reads an entire book and then calls it boring...well that just doesn't make sense why anyone would read a book all the way through, if it is that boring. Anyway, the book was a little slow to start, but it picked up, and whether you want to see the curse lifted from the main character or not, you still felt for the guy and at least wanted to see how it turned out for him.
King's descriptiveness fails to falter. He mastery for creeping and grossing the reader (or listener, in this case)out doesn't fail. This is, after all, why we like King. I havn't seen the movie, but did enjoy this audio. Again, not his best...but definately not the worst book ever, either. I recommend this one as a better title. Signature Stephen King

This was a suspenseful bbok written by Stephen King. It was at a reading level for more advanced and more mature readers. I would suggest 8th graders and above to read this book. This book was about a man and his wife and daughter who's probelms all start when he runs over an old gypsy woman. Her father lays a gypsy curse on him and two of his friends also. He starts at around 300 pounds and within a month, weighs under 115 pounds. His family gets very worried about him because they think he has cancer. he finally tracks down the gypsy band and talks to the old gypsy man who laid the curse on him, who is the only one who can help him. The Gypsy helps him, but the ending is very messy. If you are someone who likes suspenseful books, with lots of detail and action along the way, I would recommend it. This book kept my attention the whole time and I finished it in the matter of a few days. let me tell you, I hate reading and I thought this book was very good. I even read during classes that weren't my english class and before that, I rarely even picked up a book to look at the cover. I think even if you are a person who likes fantasy this is a good book for you all to read. Because the plot is very unlikely and crazy. It makes you think about things that normally, you wouldn't think about and some things you have to figure out for yourself. This was a very well written book and I would suggest it to almost anyone.

It was ok. Not a typical Stephen King book, but that may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you think of Stephen King books. The premise was good and the plot developed well through the first 2/3 of the book. I think it faltered towards the end. It's a decent read and I don't feel that I wasted x number of days of my life for reading it... I just wasn't bowled over.

Enjoy!

THIS BOOK REALLY WAS A DISAPOINTMENT I HAVE PLACED MANY MANY ORDERS FOR BOOKS THIS ONE LOOKED LIKE A DOGS CHEW TOY.. ALFUL ALL THE OTHERS I HAVE ORDERED OVER 30 STEPHEN KING BOOKS THIS IS A REAL HORROR THIS GOES IN THE TRASH.. NOT ON MY HUBBYS BOOK SHELF

I read this novel in under 48 hours. I was glued to my seat 5 hours at a time unable to move, hypnotized as king once again weaved his web of sheer brillance before my eyes. Or should we say, RICHARD BACHMAN. I consider thinner to be nothing short of pure triumph for king. The way he takes us on a journey with billy helleck in search of a gypsy that destroyed his life. A 5 star book with a knockout ending, the master has done it again.

As a high school senior, I am always looking for a book that gets my attention and holds it. I have found that book. It is THINNER By Stephen king. At the start of the book I thought that it would just be an ok book, but as I read farther and farther into it, I found out that I was wrong. I found that it is a great book to read with many twists and turns.

AT the beginning of the book it starts out with a memory coming back to Billy.

It was of the old gypsy man with the rotting nose whispers to Billy and his wife after they leave the court house. Farther in the book Billy skin starts to decay and turn all scaly and that's when all the problems start.

The book is an interesting look at what happens when you mess with a gypsy and what it does to you and every one you love. As you read you will see what happens to Billy and the ones he loves.

Overall, I believe this is a good book for seniors or any high school student to read. I recommend this book for older students because of the language and the graphic details that are given in the book. I also recommend it to people from age 15 and up who like sci-fi.

This is a fine old novel in the tradition of those movies King talks about in "Danse Macabre" ("The Man With X-Ray Eyes" etc). It's hard to find something truly scary about this--I think the real key to its success is just what the gypsies can DO to you. A classic horror tale told in the same classy tradition of "Pet Sematary". Goes ideally with "Sematary" into any horror collection. King's novellas at their best.

I believe this book was exciting pretty much all the way through it. There were parts where your mind would drift off but usually because you were imagining what was happening in the book at that time. Stephen King has a great way of making you see and feel what the main character of the book is going through. Billy Halleck is a lawyer that gets in a accident with his wife in the car. In the accident he hits an old Gypsy women and kills her. Later Billy and his wife see an old Gypsy man with a horrid looking nose. He brushes his elder hands against Billy's cheeks and whispers the word "Thinner." Billy has a hard time forgetting about this incident. Especially when he notices a change. He is now losing weight at a dangerous rate. All that Billy keeps thinking is the old Gypsy man whispering the word "Thinner," and can't help but think that the old Gypsy has given him a curse. No one believes him, not even his wife and all of them consider him to be loony. He decides to leave and calls an old friend. Richard Ginelli, an Italian fellow who is the only one that seems to listen to Billy. Then the real action begins. It does take a little bit for the story to kick in but the whole time it keeps you thinking. It shows how far vengeance can go and that it never stops until everyone pays. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Stephen Kings work.

King does a good job in telling the tale of a careless obese businessman who accidently kills a gypsy woman and is then cursed. This curse, though, is wickedly unique because it is one that makes the fellow lose weight at alarming rate. Soon the lie of the old saying that one cannot be too thin is soon exposed as the businessman gets thinner and thinner.
For fans of King and those who like a good horror tale, this is a good book to pick.

Thinner seems to be descriptive of more than just the lead character in this book. The plot, and subtext are also afflicted with this gypsy's curse. While King's usual writing style leans heavily on sudden graphic detail, Thinner is based primarily on screenplay melodrama.
I believe this book to be much like the filler in a good cigar, all substance and no flavor.
Stay away from lame curses, and stick to angry cats and Randall Flagg's.

I have to admit that I've come to expect something a little more fast-paced from demented Dicky Bachman than the slowly struggling story line in Thinner (considering how short the novel is, it should have gone by at a slightly brisker pace, you know what I'm saying?), but it had a twist ending that left me half satisfied with myself for guessing the how it would finish, but also half [angry] because I wasn't surprised at all. As for the idea of the story, I'll have to also admit that it is a little "goosebumpy". It doesn't really set a very scary atmosphere, and you end up not caring if the guy gets the curse taken off of him or not. The only thing that dirties it up to King level is the fact that his wife was giving him head when he killed the old gypsy lady. It is entertaining enough to be worth reading, but it won't go down in history as one of the author's best.

I have to admit that I have only read a couple of King's novels, but I can still tell that this is not up to his usual brilliance. Quite why Halleck does what he does at the end is a real mystery to me. It falls short firmly on this matter. It does have its moments, but they are by far and away outweighed by the failings of this novel. You can read worse books than this, but compared to King's other titles, it just doesn't cut it!

Out of the six Richard Bachman stories Ive read, I can easily say THINNER takes the top spot although Im sure in a year or so, I'll change my mind. Tastes change with the times. The writing and story go together hand in glove. Bachman's narrative is ,as always, without peer so this book cruises along with confidence. THINNER is a lean, mean book, no pun intended. Nice Job Richard!

Perhaps I have an immunity to the chills of Stephen King's writing, but this book is not scary. The storyline itself is about an overweight lawyer who gets cursed for killing a gypsy woman and begins to lose weight... without ever reaching a limit. As his friends and family all become frightened and baffled by his inexplicable weight loss, the lawyer is haunted by ominous images of impending disintegration. The novel itself is quite suspenseful and intriguing, but overall the book did not have a very memorable effect on me.

Your head will spin when you read Thinner...from nausea. Thinner truly degenerated after a few pages into a twisted, sordid, very pathetic "tale" that seemed to refute the cliche "Once you've hit the bottom, there's no place to go but up". Well, Thinner seemed to be determined to bore a hole into the bedrock and drill to China. When I thought it could not get any worse, Stephen King proved me wrong. Buy the book for kitty litter or kindling, but don't buy it for pleasure

Maybe SK was coming into his own and finding his skills, but this book doesn't illustrate the Stephen King of today. I found this book to be almost boring in a sense. If it weren't for the well developed characters I would have hated it. The scare factor isn't very good at all. Its a bizarre story but nothing to make me look over my should at night. If you want to read one of his scarier books try Pet Semetary. If you want to venture out of the SK world, try Douglas Clegg or Bentley Little.

I thought this was a well written book overall. It gets wordy at times through the book but not to bad. I really think the ending suited the orginal crime it came back to him one way or another and instead of live life without his wife and daughter he made the choice to die with them. Even the italian thug who helps billy gets what he deserved in the end. I watched the movie along time before I read the book and let me tell you the book is so much better in my opinion.

While the writing in Thinner isn't what I would consider the strongest - several times, the action seems to grind to a halt to go into needless detail - the story redeems this novel. King, as always, has the ability to wrap up a whole lot of morality in one little paperback. while reading, after I was finished, the ending - while realatively subdued and gore-free - was what stayed with me. I'd recommend it.

I violated my rule this one time and saw the movie first, which I would give about 3 1/2 stars. Then, I read the book. It soon became one of my all time favorites.
The latter half of the book is action packed, and wonderfully written, as only King can deliver such a brilliant scenario of revenge, magic and action. The movie is worth a rent. The book is worth a million!

I saw the movie before reading the book and I thought the movie was pretty good. The book was just as good, although I thought the movie version was somewhat better. There were times that it got a bit tedious but overall I enjoyed it and I would definitely recommend this book to others.

This is one of my favorite Steven King novels. It doesn't have as much useless detail as some of his other books which I appreciate, but the plot and the characters were fabulous. I've read this book many times and always enjoy it when I'm in the mood for a good horror story

Not sure why it took me so long to get to Thinner but I am glad I finally got there. It was a very enjoyable read with a great ending and a clearer and more compelling 'message' than I remember in other King works.

So many people in today's world want to lose weight and do, but what happens when you are losing too much weight at a deadly rate? It all started when Layer, Billy Halleck, the main character hits an old gypsy woman with his car and kills her. Shortly after this accident, Billy and his wife, Heidi, see an old gypsy man. This man brushes Billy's face and whispers the word "Thinner." From this point on Billy loses more and more weight that starts to scare him to death. He just might die if he doesn't find the cure in time. Will he survive? This book is pretty good over all and I would give it four stars. Stephen King has written some good books including Roadwork, Carrie, The Shinning, and The Green Mile. I would say that Thinner was one of his better books. The book is a little slow in parts but it interesting most of the time. I would recommend it to all readers, because I though the ending was really surprising. Enjoy!

This book is certainly interesting. It's an enjoyable tale about an overweight man who hits an old Gypsy woman while engaging in a sexual act with his wife. Then the woman's father curses him, making him lose weight until he's nearly a human skeleton. Although not one of King's best, this book enthralls the reader. The reader wants to know what will happen. The dialogue is believable and enjoyable (although some sexual dialogue was unnecessary) and the human emotion experienced is true to life. All in all, it is worth it to read this book for the shocking ending. And it truly is extremely surprising. I will not give it away, for that would ruin the joy, but the ending is saddening and mildly disappointing, although extremely satisfying. A recommended read.

Originally, this book was published by Steven King under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman.

A withered old gypsy man puts a curse on the upper class lawyer who runs over and kills his wife. The lawyer gradually wastes away. Other curses are put on folks involved in the hit and run trial.

I found it a good read.

I read this when I had broken my leg and I must say I was not that impressed. The ending with him leaving the cherry pie where his wife and daughter could get at it was unmotivated. I don't understand why the character wanted his wife to catch his curse. Also, I had just read "100 Years of Solitude" before this and it made it clear why this is not literature. There was no concentration or density to the writing. It did not look like he broke a sweat to write it. Also, since this was a Richard Bachman book originally, it was trite how he had Backman refer to a "Stephen King" book. This is a book that should have stayed in the drawer. Also, it was apparent that he didn't research much about the Gypsies. The supposed Romany language was actually another language, I read.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan, but have read some books of his that leave me cold. His tendancy for happy endings sometimes disappoints me - they're not realistic. This one doesn't disappoint. The plot is interesting, the characters multi-faceted, and the ending totally unexpected (at least by me). Not the best Stephen King book ever, but very good!

Throughout the course of this book, we are faced with characters dealing with moral problems. The book's main character, Billy Halleck, accidentally kills an old Gypsy woman in the road while his wife is performing a certain sexual acts on him. The Judge and the Chief of Police let Halleck off without so much as a slap on the wrist. The woman's father, Tadus Lemke, decides to take vengeance into his own hands, and casts a "curse" on Halleck.The book describes his dramatic weight loss, which is the basis of the curse, as well as his hunt for Lemke's Gypsy Band, and the exciting confrontations that occur thereafter. This is an exciting and riveting book for anyone with a shred of emotion or mental capacity. I recommend you buy this book at all costs, you won't be disappointed!

Thinner by Stephen King, a chilling novel that is bound to break your soul and captivate your knowledge of every day life. Billy Halleck was an ordinary man, lawyer and successful business typhoon. The man even had the whole deal, a family, nice house, and an extra 200 unneeded pounds. Personally the book really took me down for a knockout. The deep detail our famous author brings us really makes you think. Of course as the reader some sort of jealousy comes into place when a fat man has everything including an ego almost as big as him. It¡¦s only human to want him to fall, or shall I say ¡§shrink.¡¨ When I read a novel I want to be hooked, I want to actually crave the next page and unfortunately many novelists today just can¡¦t fit that description. This book does, and does it so well that you can actually see Billy as he shrinks to nothing and feel his anxiety grow with every page. Quote on quote p.236 ¡§WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME¡¨ is just evidence of Billy¡¦s desperation, useless desperation that is. A great example of this and a favorite even, Billy desperately and bravely begged the gypsy daughter for forgiveness and to release the horrible curse off of him. Unfortunately that was returned by a sling shot rock splicing through his toothpick hand, but you get the idea.
Hmmm, through this whole review I¡¦ve been trying to get this one point across, this one idea that is basically the message of the author. ¡§Don¡¦t take life for granted¡¨, call it a theme, a bible verse, even call it a really over weight man who had everything and lost everything all because of his ego and poor morale values. The important thing is learn from it, yes learn from a fiction book. Everything is derived from something and if you look deep inside this novel you¡¦ll find some truth. On a personal level I definitely have witnessed many rich kids go down hard because their just rude or think that they are better than everyone else. That¡¦s why I really relate to this novel, not because I crashed into a gypsy or got a curse, but because I looked deep down and saw the morale¡¦s that King is trying to display.
I¡¦ll be honest, this book isn¡¦t for everyone. If you¡¦re the type who gets your jollies off reading boring text or non fiction books and aren¡¦t ready to open your eyes and look beyond the literature and phony plot than NO, don¡¦t read the book. However if you¡¦re the type of person who likes a good thriller and is willing to except some fake facts for the joy of entertainment while learning a valuable life lesson then get on that horse and check out the book. Either way you really have nothing to loose, other than a trip to the library.

All in all 99 percentile out of 100 on the Seaman Scale, cause no book is perfect ļ

King, aka Bachman, stirs up a chilling tale of a man curse with his own desire. I thought the books plot line was riveting and the characters excellence, but this was a early King novel and it shows. Also to anyone who claims the movie was better than the book....your nuts. The movie (as most movies do) did not do the book justice.

I really don't like this book very much because most of the book was spent trying to track down that freakin' gypsy. That guy was trying to do that through the entire book while he almost drove his family insane, and kept losing weight. I think he should have stayed with those research people. This also has a very odd ending.

The story was great (obviously, it's King) but I was blown away by Joe Mantegna's reading. I didn't know what to expect from him, he's a cool actor, but narrating an audiobook is a different sort of art. He nailed it. He did such a good job, I'd want to get something else he narrated.

I've only read a few Stephen King books but they seem to be getting stranger and stranger. After a horrible accident, an old man curses Billy Halleck by touching his face and saying 'Thinner'. Billy rapidly begins to lose weight and his life begins to fall apart. This book is great. It's full of suspense and the characters are so well described.

This is a little different than most of Kings books. There is a lot less character development, it just jumps right into the story. Some people will probably like that, since some of his books take 300 pages for the action to start happening. It's a good book with a great ending. The movie is pretty good as well.

please forgive me for saying so but I liked the movie at first, then after I read the book I realized I was an idiot for thinking so. This book was great and it just goes to show how bad the movie was. I was all teary eyed when Ginelli was...well don't want to give it away, but I definately recommend this.

I believe this was one of several stories that were originally in the Bachman Books but I may be wrong. Either way, this story (and definitely the movie too) were really disappointing to me. It was fun reading but it didn't seem as if Stephen King even wrote it because it wasn't of the same top quality I'm used to from him. I found the story to be quite silly.

This was an interesting read. It's a short novel (320 pages), so it's pretty much to the point, with none of the usual Stephen King diarrhea of the mouth thing going on here. No useless details, which made it so much better than most of his novels. There are plenty of interesting characters here, too. For example, the creepy, old, wife-grouping judge Cary Rossington (who also gets cursed by the gypsiies) and Rick Ginelli (aka the "whiteman's curse"), a brutal mob boss, who gets more than he bargained for when he attacks the gypsies.

This is a pretty good book.

This story by Stephen King is terrible. It's about a fat guy who is cursed to lose weight until he dies because he killed a gypsy. The whole book the guy just tries to blame other people and not take responsibility. In fact, there isn't one likeable character in this book and the only interesting one is a gangster named Ginelli. In conclusion, don't read this book just find any other one by King because they are all better than this.

I am a very big King fan, yet "Thinner" is a disappointment.
The book starts off well but quickly goes down hill. Not scary. Not fast moving. A complete and utter yawn. Don't try it! Only if you like reading King no matter what, you should not read this!

Stephen King's book Thinner was very intriguing. The fact that Stephen King's style of writing is so absorbing helped keep my attention throughout the whole book. This book is about a middle-aged, overweight lawyer who hits a gypsy woman in his car. To get back at him the gypsy woman's father puts a curse on him, which causes him to loose a massive amount of weight in a short period of time. Stephen King's imagery is so amazing, the way he describes his characters and the setting leaves nothing to the imagination.
Although, the beginning was a little slow and drawn out the rest of the book more then made up for it.

Alright, King. I know you're out there, reading these. The plot was great, how everything happens. I love your writing style, even though I am only 12. Problem: the ending sucked! He goes through all that hell..Just to suicide? Please please do better next time

Normally I applaud King's works, but Thinner was one of the most terrible books I have read in my life. The storyline is bizarre, the beginning is an example of abject idiocy, the characters are apathetic fools, and the entire work overall is just simply terrible

I loved this book. The beginning was great, the middle was great, the end was great (although there were a few changes I would have made pertaining to the stupid throbbing pie deal). I do wish that the disappointment of him deciding to do what he did in the last few sentances could have been done without, but what's upsetting to me may have been a wonderful suspenseful ending to another person. I really liked the way that it was exciting to follow the progress (or degress, rather) and to find out if he was just going to waste away or what.

I'm half finished and I just started it an hour ago. It didn't explain things all that well but other than that it was one of King's best books ever written.
I don't say such good things about other books so I think that King deserves these words.

This is the worst book i've ever read. I saw the movie and laughed all the way thru it it was so stupid it wasn't even scary. If you want to read other books like this, check out R.L. Stines
Goosebumps series. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

I must say that Thinner was the worst Stephen King book ever. It has horrible characters, a dumb story, and does not hold your interest. It was so bad I never even bothered to finish it. This book was bad! For a good read read It, The Stand, or The Shining.

THINNER BY STEPHEN KING IS A NASTY AND GROSS BOOK BECAUSE IT HAD TO MANY SEXUAL STUFF AND CURSING GO ON THROUGH OUT THE BOOK. BUT IT HAD ME HANG ON EVERY CHAPTER I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. THE WAY THE MAIN MAN KEEPED LOSING A LOT OF WIEGHT WAS A ODD THING BUT IT WAS PRETTY COOL. AT THE END IT GOT BORING TO ME HE GUY SHOULD HAVE DIED THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD ENDING BUT THE ENDING WAS GOOD. AND IT WAS NASTY HOW THE MAN GOT THE CURSE WAS ILL ME IT IS SOMETHING THAT I SHOULDN'T HAVE READ. BUT I LOVE THE BOOK I HAVE READ IT ABOUT 2 TIMES. AND I WOULD RECOMEND FOR ADULTS.

kING did a great job of developing the characters but the way he ended "curse in a pie" please what a true HORRIC tragedy. I was simply shocked at that trashy ending, it could of been so much better . S.N YGL

This is another good king book!

It is another one that will keep you up at night just to see how it ends.you will feel so sorry for the guy.

He is a big man until he has a run in with an old gypsy who puts a curse on him and he gets Thinner and Thinner.

you just have to read it to see how it all ends it is very good.

the movie is not bad either.

Thinner was a very suspensfull, and thrilling book to read. It kept me at the edge of my seat, and always wanting more. This book is about a man, Billy Halleck, who gets cursed by a gypsy man, for killing the gypsies wife. The gypsy also manages to curse some other main chacters in the town. I would recommend this book to anyone who has liked any mystery story, likes curses, or has enjoyed any of Stephen Kings' other books.

It's a King original alright. It(Out of many of Kings books ) is very original. The has A Horrifying ending an is one of the best books I've ever read (Even Better than the movie). Don't watch the movie, either because it will ruine the book for you though. Over all It is one of his earlier Books (When he had new ideas)and is mostly thought of as a prodogy but It was a true original yo me.

This book kept me up for 3 nights in a row. I kept snacking while I read it and I couldn't put it down! I agree with the main character Billy in that it was his wife's fault when he struck and killed the old Gypsy woman. But I don't think he should have gone through such drastic measures to make sure she suffered. I enjoyed the story, but i was gravely disappointed at the ending. I give the book 3 stars.

Seems for most readers, this book keeps one up all along the night just to know how it ends (by the way the end sucks !). It's a pretty thin point to make a good book... And from my point I barely slept upon the book several times. At the beginning it could be interesting. Unfortunately, the author cannot do anything with his idea. After 100 pages, it becomes boring, useless, long and meanless. That was my first Stephen King's book, I've been very disapointed.

At the beginning when the guy starts losing weight, that's kind of cool. You think to yourself "Wow, this is going to be awsome!" But in the end, it's dumb. The guy goes through all this trouble... Pretty sad...

My book is written by Steven King.I give this book a four on a scale of one thru five.I gave this book a four because to me there wasn't enough action and most of the time it would just be people talking about stuff.The book was kind of scary though.That is why I rated this book a four.

This is a great book. Steven King has a way with creepy and unique story plots. It seems like the actions seems like it will never stop. Steven King makes gypsy curses seem real. The best part of the book is the ending. The ending was a surprise that hit you in the face like a loving pile of bricks.

I dont' like this book at all -- cannot believe he actually got paid to write this slop. First of all, I don't like the way the character got into trouble -- sex in the car -- give me a break. I thought this whole book was terrible -- Steven King should pay us to read it and even then I wouldn't waste my time. I wish I could give this book a zero. Doesn't even deserve a 1 star.

This book is tepid to say the best. Only one question, if you'd been allowed to remove a curse from you body and dump it into a pie shell, that made it look like a cherry pie, would you really leave it sitting on the kitchen counter, where you beloved wife and child would run across it? I think not.

The idea behind "Thinner" was very good in my mind. But the mood was completely destroyed for me when the gypsis spoke some kind of broken swedish. I'm swedish and I have to say it made me go "huh?" over and over again.

this is one of the wrost stephen king books i've read. not scary, boring, and dragged. read some SK classics like: the shining, IT, or carrie. this is a waist of time. sorry man, this one doesn't work for me.

This book is really good. I strongly recommend it to King fans. The gypsy makes the book pretty creepy, and it has alot of suspense. Though slow in some parts STICK WITH IT! You won't regret it, especially when you get to the ending.

Talk about a worthless book, this one defines the term. A ridiculous plot, and an absurd ending that offerred no resolution whatsoever. Why in the world was Ginelli even helping Belcher. The book does not deserve even one star. Save your money !