Rattlesnakes

Cujo / Rattlesnakes #2

by Stephen King

King said: "I just wrote a long story called 'Rattlesnakes.' And it involves, at one part, twins who are only four years old… falling into a rattlesnake pit. And the snakes get ’em. It’s a terrible scene... This novella that I’ve just written, 'Rattlesnakes'… is actually a sequel to Cujo."

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Audiobook

4 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Katrina McCollough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when King ties in multiple books, it always remind me of the dark tower series and now the dumas key is behind one of those doors along with all the doors to all the old worlds he’s created.

[Klare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story in the book You like It Darker.

[Rob McGrory · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a sequel to the classic novel Cujo. There's no return of a rabid dog, or the ghost of Cujo, or...whatever. This is a revisiting of the Vic Trenton character, father of the little boy who dies at the end of Cujo. In this scenario, Vic is staying at a friend's expensive home in the Florida Keys. He meets an eccentric neighbor who pushes an empty stroller around the neighborhood. He then finds out a parallel between himself and the ostensibly crazy woman.
It's been a minute since I read Cujo, but I might even make the case that Rattlesnakes can be read without reading the original. Still, read both and you'll enjoy the parallels as well as references to the 2007 SK novel Duma Key.

[Lucas Almanza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary and thrilling. A case where the sequel is superior to the original! The novella/short story capitalizes on elements left unexplained in Cujo while using established lore from it and other novels (Duma Key/The Shining) to craft a freaky and compelling story. One can see how 40 years have improved the authors writing ability. It was very interesting to see him write a story set in the very heart of the Covid pandemic (the novel is set in the summer of 2020.) Another book of his, The Stand, predicted such an event and this can also be considered a spiritual successor to it as well!Mystery, suspence, drama, and political aphorisms (that kept my intellectual mind engaged) glued me to the page until there was nothing left to read. Highly recommend reading Cujo before this one to get all the delicious callbacks and references! Stellar work, Mr. King

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never expected a sequel to Cujo. But then I hadn’t expected a sequel to The Talisman, Black House, and certainly not one for The Shining, Doctor Sleep; but both those got written as well. In any case, this was quite a surprise and quite good as well. Getting some closure after Tad’s death, seeing what became of Donna and Vic, this was all quite good. I think I even enjoyed it more than Cujo, probably the maturation of the writer had a lot to do with that. In any case, this was a fascinating thriller, with elements that certainly fall on the darker side of the spectrum.

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard beforehand that this was a standout in King’s newest short story collection You Like It Darker, and I agree 100%. While I had never thought about a sequel to Cujo, this did not feel like a gimmick--it felt like a natural extension of the novel’s story, focusing on late-in-life grief. I don’t think this is a story King could have told as well if he had tried earlier in his career. This is a story about an aging man that clearly benefits from the experienced voice of an aging author.

Not only is it a strong portrayal of grief, it also succeeds in being scary on its own merits with the extended ghost story at its center. Not my favorite in You Like It Darker as a collection, but definitely near the top.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read Cujo when I originally read 'You Like it Darker'.

Having gone back through and reading this novella, from within 'You Like it Darker'. I thought it was a great continuation of the story and grief of the loss of loved ones. I enjoyed the spooky ghost elements within these pages.

[Magnus Stanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic sequel to 'Cujo'. I had just read King's underrated 1981 novel and read about this on wikipedia so I picked it up at once. Not only is a satisfying continuation of the earlier book, it's a very uncanny ghost story in it's own right.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

For SK, I was a little disappointed. It had its good points, but I found it very repetitive. If he said “you’re all grown up, look how tall you got” one time, he said it 500 times. I got a bit bored to be honest, and found it was a bit too “supernatural for me” :(

[Berenice A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sequel to Cujo is great because Cujo was awesome. This story is also great. And King does what he does best - reopens old wounds. Duma Key may have disappeared but the pain Ilse left has not. We can only hope the attempts to pull Duma back up will fail, and that Perse never returns.

[Nate Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good short story of Stephen King's not his best work but it was entertaining and it was interesting to see what happened to Vic and Donna from Cujo I would recommend this to any King fan that wanted to see what happened to Vic and Donna.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Rattlesnakes"  

#ghosts #Florida #Covid #bereaved #PTSD #neighbors #widow #widower #shakul #shakula #Vilomah #skepticalcop #stroller

Cf. Cujo by Stephen King

[Luka · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Tarik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good haunting story

[Acacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duma Key + Cujo!!

[Renelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant! Scary and horrid, yet warm and heart-wrenching ! One of King's best 👌

[Rob Eamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen King stories can be very hit and miss but I really liked this one. It definitely didn’t go the way I originally thought.

[Kevin Qi · Rating 3 out of 5]

short sequel to cujo that i didn't read, pretty good. the descriptions were creepy

[Mohamad Zeina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Chris W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

a frightening sequel to king’s best work.

[Sarah Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

[Hasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should have been published as a novel itself. King just wasted the story in this book. Fantastic fiction. Amazing story!

[Alice Konash · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't stop thinking about this particular short story. I love being spooked out (the more bizarre and ridiculous the haunting the better) and this weird tale certainly did that! King's wonderful writing left me feeling simultaneously repulsed by the ghostly antagonists and desperately sorry for them. It would make a brilliant film!

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 1 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
http://thebookcornerchronicles.com/20...

This short story is a part of the “You like it darker” book which is a collection of short stories.

This short story is very boring and uninteresting.

The plot in none existing in this short story. Because it feels like Stephen King had written this short story without any plan for the short story.

The writing style in this short story doesn’t even feel like something written by Stephen King.