Sun Dog: 04/03/07

Four Past Midnight contains four novellas by Stephen King. For the purpose of my book count, I'm counting each novella as a separate "book" and I'll be posting a separate review for each one.

"Sun Dog " is the final novella. Kevin receives a Sun 600 Polaroid camera for his birthday but there's something wrong with it. It only takes pictures of a dog — a vicious, blood thirsty, mouth full of teeth.

As with the best of King's stories, no one can explain why the camera only takes the photos of the "sun dog" or why he's so angry. He just is and everyone knows he is coming and that's he's bad news. Interestingly, the sun dog exists in the same universe as Cujo.

Had Kevin followed his instincts and smashed the camera after the first few photographs, the story would have been over before it started. It is when the camera comes into Pop Merrill's custody that the horror elements come to the surface. Pop reminded me throughout as an evil version of Morgan from Morgan's Passing.

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