Thinner

By Stephen King

Curse of the Old Gypsy Man…

Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer. But he is also fifty pounds overweight and, as his doctor keeps reminding him, heading into heart attack country.

Then, in a moment of carelessness, Billy sideswipes an old gypsy woman as she is crossing the street—and her ancient father passes a bizarre and terrible judgment on him.

“Thinner,” the old gypsy man whispers, and caresses his cheeks like a lover. Just one word…but six weeks later and ninety-three pounds lighter, Billy Halleck is more than worried. He’s terrified. And desperate enough for one last gamble…that will lead him to a nightmare showdown with the forces of evil melting his flesh away.


From the Paperback edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 1985
• ISBN: 9781101138052

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

Reviews for Thinner

[vinjii-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fairly short and tight read, just what you'd expect from an early Stephen King. The premise is simple: an overweight man gets cursed by a gypsy and starts to lose weight. The characters are well developed, the plot moves fast and is interesting throughout. It's a great premise and a solid book but definitely not his best. Recommended to all King fans, of course.

[tryion · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Blech! Boring!

[beckyjg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thinner is one of Stephen King's Richard Bachman books, the handful of books that he wrote in the late seventies to mid-eighties and published using the Bachman pseudonym. Why did the best selling author in the world publish under a pseudonym? Well, depending on what you read or what you choose to believe, it was either as an outlet for King's creativity, to circumvent the then conventional wisdom that an author publishing more than one book a year would over-saturate the market (Hello! James Patterson...Danielle Steel...Nora Roberts--didn't you ever get that memo?) or to test the waters to see if his talent or his name was what made each book a bigger bestseller than the last. When he was outed by a particularly dogged D.C. bookseller after the publication of Thinner, King officially killed off his pseudonym, and for good measure--as he often does--killed him metaphorically as well, in The Dark Half.Whatever his reasons for doing it, Thinner is as frighening a psychological/supernatural thriller as any of King's other work. The novel opens with a curse. Hot shot lawyer Billy Halleck has recently been absolved, with a wink and a nod by his friend the judge, of any guilt in the death of an old Gypsy woman whom he'd struck and killed with his car on a village street. As he came out of the courthouse with his wife, an old Gypsy man, the leader of the band, with a rotting nose and an appetite for revenge, lay a hand on Billy's cheek and whispered one word. "Thinner." Billy, a more-than-portly 250-pounder thinks of this disturbing incident when he weighs himself the next morning and discovers that he's lost three pounds. Billy is a rational, materialistic, suburban white man, practicing law in the city and having drinks and steaks at the country club and enjoying all the comforts of an upper-middle class life and yet...some part of him knows immediately and unimpeachably, deep down in his still large and robust gut, that some truly bad shit has begun.Chapter by chapter we follow Billy's weight loss--two, three, five pounds a day--and the growing disbelief and fear of those around him. He visits the doctor. He submits to tests. But he knows--in that rapidly diminishing gut--what the problem is. People fall away from him, and when even his wife turns on him (for his own good, of course), Billy leaves his suburban nest on a journey up the East Coast in search of the band of Gypsies and their leader who did this to him. The end of Thinner presents its most chilling moment, as Billy is given a choice. From the moment that choice is given, we know he will make it. And from the moment he makes it, we know that, as bad as it all as been, this cannot end well.Interestingly, for me, Thinner's only jarring note comes from one of its basic premises. No, not the curse: the Gypsies. Gypsies? Really? In suburban southern Connecticut in the mid-eighties? Even though I had trouble with that one point, having grown up, as I did, in the exact area in which the book takes place and never once having seen a band of Gypsies come into town and set up shop on the village green, still, the story is a beaut. Thinner is a taut, fast-paced psychological thriller, short and bittersweet and well worth a place on the shelf.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Three drops of blood splattered the windshield." - boy that is one hell of an image! And I really liked this book, a lot! Taduz Lemke is one bad mother! And I loved the Stephen King mentions on page 100! Wink wink! I sure as hell will take a lesson from this - never run over a gypsy!And the ending? Woo hoo! That's my kinda finale! Sweet as a piece of warm strawberry pie!

[blackhammer-4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is overall pretty good and shows Stephen King's excellent writing style. I particularly love his use of flashbacks and the way he has the characters telling you their stories. The flashbacks are excellently done and useful to help you recall specific details that might have been missed. I do have a problem with the start of the book because I believe that Billy's starting weight and the reaction of his friends and family at the beginning did not match up. I felt his starting weight of 246 pounds does not justify the reactions he got from his wife and doctor. Also I noticed that this book is obviously dated when it comes to the prices of things. For instance Stephen King talks about expensive houses in neighborhoods with country clubs costing around $200,000 and a huge meal from McDonalds costs less then $7. While an average combo meal costs $6, Billy got 3 times the food for $1 more. I think my favorite part of the whole story was Ginelli's tale, I wish he had played a bigger part in the plot instead of just getting the occasional mention from Billy. I like how it ended and it really showed a moral for this book. The Billy at the end of the story was a real contrast to the self-centered and bitter Billy that was portrayed through most of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read especially those who like older stories about a change in heart.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Thinner" 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

Read this and see if you really want to lose weight. Only Stephen King could come up with something like this. Really good read.

[jacksonarthur · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Terrific writing, gripping story, disappointing finish.

[darkraven2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thinner was a good book. Weird, funny at times and simply good writing with plot twists and turns.

[usnmm2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

One of his most original ideas. A slightly overweight D.A. runs a band of Gypsies out of his town illegally. They in turn put a curse on him to lose weight. He must find them to get the curse removed before he fades away to nothing.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As with many of King's works, I find his books that deal with real people to be far scarier and more entertaining than the books that involve supernatural (and many times silly) monsters and beings. Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Misery are terrifying without being ridiculous.

[mccin68 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Billy kills a traveling gypsy in a hit-and-run. His arrogance and narcissism leds the head gypsy to curse him and the good old boys involved in brushing aside the death. Billy goes to extreme measures to fight the curse he is given. In a twisted ending Billy meets an ironic fate. One of King's best. This one was more realistic, similar to Carrie than to say Desperation. It made me wonder if something like this could really happen in a small town on a dark and stormy night.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes you shouldn't get what you want, especially if it involves being rough on gypsies. Suppose you lost weight no matter how much you ate? Then you found out it was from a gypsy's curse that you made fun of? Would you track her down and beg to do anything to releive the curse?

[burtonhannah · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The book Thinner is definitely not Stephen King's best book that he ever wrote. I think that's because it was one of his first books that he ever wrote. In the book Thinner, Billy Halleck loses weight because he was cursed by this old Gypsy guy who's name is Lemke because Billy and his wife ran over Lemke's daughter. And Billy is a lawyer and has many connections with the town so he got off really easy the judge declared it an accident. And the cop that was involved didn't really investigate the scene. He just declared that Lemke's daughter was jay walking which is illegal. So through out the story it goes on that Billy is losing a dangerous amount of weight and his family basically think that he is crazy and that this "curse" that was put on him is all in his head. But Billy knows that it isn't because the judge Rossington was cursed with turning into a reptile and the police officer Hoppley was cursed with a severe case of acne that was very painful. So Billy went on this chase to find the Gypsy's and to tell him to take the curse off. Throughout the story it goes to tell on that Billy has this friend who is a famous drug dealer that will help him find the Gypsy's. When Billy finds the Gypsy's camp he demands that Lemke takes the curse off or that Billy will put the curse off the "white man from town" on them. It turns out that the curse that Billy put on the Gypsy's is his drug dealer Ginelli. Ginelli just terrorizes the Gypsy's till they are extremely frightened and agree to take the curse off. Im not going to say too much because I want you guys to read the book to find out the events in more detail. And you will have to read the book to find out how it ends. I will say that it is very shocking!!!!

[booksandwine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[lovelyliquid · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story gave me a whole new thought on how to treat others. Even the though of something mystical happening I would prefer it not be what happened in this book!

[dragonasbreath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It wasn't too bad. Like most of King's books, it's billed as Terror - I kept laughing all the way through it.It does make a good moral lesson along with a tight story.

[jseger9000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thinner is a simple concept done extremely well. A relatively straight forward revenge horror tale.Hefty lawyer Billy Halleck is cursed by an old gypsy man who brushes his cheek and says "Thinner". From there he begins losing two to three pounds a day, regardless of his calorie intake.The horror starts slowly as at first Billy is quite happy to be shedding his extra weight. As keeps shrinking however, things become more paranoid and desperate.Thinner is a throwback to earlier Stephen King novels, tightly focused on Billy's plight and his investigations. The characters are still as well developed as I've come to expect from Stephen King, just here his cast is much smaller (Billy's is the only point of view we really follow) and he doesn't follow them down as many rat holes.One thing I appreciate about reading a Stephen King story is that he clearly does his research. When the book would discuss legal issues, the history of the gypsies or the medical complications of unstoppable weight loss he always adds in enough detail to show that he's not just making this stuff up.Thinner is about as lean a thriller as we are likely to get from Stephen King, yet it still has enough detail and depth of character to keep it from feeling skeletal.

[anagarika · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mr. King has done a lot better. Pass.

[coffeesucker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another creepy book - pretty good read.

[stefany_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.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.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.

[moonshineandrosefire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When heavy-set attorney Billy Halleck accidentally kills an old gypsy woman, his dreams of losing weight turn to nightmares as the old woman's family curses him. The ancient curse slowly forces Billy to lose weight, then more and more rapidly as time goes by. Now Billy must find a way to escape with his life.I have read quite a number of Stephen King's books and although he is very popular as a writer, I find many of his books a little longwinded and drawn out. However, I found Thinner very scary and was drawn into the story. I give it an A!

[melydia_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's a painfully simple concept for a story: overweight man runs down gypsy, man's judge friend gets him off, gypsy's father curses man, man begins to lose weight at a horrifying rate, man hunts down gypsy's father to get curse removed. Considering all the stuff up to and including the man getting cursed happens before the book even begins, there is definitely not enough story here to fill 300 pages. It all feels like padding - the altercation with the doctor, the stories of the judge and police chief, even the lengthy bit of tracking down the gypsy caravan. It would have been much better as a short story. I hear the movie is good, which makes sense - this is something that could easily be condensed into a 90-minute film without losing anything. (Though I hear the ending is different, which is a shame since that was one of the few parts of the book that didn't drag on endlessly.)

[fluffyblue_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Stephen King book I've read all the way through. I quite enjoyed it - it was a fairly light read and didn't require any particularly deep level of concentration.The story was interesting - about a man who accidently kills a gypsy's wife and gets cursed by the gypsy. The ending was good, and although I saw some of it coming, I didn't see it all...

[barpurple · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad little take on the idea of a gypsy curse.

[phaga_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This started off pretty slow for me. I was having trouble seeing how a guy getting skinnier and skinnier was going to fill 300+ pages without getting ridiculous, but in the end it sped up and turned out to be a pretty good read.

[bryancaron · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The last of the "Bachman Books" before Uncle Stevie switched to Stephen King, the book had a strong premise, but didn't execute quite as well as it could have.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a novel about a detestable man who fails to live up to his responsibilities. I suppose the idea that he's a lawyer works better in the States where they seen to have bees in their bonnets about them, but still, he's grotesquely overweight and doesn't value human life. Like many of King's characters he doesn't have many friends, in fact only one, and I think Ginelli is there as a mirror to Halleck; to show us that in reality, Halleck is no better than a multi-murdering Mafia man. All good stuff.On the down side, the novel is a little flaccid, a little unfocused at times. I think it was written during the period when King was taking lots of drugs. The ending however is very good and doesn't suffer from the problems some of his books do.

[gina0magini · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A gypsy puts a curse on three men. One of them loses weight no matter how much he eats. He seeks to have the curse removed. This is a well-written, but very dark book.

[carmenmilligan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to not like a Stephen King (this time writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) book. Full of intrigue, mystery, violence, death and a huge dose of weirdness, this one does not disappoint.

[elizajane_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The last book written under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman". I don't know the story of when King actually was outed but he gives it away in this book. Compared to the other Bachman books, this one is very much a King book, using his writing style, stream of consciousness and themes. This is a re-read for me and while I knew the plot I had forgotten the details and found it a fast, page-turning read. One thing I'd forgotten was that two other people had been cursed along with William. The ending is typical King and reminds me of the ending of "Pet Sematary". It's obvious King knew this would be his last book as Bachman as he gives himself away not too far into the book. There is a conversation between two characters and to paraphrase it one says, "This is not a Stephen King book. This is reality." While the other replies with something along the lines of, "If things continue to go the way they are this will soon be a Stephen King novel." Not the best of the Bachman books but a good entry for King and I enjoyed it infinitely more than his last book, "The Talisman."