Stephen King Reveals New Novella Is a Sequel to Classic Story

Stephen King has only written a handful of sequels across his literary output. Not counting his Dark Tower opus which is spread across eight novels, King penned Doctor Sleep (the sequel to The Shining) plus follow-ups to The Talisman. Outside that he’s written a handful of Holly Gibney novels and Bill Hodges Trilogy, but few of his early works have been sequelized in the same way that they have on the big screen. In a new interview though, King confirmed that an upcoming novella he’s written that is a sequel

Speaking with Bloody Disgusting‘s The Losers’ Club podcast, King was talking about writing saying: “There are certain places where I go again and again. I think we’re all afraid of death, and we’re afraid of disillusion, we’re afraid of falling to pieces. I’ve gone there several times and the thing is with zombies or with any of these things you try to do something new with it. You try to go to a plac where you haven’t been before. I just wrote a long story called Rattlesnakes. And it involves, in one part, twins who are only four years old falling into a rattlesnake pit. And the snakes, get ’em, basically. It’s a terrible scene. You don’t want to say with a thing like that ‘oh well I’m doing this and nobody’s done that before!’ It’s all supposed to be organic to the story….This novella that I’ve just written, Rattlesnakes is actually a sequel to Cujo.”

King didn’t elaborate any further about that however, whether Rattlesnakes is a spiritual sequel to Cujo or a flat-out follow-up with returning characters. As Constant Readers recall, Cujo was published in 1981 and followed a mother and son trapped in a car while a rabid Saint Bernard terrorized them. 

The events of the book have been referenced in other King works which is perhaps how the sequel will function. Within the text of Cujo, allusions are made to Frank Dodd, the Castle Rock Strangler from The Dead Zone, with Cujo also being set in the King-created town. An allusion is made to a connection between Dodd and Cujo in the book, perhaps the connection that will give the author an angle for this follow-up. 

The official synopsis for Cujo reads as follows: “The Cambers’ once-friendly St. Bernard turns into a killer after being bitten by a rabid bat. Donna Trenton’s husband is in New York trying to contain a disastrous ad campaign. Feeling abandoned by her workaholic husband, who is frequently out of town, Donna Trenton embarks on an affair with a local handyman. Left to fend for herself, she takes her ailing Pinto to Joe Cambers’ garage for repairs only to be trapped with her son Tad in the sweltering car by the monstrous dog.”