YMMV / Cycle of the Werewolf

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In September and October, the wolf kills a flock of pigs and a herd of deer instead of any people. Was this out of a conscious attempt by Reverend Lowe to avoid hurting people, or was it simply because all of the people in town were holed up in their houses after dark by that point?
• Awesome Art: The illustrations of the werewolf and its attacks are pretty notable.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: To one of King's later books, Under the Dome which also had a Baptist minister named Lester. In this book, Reverend Lowe, formerly a Good Shepherd who'd managed to ignore all of the prior signs that he was responsible for the werewolf attacks, becomes a more antagonistic figure after having his eye shot out by a young boy. In Under the Dome, the corrupt Reverend Lester Coggins makes Heel–Face Turn after witnessing a young boy inadvertently shoot his own eye out.* Jerkass Woobie: The werewolf (Reverend Lowe) comes across as a good person who never asked to be a werewolf, and is plagued with first fear about the werewolf, then guilt and anxiety upon realizing just who the werewolf is, while succumbing to more despair, and becoming more selfish and sinister with attempts at justifications that lead to a final attempt to murder Marty in his home.
• One-Scene Wonder: Arnie Westrum, Brady Kincaid, Stella Rudolph, and the Zinnemans each only physically appear in a single chapter, just a few pages long, where the werewolf attacks them (or, in the Zinnemans' case, their livestock) but manage to make those chapters quite memorable.
• Signature Scene: Probably the werewolf's attack on Arnie.
  It is only the wind, after all... But the wind doesn't scratch at doors... and whine to be let in.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • While the Halloween chapter is decently well-written and suspenseful, it can feel disappointing that the werewolf doesn't actually transform on Halloween, and be out on a night with so many people in costumes.
  • Having Marty try to reach out with his knowledge to the Zinnemans and their vigilantes might have been interesting.
• The Woobie:
  • Donna Lee Sturmfuller who is abused by her husband in almost every possible way until he's killed in the second to last chapter.
  • Marty Coslaw, considering his parents are heavily uncomfortable with his disability. If not for his Cool Uncle and his somewhat Tsundere older sister, he'd be a pretty miserable kid.

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