Cujo

The story is set in Castle Rock, Maine, where a friendly, two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard named Cujo is bitten by a rabid bat. As the infection takes hold, the dog is transformed into a mindless, murderous beast. The heart of the novel is the agonizing standoff between Cujo and Donna Trenton, who is trapped in a stalled car with her young son, Tad, under the sweltering summer sun. It’s a "stifling" study of isolation, bad luck, and the fragility of the suburban "ideal."