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Thinner is a 1984 novel by Stephen King, published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. Set in 1980s New England, the novel focusses on an obese lawyer named William "Billy" Halleck, who has recently fought an agonizing court case in which he was charged with vehicular manslaughter after receiving a handjob from his wife Heidi while driving, causing him to run over an old woman who was part of a group of traveling gypsy. Halleck is acquitted thanks to the judge, who just happens to be a close friend of Billy's. As Halleck leaves the courthouse in his affluent Connecticut town, the old woman's ancient father strokes his cheeks and whispers one word to him: "Thinner." The word, and the old man's behavior, startle Halleck.

From this point on, Halleck slowly loses weight (about two pounds a day); the loss becomes more and more rapid as he realizes the Gypsy man has cursed him. He also learns that the judge who heard his case and gave the unfair verdict was given another curse by the old man—scales eventually grow on his skin. A town police chief who also helped soft-pedal the charges against Halleck is similarly cursed with a horrifyingly extreme case of acne.

With the help of a friend, a former client who is a Mafia figure, an emaciated and desperate Halleck tracks the Gypsy band north along the seacoast of New England to Maine, where the stage is set for a confrontation between him and the aged Gypsy leader, resolving the issue of the curse and the blood-debt owed by Halleck.

The novel deals with social issues such as materialism and how people gain and express power within their daily life. Additionally, the Gypsy curse provides ample opportunity for numerous musings on the nature of guilt. Justice is also a heavy theme throughout, including the chapter titled "The Scales of Justice."

• Thinner was, for a time, the last novel which King released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym until the release of The Regulators in 1996; the initial hardcover release of Thinner included a fake jacket photo of "Dicky".

• The novel was adapted for the screenplay of a 1996 film of the same title.

• The passages in the book meant to be in the Romani language are actually in Swedish, and are more or less gibberish.

• Characters in the story actually have a discussion about how the plot is similar to that of a Stephen King novel.

• As Halleck is thinking, he thinks the phrase: "God knows that word had bobbed up in his own mind more than once. It had bobbed up like some evil clown's dirty balloon, and he had turned away from it." This may be a reference to another King novel, It, which would be published two years after Thinner.

• Thinner (film)

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