Pet Sematary: A Novel

Everyone hails Stephen King as a brilliant author, but I had trouble finding his genius. It took me 3 attempts before I actually finished this book, and I’m glad I stuck with it. I cursed Stephen Kings name multiple times and told everyone I knew that his books were over rated. I had tried several other books by him that I could not finish or did not think they stood up to the hype (dreamcatcher and doctor sleep, though I did like the shinning). Pet Sematary was an extremely slow burn and had a very dull begining which is what had put me off and caused me to put it down so many times, but there was something there that called to me to pick it back up again; not unlike the path behind the deadfall’s and the woods up to the pet sematary (reference to the book, if you know you know). Some secret or mystery that wanted to reveal itself to me, if only I could push on a little further. The book does a great job of exploring the themes of grief and loss, as well as sprinkling in themes of religion and what happens to a person when they die. Would you bring a loved one back from the grave, knowing that there was something inside of them lost the day that they died and would return a shell of who they were? Would just having them back be enough to overlook what of themselves that was lost on the day that they passed? It takes a while to get going, but once it does it never lets up. Worth sticking through to the end.

Pet Sematary absolutely terrified me, and that is saying something because I read over one hundred books a year and no other book has ever affected me the way this one did. From the moment I started, I kept telling myself I would read just one more chapter, and before I knew it, hours had passed. The suspense and dread build so perfectly that it is impossible to put down. I even found myself refusing to read it during my night job, choosing instead to only read it in the comfort of my own bed. There is something so unsettling about the way Stephen King writes this story that it lingers in your mind long after you close the book. It was absolutely and awesomely terrifying, and it stands out as one of King’s best that I have read so far as I work my way through his books in release order.

Stephen King once said that Pet Sematary is the scariest book he’s ever written. Here’s why I agree. Beware of spoilers for the following review. As a horror fan, I can tell you that horror isn’t typically scary. Grotesque, sure- but scary? Besides jump scares, horror has very little horror in it, because most horror fans have the recognition of the horror not being real. Vampires, aliens, monsters? Not real, so in the back of your head you know it’s not scary. Instead, you enjoy it because of how unbelievable it is. But then there’s real horror- the kind that reflects very real situations, that makes your stomach churn and your heart race because as you read it, you can imagine it happening to yourself. Stephen King is a master of this. The scariest part of IT wasn’t the clown alien- it was the domestic abuse, the horrors of an ugly, violent reality. Pet Sematary, on the other hand, tackles the very raw and real fear of death. Stephen King himself had a close call with his son and a truck- and he also went through having to explain death, especially pet death, to his children. It’s a relatable situation, and one that I believe you can feel the turmoil of in King’s writing. The horror, the struggle, the fear was real. Louis Creed’s thoughts, his imagining of everything being okay, was well written and crucial to the story. King’s personal stake made these moments all the more thought provoking. Though the writing is slow, the darkest parts of the novel are written beautifully, with a masterful use of emotion. It’s real, honest, and raw- making it a brilliant read. Pet Sematary is a very human novel, at its core. One of the most well written parts of the novel was the descriptions of Gage’s death and the scenes that follow; the heartbroken reactions of the characters reacting to a tragic event. The grief in this novel is a very real depiction of how it is in real life. I also loved the truth of Rachel’s family- what they had been through, how they reacted, the strained relationships of her parents and her husband and the way her father tried to make things right in the end. There’s an honest discussion about death being natural versus death being unnatural, and I respected King showing both sides, showcasing Louis’ view of death and tragedy versus Rachel’s extremely opposite view. Another thing to mention is the depiction of love in this book. King is known for his sex scenes often being written with an inappropriate or crude edge, but the romance between Louis and his wife Rachel was one of my favorite parts of the book. It feels very believable that they have the relationship of a husband and a wife, and the scenes between them were not as cheesy as I expected them to be. Moreso, the love that Louis had for his children was extremely apparent in this book. The other works I’ve read from Mr. King have not had healthy love in it, and Louis is a different kind of character- one who cares deeply for his family. Emotionally, this was a very strong read. Now, all this sounds good, so you might wonder why I chose to give it a four and not a five star review. There is one main reason for this. I believe that King gave away too much of the plot. It’s a great writing device, but I am not sure it worked well here. I knew the plot of the novel already, because I’ve seen the movies many times. But I found it jarring when King alluded to Norma Crandall’s death before it happened, and then again with his own son. It was clever, in many ways, but I just struggled with it having been revealed in that way. There was very little surprise in the novel- it all was rather linear, and while the writing was great, that lack of intrigue took it down a notch for me. I still believe this to be one of King’s better novels, though.

One of my favorite steven king books ever, is it scary? not to me but maybe to some, is it an amazing story? YES! holly hell it’s so good

The book is better than the original and the remake.

متخيلين الكتاب احد دايس عليه!! وفيه صفحه مقطوعه وصفحه مثنيه ووصخ جداً جداً

Amazing book. Fast delivery and got here in excellent condition.

J’ai commandé le livre car impossible de le trouver en librairie et vu le prix j’ai opté pour l’option seconde main et franchement je dois dire que je suis surprise du bel état du livre! On dirait un neuf franchement trop trop contente et impatiente de le lire pendant la spooky season 👻

When my mother died my father and I where devastated, we didn’t even want to come home after we buried her. We delayed the return home as long as we can (at least 7 hours) but eventually we had to do it. The next couple of months the pain was still unbearable and suddenly we became aware that we still feel her presence among us and we crave seeing her one more time. But... What would we do if she really materialized before our eyes? What would a person with the chance of bringing a loved one back to life do? That’s the reason I felt such a strong connection with the story. And that’s the moral crossroad Louis Creed has to face in this heartbreaking novel. He has the opportunity to play God and bring back to life one of the members of his family. But we should have known better that playing God is never a good idea. And, well, chances are that, by this time, you’ve already know that <i>Sometimes dead is better.</i> Every story is different for every person. You can’t expect every story having the same impact to everyone. That’s not how it works. But there are few novels that, even if they don’t affect the people the same way, they’re good enough to be in the liking of a great majority. Pet Sematary is one of those novels. It’s one of King’s most famous novels. And according to him, his most terrifying one. The reason for King to assure this is very well explained in the introduction which he wrote years later for a paperback edition. And as he takes us behind the scenes of the story you can easily see that he took a lot from his own personal experiences and put them all in here. Therefore, as the main turn of events in the novel happened to him, this is his most terrifying novel, at least for him, and I’m guessing that for everyone being a father. Cause I’m sure that it wouldn’t be the same experience if someone read it at a young age (Although it has the quality that it can affect any person) than someone who already have a family of their own, or someone who re-reads it after family arrives. And although I don’t think it’s the most frightening I do believe is his most disturbing one. King takes his time for you to really feel emphatic for every damn character in the story. They have souls and he makes you watch closely how they lose them. You follow Louis Creed in this downward spiral of madness as he take his choices and live with the consequences, and you can easily see how this affects him and his mind. You can feel an ambient of grieve all throughout the book. Since the beginning I could sense an ambient of grieve, in fact, I never really felt like the Reeds where happy in any moment of the novel, even when they supposed be. It’s almost as you can taste little chunks of bitter darkness in every word written. The characters are very well written they linger in a gray area, they’re not just simply black or white. They’re just regular people taking their choices and their consequences, like any other regular people. Although Rachel got in my nerves a lot of the times because of her negligence to deal with death in general. The odds are that, to this date, you’ve already seen the 1989 movie and probably watched it a million times. And you are avoiding reading it because, you know, What’s the point? You already know everything that’s gonna happen in the book. You couldn’t be more wrong. You <b>NEED</b> to read it, cause the novel goes deeper and darker than the movie does. You can literally feel the pain and grief that King bled over every page of the book. It has a several connections to other King’s works like Cujo, The Shinning and Salem’s Lot. And probably King got a little hint from here to develop later on The Dark Half. Something that is worth highlighting is an event in the first chapters that seems like King was foreshadowing the accident he had in 1999.

Really nice story, especially last third was great. Not just great, chilling and haunting. Stephen King did a great job with this one but I think he has better books out there