Pet Sematary by Stephen King
The house looked right, felt right, to Dr Louis Creed.
Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.
Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive note of threat.
But behind the house and away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully clear path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.
A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding…
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Reason
It’s the BOTM for my in-person bookclub, and a buddy read for my online bookclub. It’s Halloween season, what can I say?
The Quotes
“Sometimes dead is better”
“Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.”
“He’s my cat! He’s not God’s cat! Let God have his own cat! Let God have all the damn old cats He wants, and kill them all! Church is mine!”
“The barrier was not made to be broken. Remember this: there is more power here than you know. It is old and always restless. Remember.”
The Narrator(s)
Michael C. Hall. I love him!
My Thoughts
My audiobook copy has an author’s note which really enhanced my experience of reading the book. Apparently, a lot of the events in the book were based on real life things that happened for Stephen King and his family. Smucky was his daughter’s cat, was buried in a Pet Sematary, spelt exactly like that, near their house, with the exact epitaph written for Smucky in the book. His daughter also said the exact same words about how God should get his own cat and leave hers alone.
Thankfully, the harrowing, horrifying stuff did not actually happen to the author and his family! King has said that he considers this book the one he finds most scary, and I can imagine why. “Sometimes dead is better.” We should never try to play God, nothing good comes from it, and this book is the absolute embodiment of why that is.
I can’t talk more about the details without spoiling the book, but I do want to talk about the writing. As usual, I love how King tells the story. I love the buildup, the slow escalation, and the thrill the closer we get to the end. His characters are amazing, their relationship dynamics, the ways they interact with each other. There’s always something to be gotten from a King novel.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
