Product Description

The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed. A place where his family could settle, and the children could grow up and explore the rolling hills and meadows. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17184 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
‘A writer of excellence...King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel’ (Sunday Times )

‘One of the great storytellers of our time’ (Guardian )

About the Author
Stephen King was awarded the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and was voted Grand Master at the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. He is the author of more than forty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent stand-alone novels include DREAMCATCHER, CELL and LISEY'S STORY. Stephen King also wrote novels under the psdeudonym Richard Bachman. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Customer Reviews

King could have explored so much more with this story...
THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Pet Sematary was my first Stephen King novel. Though not a major disappointment, the book did not fulfil the expectations I had in mind when starting off. Since I finished the book about a week ago, I have not lost the feeling that King could have explored so much more.

The basic plot of the story can be summarised in a few sentences: Louis Creed and his wife Rachel move together with their two young children, Ellie and Gage, to Maine, where Dr Creed takes up a new job in the Univeristy's medical centre. Soon after settling at their new home, Dr Creed becomes friends with Jud, his elderly neighbour, who has lived in the house opposite all his life. Jud takes the Creed family on an excursion to the Pet Sematary, a place where local children bury their dead pets. Most of the pets buried in this cemetery are victims of the heavy traffic on the road, which also happens to run past the Creed family home.

A few months down the line, whilst Rachel and the children are spending Thanksgiving with Rachel's parents in Chicago, the Creeds' cat, Church, is run over by a lorry. Initially, Louis is at a loss and does not know how to break the news to his daughter. During the very same night, however, Jud comes up with a solution to Louis's problem and takes him beyond the Pet Sematary to an ancient Micmac burial site, where Church is subsequently entombed. A few days later Church returns, but only his outer shell resembles the tomcat he once was.

Nevertheless, life goes on in the Creed family household, and even though the cat's behaviour has altered significantly, the events of this fateful night remain Louis's secret. Tragedy returns when Gage, the youngest child, is fatally injured on the same road. Unable to cope with his son's death, Louis decides to bury Gage at the Micmac burial ground against Jud's ominous warnings...

Contrary to the experiences of other reviewers, I found Pet Sematary to be a very emotional book. Rather than inducing feelings of suspense or fear, in my own opinion the novel conveys the moral message that, even if we had the power to awaken the dead, it is more fruitful (and safer) to come to terms with the death of a loved one. King's novel was most convincing when talking about Louis's feelings of guilt after his son's tragic death. Altogether I felt that the book was too long and contained too many, superfluous details. At the same time, following Gage's return and his somewhat inexplicable killing spree, it felt that King was almost in a rush to end the story. Whilst he fills pages talking about the return of the tomcat and his changed appearance, it is hard to form an impression of Gage after his return from the burial ground. Frankly, I couldn't quite understand why he would return and kill both Jud as well as his mother straight away. The story therefore effectively ended when it could have become most intrigiung. Rather than killing most off the characters off, I think it would have been quite interesting to witness Gage interact with the remaining members of his family...

Disturbing yet gripping
I read 'On Writing', and this is the first Stephen King novel I've read.

I know "serious" literary critics can regard SK as low-brow and colloquial.
However, I found his style direct and realistic. I thought it clever how he
gradually developed the setting and characters, creating a feeling of warmth
and normality, but always with an undercurrent of weirdness and dread.
Then building the tension, raising the pace, creating true horror, and
reaching an memorable climax. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I think
this is good structure and accomplished writing. By the last quarter of
the book, I felt compelled to finish in one session (1 am!).

Pet Sematary is a disturbing book, reaching down into the sub-conscious
and connecting with primal fears, and at the same time its gripping style
and structure keep the reader compelled to read on. Not a milestone work
of literature perhaps, but an excellent book, and very effective horror.

Probably King's most disturbing work - very VERY creepy
Pet Sematary presents resurrection in the worst possible light, and makes a very convincing case that sometimes death is better.

When a college doctor's cat is run over and killed, his elderly neighbour, afraid that the doctor's daughter will be emotionally crushed, convinces him to bury it not in the nearby "Pet Sematary" (sic) but in a long-abandonned Indian burial ground a few miles beyond. When the cat returns the following night alive and (apparently) well, a bargain has already been unwittingly struck by the doctor, and the burial ground wants more...

PS plays simultaneously on one of man's deepest desires and deepest fears. The book is thick with atmosphere from start to finish and, despite a seeming lack of horror set pieces, manages to create a constant sense of both apprehension and dread - you often KNOW what's coming up, but you're still hesitant to turn the page. It changes gear about halfway through and becomes almost unbearably ominous from then on, which is an incredible achievement from mere pen and ink.

PS will stay with you long afterwards...