Pet Sematary

It has taken me several attempts to get into this book over the years & i can say that, having finished it, I was not that entertained. I have always been a big fan of Stephen King & loved several of his books but i will not class this as one of them. It seemed to me to drag & i felt that the story could well have been told in novella form rather than as a novel, I read the extended version of The Stand last year & at almost 3 times the length I found it so much easier to get into. Sometimes, with Kings writing, I find that what he describes in 2 or 3 pages, most writters could set up in a few paragraphs. Pet Sematary seemed a little drawn out for, what I felt, was a very disappointing ending.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to this book.
There were passages that I enjoyed A LOT, and would incline me to rate it incredibly high. But there were also pages where I felt the story was not as strong, especially once we knew what was going to happen, what Louis was going to do all along. I personally thought that around 80 to 100 pages could've been more fast paced and to the point. 

I really liked that instead of being horror centered on paranormal stuff, it's more focused on death, which can be terrifying and way more relatable than ghosts and all those creepy creatures we can find in books like this. I found some really interesting pieces on death and bereavement in this book that truly exemplify how a person deals with death and the toll it can take on a group of individuals.

Overall, I would recommend this book to a lot of people, and I found it way more enjoyable and appealing than past Stephen King stories I've read.

4.4

I've finished reading this like book a week ago and I have completely forgotten to update my progress here at Goodreads. But nevertheless, I found the time to give a review about this book so here it goes.

This book literally shows the reader a lot of things about “death”; how death is the ultimate and that when a person dies, no matter how much you love them, there's no coming back. Except for the case of Louise Creed, his wife Rachel, their children Ellie and toddler Gage, and their pet cat Church. They just moved to a new place in the town of Ludlow - it was just a great place and everything's delightful. But the problems were; 1. The road right in front of their house with very very fast trucks passing by from time to time. 2. The Pet “Sematary” (which is a misspelled word for cemetery” at the end of a small path into the woods at the end of Creeds' property. One night Church was hit and killed by one of those trucks while Louise's wife and kids are out of town, and Lou's neighbor, Jud, takes him beyond the Pet “Sematary” to an old Indian burial ground to bury the cat. The next day, the cat comes back to the house, seemingly alive, but violent, aggressive, clumsy, and “non-Church like”. Then, later, Lou Creed's little boy, Gage is hit and killed by a truck. Louis will go through the ultimate test: bury Gage and bring him back. As the story progresses, just to prevent any major spoilers, Louise later realized that being dead is better. (BECAUSE LITERALLY ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE).

Rating: 4.63 leaves out of 5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Story: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Fantasy/Paranormal/Mystery
Type: Audiobook
Worth?: Yeah!

Another book on the SK Book Train in Book Lovers Club is done with. Honestly I am happy with this one. I have seen both movies before so I knew what was coming but it was done so well. The ending was so/so but I enjoyed the whole of this book. A rarity it seems from him.

This was my first Stephen King book. As many others have said, King's writing is superb and it's quite easy to get pulled into the book and read for a while. The story is interesting, unique and definitely attests to Stephen King's special mind that comes up with horrific tales and novels.

Although this isn't 'scary' in the traditional horror sense, it was a disturbing read. The book deals with death and grief, while twisting it and making it into something very wrong and disturbing.

The ending does feel a bit short and there's limited closure but I feel that this is a book that's about the journey, not the destination. However, some of the thoughts that reoccur in Louis' mind feel repetitive and after a while it gets old. These moments pulled me away from the story and they felt rather jarring when the same few thoughts repeated in Louis' head five or six times over the course of twenty or thirty pages. Because of this, I couldn't give it a full five stars.

Overall, though, this book is great. King himself considers this to be his scariest book, as mentioned in the intro, but I, as most people, don't find it extraordinarily scary. If you're into more psychological, grief-ridden suspense, this one's for you.

80's Stephen Kings is my favorite! ❤️

Now that I have an infant child I can appreciate this book way more than I would have before. Losing a child and having the ability to bring him/her (or if you allow your kid to identify as a an Apache helicopter) back to life, would you do it? Even if you're being warned your kid may not actually be your kid? Idk if I could live with myself without trying.

Sometimes King novels are to long or their two short but I think King does best between 300-400 pages (yet my favorite is The Stand...).
If he stays in that amount he has just enough pages to give you character development without all the filling, and he's more fast paced and really gives you a thrilling ride. In this case he gives one hell of a gut punch and it's going down as one of the best he's written. It's too bad most movie adaptations are so bad since they don't follow the books.

Pet Sematary is probably one of Stephen King's best known works. It has been adapted for film twice, as recently as 2019, and I have encountered references to this book in other more contemporary examples of horror fiction. It is a significantly influential story about grief, humanity's age old conflict against death, and perhaps also humanity's place in a dark and mysterious world. The book stands on the shoulders of antecedents such as The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs. The audiobook was read by Michael C. Hall (Dexter) who did a fantastic job. Despite the hype surrounding this classic and the enduring popularity of the novel, overall I was disappointed in Pet Sematary. I had seen the 2019 movie prior to reading, and I don't know if that experience spoiled reading the book for me, but I just found the pacing of the novel incredibly slow and the length far too long. One of the people in the HOWL Society book club commented that they thought King over foreshadowed, and I agree. Between that and knowing more or less what was going to happen I got so bored waiting for the actual action and scary bits to occur. There were certainly some frightening sections and moments of excellence in storytelling throughout, but sadly I would describe such sections as islands of engagement in a sea of tedium. I also had some questions about the plot and world building, and thought some of the supernatural elements were underdeveloped. To make matters worse, this book was written in the 1980s and features characters imbued with casual racism, sexism, and ableism which were (probably) prevalent at the time. This makes the book a somewhat uncomfortable read for a contemporary reader in addition to being boring. While Pet Sematary has some interesting insights to offer, I simply didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. As the book says, sometimes dead is better. I might add that sometimes unread is better too. I think my idea of this book was better than the actual reading experience proved to be. Maybe someday I'll give this book another chance, and maybe I'll like it better. I hope so. But for now ⭐️⭐️

3.5 I feel like this really should have been a novella and then it would have been a 5 star read. Spending so much time in Louis’s head really didn’t serve the book. You could have cut a 1/3 of his inner monologue and had a much more compelling and terrifying story. It wasn’t until 75% that I was finally into what was happening. A disappointing reading experience because of all the hype surrounding the book.

“¿Tan fina es la línea divisoria? ¿Tan fácil es pasar al otro lado? ¿Es esto la locura?”

En este libro, mi primero de King, se puso a prueba mi precaria paciencia. La primera parte, que es un poco más del 50%, me pareció floja y soporífera. La leí casi en diagonal y me decía a mi mismo: “demasiado relleno, no está pasando nada”. Bueno, al parecer es el estilo del autor, le gusta llevar las cosas con calman y a un ritmo desesperante. Pues, ¡no! A mí casi me causa una embolia cerebral, me gustan los plots más rápidos. Si hay algo que rescatar es la solidez de los personajes. El 40% restante mejoró y, practicamente, salvó a King de mi furia. Eso a pesar de haber sido bastante predecible, cosa que no le es ajena al terror. Se vuelve más interesante, si es que se puede usar ese adjetivo para referirse a la tragedia, la depresión, lo macabro, y lo demencial. ⠀
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Por cierto, estoy muy lejos de mi zona de confort, es primera vez que leo una novela de terror. Para mí solo fue un thriller, más psicológico. Terminé imaginando si sería capaz de hacer lo que hizo Louis con su hijo Gage, quién sabe, procesamos el dolor y aceptamos la realidad de diferentes formas.⠀
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Su prosa está bien, lo mismo su sentido del humor. Hay otras cosas que me han gustado: lo paranormal, el misticismo de los micmacs, la reflexión sobre lo efímero de la vida y el misterio de la muerte; esa mano negra que empuña la guadaña y que nos respira en el cuello constantemente. Solo se muere una vez, ¿no? ¿La muerte es el final del camino? Gandalf diría que no, y yo le creo todo a Gandalf.

I’ve had kind of a mixed bag of experiences with King so far, having only really read shorter stuff like The Mist, and Secret Window, Secret Garden and not really loving either. But then I saw the narrator was Michael C. Hall, and I had to grab it. It helps that the other members of Fear For All love his stuff too.

First off, I thought this was fantastic. Reading something finally full length from King really allowed for the story to open up. Both growing in creepiness, and heightening those emotional touch points. Of course, it might just help that I decided to read one that is considered up there with his best, but still.

The copy I got from Audible included an introduction from the author, he spoke about how he thought this was his darkest novel, perhaps even too dark that it shouldn’t have been published. He also spoke about the origin of the spelling of Pet Sematary, its inclusion in the novel, and eventual taking over as the title. That kind of inclusion and connection really heightened my enjoyment heading into the story.

Louis accepts a new job, moving his family into the rural town of Ludlow, Maine. Their new house seems too good to be true, their neighbor Jud already showing them hospitality. But even from the earliest pages of the novel, theirs a dangerous undertone. Let alone when they get shown the cemetery behind their property where all the town’s beloved pets have been buried…I personally have pets, and although the thought of having them nearby is endearing, this is still just so creepy.

But when the road finally claims another victim, this time Louis’ daughter’s beloved cat Church, Jud tells him to wait for his call and that they’d handle it. And when Church shows back up, after being buried no less, Louis does his best to rationalize the appearance, but underneath it all, he knows better. The general creepiness of this, as well as the behavioral problems that follow with Church, should have been a clear indication of how far this novel would go, but I wasn’t ready.

The loss of a child, is often something that writers avoid like the plague, especially in horror I feel. So for King to go so far into this, so deep, especially given the year when this released originally, is a testament to him. And yeah…this really is super super dark. For me, the imagining of if it didn’t happen, and where his life could have gone, was even sadder to read than the death itself.

It does kind of feel like I’ve managed to live under a rock, as I’ve not had any of this really ruined for me, and I’ve never seen any screen adaptation so far. With the mixed bag that has come from his wide filmography, I think maybe I had started to link that directly to him, even though they are adaptations of his works? This was so eerie and riveting. It brought to mind that building dread that I loved in Nat Cassidy’s Nestlings, that ability to show that building in different ways between husband, wife, and daughter.

Michael C. Hall did such a fantastic job. I would like him to take over narrating my life now. The voices were great, the novel had life, and this once again brought to mind just how much we are missing that he has not narrated the Dexter series.