#Review Pet Sematary by Stephen King #ClassicHorror

Title: Pet Sematary by Stephen King

First Published: 1983

Genre: Horror

Description:

SOMETIMES…DEAD IS BETTER’

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 threat.

But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully cleared 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.

Review:

I have finally finished Pet Sematary, woohoo! It’s taken me three attempts over two years and I want to say a huge thank you to Janel @ Keeper of Pages and all the lovely people who took part in the read-along over on Instagram.

The story follows Dr Louis Creed, his wife Rachel and their two children, five year old Ellie and two year old Gage, as they move to a new house in Ludlow. They settle nicely into their new lives, even making friends with their neighbour Jud and Norma Crandall, but that’s until the discover the Pet Sematary behind their house.

It’s innocent enough at first but when Church, Ellie’s beloved cat dies in a freak accident on the road outside their house, Jud shows Louis what the sematary is really capable of.

Stephen King fans are probably not going to love this review, so just a warning to you, you may not want to carry on reading this!

So initially I stopped reading this book because I had nightmares about evil cats but thankfully the third time around I was a little more immune to the creepiness of Church the cat.

I have to be honest, while Stephen King is an amazing writer, with a great imagination, he has this tendency to waffle on a bit. The first half of the book is so slow, not a whole heap happens, I feel that it could have been at least half the length.

Then we have the ending which was the complete opposite, full of suspense and action. It just really annoyed me as I was hoping for that the whole way through. I also would like to have a word with whoever divided up the chapters, some were five pages or so, others twenty or more, I feel this dragged the pace down too.

The best thing about the book was the realistic characters. I loved Ellie the tenacious five year old and Jud with all of his stories. I have to be honest though, I didn’t much like Louis. I found him a little condescending at times, talking about death being a natural part of life but completely freaking out about it when it came down to it. Also this is just the mother in me, but he encourages his kids to swear which I found irritating.

Pet Sematary, while yes it was creepy, was slightly disappointing for me in the end. I know a remake of the movie is coming out this year, which I want to watch, just to see if they improve on the book.

About the Author: (taken from Amazon)

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald’s Game and It.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.