You should read it: Stephen King’s Pet sematary

I am not really a big Stephen King fan and I have probably only read a handful of his numerous novels. One of those that really stood out for me was Pet sematary. If I had to tell someone unfamiliar with the genre of the suspense novel what it was all about, I would use this book as an example.

Pet sematary is not just an example of a suspense novel, it is a great example. The novel is not only very suspenseful, but it also gave me the creeps. That is really saying something, because I am not usually moved all that easily.

What is this novel all about? As you might have guessed from the title, Pet sematary is about a pet cemetery. More precisely, it is about a little town where the kids like to bury their dead pets on a nice little field especially for that purpose.

Over the course of the book we find out that, of course, this place is not just any ordinary pet cemetery, but it is actually a part of an ancient Native American burial ground.

Louis Creed, the main character of the novel, get a new job at a health center and moves to the small town with his wife, their two kids and their cat called Church. The family seems to be experiencing a streak of bad luck from the moment that they arrive in the small town.

Not before long, Louis starts to experience strange occurrences that he tries to rationalize as merely stress induced or very vivid dreams. These occurrences involve apparitions of a dead student who tries to tell him something about the ancient burial ground.

Regardless whether this is real or imagined, if it had been me I would make sure that I would stay the hell away from that pet cemetery. Of course, Louis is not that smart. He not only returns there, but when his cat dies he decides to bury it in the ancient burial ground. Things start to get really creepy when the next morning Church the dead cat has returned to the house.

At first glance, he looks just like his former self, except that he has become much more vicious and he also smells like a corpse. As you can probably imagine, it only gets worse from then on, with more tragedy striking and a lot more creepiness.

Pet sematary is one of those books that once you start reading it you do not want to put it down anymore. It is fast paced, very well written and like I mentioned already, very suspenseful. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good suspense novel or anyone who always wanted to get started on Stephen King’s oeuvre.

Comments

Nat, why stop with Pet Sematary? Why not toss in Christine and Cujo;) You know astounds me with S. King's work? That some of his books are outstanding. The Shining, The Stand, The Green Mile. And some of his short stories are stellar, especially The Body (made into the movie, Stand By Me, one of the best coming of age movies EVER). But, but, but Pet Sematary? I just couldn't suspend my belief long enough to do anything but muddle through that book.
Happy new Year! :)
Natazzz said…
Well, I guess it's just a matter of taste.

Besides PS, I also really loved The Tommyknockers. The Shining or The Green Mile not so much. My sister also made me read the entire Dark Tower series, but I wasn't impressed.

Maybe those are better books, but they couldn't keep me entertained.