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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of his best--but very, very dark., February 25, 2000
I first read this book as a teenager--God, was it really 15 years ago? Loved it then, like it now. I must've reread it a dozen times, because the characters caught hold of me. King sketches his characters broadly but carefully, making their dialogue come alive--Jud Crandall is particularly likeable in this regard--and making their emotions ring true... Which is what makes the horror so unsettling. This is one of King's darkest works, as it deals not simply with supernatural terror, but REAL terror, like the death of a child, or the realization that people can be cruel and evil with little provocation, or the guilt that comes with hiding things. One of the effective ways King achieves his horror is in having Jud Crandall tell his stories about what happened many years before in the town of Ludlow. God, those stories, of Timmy Baterman, of Jud's own dog, wreaked havoc on my imagination as a teen; one of the very few times that simply reading has induced in me the feeling of physical fear, as if I myself might be in danger. I've read countless horror novels, and this was one of the few books to do that to me! It's not really fun. Still, I recommend "Pet Sematary" highly. It's dark and somber and very real--King playing for keeps.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'll Never Look at Cats the Same Way Again!!, August 16, 2004
This review is from: Pet Sematary (Mass Market Paperback)
PET SEMATARY is a book that will stand the test of time. It is, of course, one of King's early novels, and we can see the author at his peek. The horrors he reveals (from family dynamics to supernatural burial grounds) are chilling enough to scare the bejesus out of the sternest of hearts!
The story revolves around the Creed family and their move from a bustling Chicago suburb to quiet Bangor, Maine, where the father (Louis) starts work as a physician. He brings with him his wife and two children (Ellie, a preteen daughter, and Gauge, a preschool boy still in diapers). The house they move into is beautiful with plenty of land for the children to play on, and a nice old neighbor couple across the "road", the Crandalls. It is this "road" that causes some immediate concern to Louis as Judd Crandall tells him about the deaths of animals caused by the big semi-trucks that blaze down its blacktop.
Judd becomes friends with the family and eventually takes them (or rather is drawn into taking them) on a small path behind the Creed's house that leads to a very special place: the PET SEMATARY. This is the place where most of the animals that'd been killed on the "road" are buried. It's a strange place with concentric circles, the shape the multiple graves make as they are laid out against the well-kept grounds. Louis and Ellie notice a large deadfall tree and Judd warns them not to climb it because it is too dangerous. But there's more to the story than that. What lay beyond the deadfall tree?
Ellie's cat, Church, is eventually killed on the "road", and Judd and Louis decide to bury the cat, but not in the PET SEMATARY; they go beyond, over the deadfall, and into a very special place known as the Micmac burial grounds, a place that has existed since the Earth began, and has the power in its soil to bring back the dead. But at what cost?
"Has anyone ever buried a human being back there?" Louis asks Judd.
"Don't even think such a thing, Louis!" Judd replies.
Church returns to the living, but is much changed. The cat smells foul, and has a very cold and evil manner about it. But at least Ellie has her cat back, right?
Eventually the "road" takes more than just an animal of the Creed's. In a horrific set of narratives, Mr. King draws us into what might happen if humans were brought back from the dead. What happens to our soul if we're brought back? Does it come with us? Or does it stay on the Micmac grounds? Or perhaps something in-between?
This book will, in every sense of the word, "freak" you out! It's terrifyingly terrific, as were many of King's earlier novels. A must read for the horror afficionado.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bone-Chilling!, April 6, 1999
Wow. I have read many of King's works, and I was never REALLY scared by any of his books. I just thought they were darned good reads. However, Pet Sematary is quite different.The plot revolves around young doctor Louis Creed, who moves to a remote little town in Maine with his beautiful family -- but they all get the feeling that the cute little town has a dark, evil secret. Wierd things start to happen when a college student comes into Creed's campus infirmary -- hit by a truck and as good as dead -- and sputters warnings out to him, and later appears in a dream, advising him not to pass the barrier at the end of the "Pet Sematary." Louis's life starts to fall apart, and he senses a strange power. The "Pet Sematary" and the darkness which lies beyond it begin to control and destroy his life. Doesn't sound scary -- that's only because I didn't want to give anything away. But, it is EXTREMELY creepy, even though I've already seen the movie about a million times. I honestly have to say that "PET SEMATARY" gave me the creepiest four days of my life. Many scenes in this grim masterpiece will absolutely freeze your blood. I don't think I have ever been that "freaked out." In fact, I finished the book today, and last night the book scared me so bad that I was litteraly afraid to go to sleep -- therefore, I did not. I stayed up all night, afraid to turn off the lights and go to sleep, with nothing to do but read the book. This book is like the MicMac burial ground itself....it seems to control you, and forces you to unlock its frightening secrets. If you are in for a good scare that no horror movie could ever give you (this coming from a hard-boiled horror fan, who does NOT scare easy, and I am being truthful), then order this book immediately. You will be scared....but you will not be sorry. I think this book also has a moral -- don't try to fix it if it aint really broke. Also, as the tagline for the movie states..."Sometimes dead is better." Absolutely right. Well, I am off now, to drink a pot of black coffee to make up for all the sleep I lost reading Pet Sematary last night.
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