Book Review of PET SEMATARY by Stephen King

PET SEMATARY by Stephen King (Pocket Books edition, 2017 - -  first published November 1983) Paperback, 395 pages

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .l

When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son—and now an idyllic home. As a family, they’ve got it all... right down to the friendly car.

But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth—more terrifying than death itself—and hideously more powerful.

The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.

My Five Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

”Sometimes dead is better."

    King deals with death, grief and the sometimes irrational behavior that arises from it in a big, big way in PET SEMATARY. While I've seen the original film adaptation, it did not do full justice to the novel and didn't adequately prepare me for what King does within the pages - - this is ten times more powerful than the film. This one may stay with you. Possibly the most frightening of all King novels (at least those that I've read).

My reading notes . . . . . .

May 25: Wow, I thought MISERY was compulsive reading, especially the final third of the novel. I just started reading a little before bedtime last night, and now up to Page 110 this morning. In that brief span (about 18% into the story) I have been 1) disturbed, 2) concerned, 3) horrified, and 4 frightened. Reasons: [ 1) Visit to the backwoods pet cemetery, 2) Ellie's questions about death, 3) Louis' first day on the new job, and 4) Louis' sleepwalking nightmare. 

May 26: I have only seen the first film adaptation of PET SEMATARY, and that was many years ago. I don't recall picking up the book until now. It seems to me that the novel is quite a bit scarier than the movie was. I also love the character development, especially the family members. King really knows how to create empathy and pull readers in.

May 27: Finished Part One today, and diving into Part Two. Near the tail end of Part One there are some great scenes where young daughter Ellie asks father Louis questions about death - - really well done and heart-warming. 

Even later in the story, some memorable words when Rachel confesses to a certain fear:

     "Louis Creed was no psychiatrist, but he knew that there are rusty, half-buried things in the terrain of any life and that human beings seem compelled to go back to these things and pull at them, even though they cut. Tonight Rachel had pulled almost all of it out, like some grotesque and stinking rotten tooth, its crown black, its nerves infected, its roots fetid."

     I knew the awful thing that was going to happen later (since I saw the film) but the opening of Part Two was devastating to read. The scenes of grief and out-of-sorts reactions are realistic. 

I could even visualize funeral parlor arguments/fights as actually happening. 

May 28: Now 70% completed. This is so sad. I've read a lot of King but I don't recall the subject of death and grief taking up this much of the story before. This is having a strong effect on me. This may just turn out to the most powerful as well as frightening King book in my humble reading experience.

May 29: I finished the last 150 pages of this novel between last evening and this morning. Wow, what an ending! I couldn't see this ending any other way, and I'm satisfied but not entirely happy about it. I believe I can figure out what King intended for the ending, but he does make it vague enough that some readers could imagine a more happier outcome even though I didn't.