Rating: 5/5
SPOILER FREE SECTION
I’ve only recently started getting into Stephen King so the only other book I’ve read by him is the Shining, but it’s so clear to me that King is a master of atmosphere, which is the secret behind what makes his books so terrifying. King manages to play with atmosphere in a way that few can rival because despite being a book reliant on its atmosphere, it never feels like it’s lacking in plot or like the characters are weak at any point in the book. I definitely prefer Pet Sematary over The Shining, and I think it’s my new favourite horror book of all time, closely followed by The Haunting of Hill House.
Pet Sematary is described in the beginning of the book as the scariest book King has ever written and obviously I can’t really say if this is true, but I believe it’s the scariest book I’ve ever read. I had to stop at multiple points in the book to just take in the gruesome scenes and the horrifying descriptions. Even if you have seen the movie, I highly, highly recommend reading the book. It is a million times better than the movie.
Despite the characters making stupid decisions and being very flawed, you can’t help but root for them anyway. You want them to be okay. You want this family of four to be alright, you want them to overcome their struggles, not give into temptation, and you want them to grow stronger because of it. But you also sympathise with the protagonist, Louis, when he makes bad decisions that you know are objectively wrong because King manages to describe grief in a way that is so gut-wrenchingly tragic that you get it. You understand their actions and reactions, and you end up questioning if you really would’ve done anything differently.
This book deals with incredibly heavy themes, tackling the question of whether or not death is better, and it has convinced me that it is (to an extent). If you have experienced or are currently going through loss or trauma, I would be very careful picking up this book and googling TW even if you are usually good at handling horror.
Overall, I would highly recommend to anyone who is thinking about reading this book, or if you are a horror fan in general as I believe it is evidence of why King is such a well loved author. Just be a little bit careful with triggers before you pick up the book.
If you have any King books you would like to recommend me please do! I love his writing and I would love to read more of his books.
SPOILERY SECTION
This book traumatized me a little bit. I first had to put down the book when Church got hit by a car. This is mainly because I am the proud mother of a black cat, and I love my cat so much. If anything happened to my cat, my heart would break. So the description of Church as an undead made my skin crawl and continues to make my skin crawl every time I read it.
I love, love, love King’s use of language as well. Something that I thought was really cool when I read it was when Rachael starts calling Ellie “Eileen” at the airport. I think that paragraph suggests that there was something supernatural taking over Rachael, really shown in the use of formality as it suggests a sense of disconnect. This is the first time we hear Ellie’s full name, so we know that it is not something normally used by the other characters. I just thought this was a really cool passage.
I could not put down the book during the last 150 pages. I read it in one go and despite knowing the ending, I was still really surprised when it happened. I’m not really sure how I feel about the ending though, I felt like it was a little anticlimactic to kill Gage immediately, but I do really like the questions it brings up. What happens to Ellie? What happens to Rachael? What about Jud? Does Louis ever get convicted? But I like that it ends on a cliffhanger, I think it’s really fitting in a book about death not to get all the answers.
