Pet Sematary

Title
Pet Sematary
Author
Stephen King
Published date
12/05/2009
Pages
424
Publisher
Prószyński i S-ka

Creeds moves to rural Maine into they dreamed house. The neighbourhood is lovely, locals are kind and Louis has a good job at a university. The only little flaw is an intercity route where all the big trucks are driving far too fast. Very dangerous for little animals. But that just mean that they need to keep an eye on Church, they family cat. Even they daughter likes her new school. When their neighbour Jud Crandall shows them the nearby ‘pet sematary’, where the local kids burry their poor little friends who died on the road, Louise thinks it’s a cute little town’s tradition. What they don’t know is that it’s just a front for something ancient and much, much darker.

As in all King’s stories we have a slow start. We meet the Creeds, learn more about their family members and their new friends from across the road - an elderly couple who are very friendly and caring people. The strange things start to happening to Louis, but he just brushed them away as a creations of his stressed mind. King is the master of creating very believable scenery, so very soon we are very close to protagonist family. And it’s just when the bad things start happening.

It’s not the most frightening book from King, but it definitely is creepy. Especially if you are parents of small children, you can easily relate to the characters. The authors explores what can grief and desperation drive people to do. How far would they go to keep their happy little life if given a choice. Of course we have here some ancient, evil power pushing everyone to the extremes. It’s pretty easy to guess where the story is going, and there is not much twists here, but then, there is no need for them. We just watch, helpless, as protagonist is continue to do bad choices and pursuing inevitable tragedy.

I’m a huge fan of King’s books so there is no surprise I really enjoyed this one too! I’ve heard that a lot of people started their adventure with horror master from this novel. It is really a good place to start. It’s not very long, it’s easy to read and have really memorable characters (Jud Crandall). What is also funny, this book was written in 1983, but you can’t tell it’s that old. I’ve just realised that, when there were some retrospections about characters’ youths in 60s and I though: wait a minute, they can’t be that old! But considering it was 1983 then yes, they could.

Of course I recommend this book, doesn’t matter if you are fans of Stephen King or not. It is a good read with some really chilling scenes which I hope won’t haunt my dreams!

****