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562 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 14, 1983
It’s probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls—as little as one may like to admit it, human experience tends, in a good many ways, to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.In my teens, Stephen King has crafted my nightmares. I am masochistically glad to say that in my adulthood, that has not changed.
He held her and rocked her, believing, rightly or wrongly, that Ellie wept for the very intractability of death, its imperviousness to argument or to a little girl’s tears; that she wept over its cruel unpredictability; and that she wept because of the human being’s wonderful, deadly ability to translate symbols into conclusions that were either fine and noble or blackly terrifying. If all those animals had died and been buried, then Church could die (any time!) and be-buried; and if that could happen to Church, it could happen to her mother, her father, her baby brother. To herself. Death was a vague idea; the Pet Sematary was real.I would say half the book isn't a horror in a traditional sense, but an exploration of human grief and behavior, and human nature itself can be quite terrifying.
In the texture of those rude markers were truths which even a child’s hands could feel.
The wind pushed and pulled its fingers through his hair, and for a moment the old, childlike fear of the dark rushed through him, making him feel weak and small and terrorized. Was he really going into the woods with this corpse in his arms, passing under the trees where the wind walked, from darkness into darkness? And alone this time?I've long since outgrown my nightly monster-prepping ritual, but I know tonight I won't be sleeping easily.
“I brought you something, Mommy!” he screamed. “I brought you something, Mommy! I brought you something, I brought you something!”
KING calls Pet Sematary his scariest book, and I can understand why. It is super creepy and super "shocking" where he takes the reader, and his interesting prologue explaining how he came to write this unsettling tale brings a bit of truth to the story.
While truly a horror of a read, it is excellent in respect to its genre, but just awful too if that makes any sense. PS is not particularly gory, but definitely sad, sick, dark, and disgusting with more than one horribly "shocking" event that will blow your mind.
Take heed if you're new to reading horror as this one will make your skin crawl and keep you from taking a walk in the woods anytime soon......especially if your cat is nearby.
"IT" is still my favorite scary KING thriller (especially the "old" movie) but Pet Sematary (did I say it was "shocking") is a close second, and......."sometimes dead is better."
UPDATE: October 16, 2015
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE TOTALLY CREEPED OUT! THE VISUAL OF THE "SISTER" FLASHBACK SCENE ALONE IS MORE HORRIFYING THAN THE ENTIRE BOOK!!!
“Don’t monkey with a wound that has finally started to heal.”