From the Bookshelf of RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off)…

Pet Sematary

Stephen King

Start date: November 1, 2014

Finish date: November 30, 2014

Discussion: Buddy-Reads

Discussion leader: Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi

Why we're reading this: November Read-Along.
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Buddy-Reads

BOTM-2-October'20 - My Dark Vanessa
By Heena · 6 posts · 34 views

last updated Oct 22, 2020 08:04AM

BOTM-1-October'20 - If It Bleeds
By Heena · 1 post · 22 views

last updated Oct 01, 2020 09:49AM

What Members Thought

Jul 08, 2014 Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, read-in-2014, thriller, horror, paranormal, adult, fiction, dark-fiction, buddy-read

Note: I read this book in RMFAO's November Buddy-Read with some of my awesome friends Magdalena, Titas, Andrew, Kim, Stefani Saloma, Marigold, Konstantina Pap.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Pet Sematary is undoubtedly one of Stephen King’s finest works. I tend to be speechless when it comes to writing a review for his books, so forgive me if I write less than necessary, because, nothing that can be said will ever be really enough to praise this book.

The story takes you very slowly through the life happeni ...more

65 likes · Like · see review

Jun 13, 2014 Will M. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, 2014, books-i-own, favourites, will-read-again, paranormal, zombies

THE ELECTRICITY JUST FLUCTUATED WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS REVIEW. THE LIGHTS WENT BATSHIT CRAZY. WTF IS HAPPENING? I'M NOT KIDDING AROUND, IT'S 6:15PM AND I'M ALONE IN MY ROOM. WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME, KING?

Louis Creeds moves into a beautiful old house in Maine with his wife, daughter, son, and cat. It was all normal and perfect at first, but the nearby woods became apparent and so was the Pet Sematary.

When people regard King as the master of horror, I used to raise an eyebrow. I've read a few o THE ELECTRICITY JUST FLUCTUATED WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS REVIEW. THE LIGHTS WENT BATSHIT CRAZY. WTF IS HAPPENING? I'M NOT KIDDING AROUND, IT'S 6:15PM AND I'M ALONE IN MY ROOM. WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME, KING?

Louis Creeds moves into a beautiful old house in Maine with his wife, daughter, son, and cat. It was all normal and perfect at first, but the nearby woods became apparent and so was the Pet Sematary.

When people regard King as the master of horror, I used to raise an eyebrow. I've read a few of his horror books and didn't get scared at all. I read The Shining at 2am with no problems at all. It's all different with Pet Sematary though, because even though I was reading it at 9am, I still got scared. The vibe of the book was authentic horror, and it scared the hell out of me. It took me around 2 days to read this, because I constantly had to stop. First it was 2am, then I tried again at 4 am, but I couldn't read further because I was more worried about ghosts in my room. The next instance was 9am the next morning, but my room was dark and there was a storm going on outside, so I had to stop again. If I'm not that scared of horror, then I would've finished this book in a few hours. Really amazing thing King wrote here.

In the introduction he said that this is the most frightening book he has written. I haven't read all of his novels yet, but I'm not disagreeing that this was scary as hell. He also stated that he and his wife moved to Maine, with his daughter, son and cat. Does this found familiar? IT'S THE FUCKING SUMMARY AT THE BACK! He also said that his son almost died because he was chasing him and his son apparently went to the road where the ginormous trucks are. But everything after that was made up, Thank God. He is absolutely right when he said that he had gone too far with this one, because he did! I'm not sure if the introduction was just a gimmick to make the novel scarier, but it really did for me. I can't seem to remove the idea that the happenings in the novel might have really happened in King's life. I know it's crazy, but King made me think of those things.

So we have this cemetery for pets in Maine. It's weird, because why would there be a cemetery exclusively for pets. Louis and his family owns this cat, Church. He's still lurking around the house and very active because they haven't fixed him yet. Louis' neighbor, Jud, warned him that pets and children shouldn't be allowed to play near the streets. Apparently there are ginormous trucks that drive at top speed. The paranormal story begins.

I honestly don't know how to explain my reaction of the novel without tackling the plot, and the mystery of it. Here's a spoiler tag for those who have read this.

(view spoiler)[ Am I the only one who freakin' loves Gage? He's this cute little kid/baby who was really lovable at first, but then turned damn creepy in the end. There's this place (at the back?) of Pet Sematary, wherein people bury their pets, if they want them to come back to life. But there's a catch. The pet isn't the same as it was before. To keep the adjectives short, it's now a zombie, and it has this really disgusting muddy smell that never wears off no matter how much you wash it. Was Louis aware of this paranormal phenomenon? No. Jud was just an asshole who apparently wanted to make Louis' life a living hell. If he didn't show Louis the secret place and buried Church in there, none of the terrible events that happened to Louis would've happened. In my opinion Jud is the devil, who got "guilty" in the end and tried to stop everything, and got murdered. I didn't feel any kind of grief for Jud.

So if Pets can come back to life, can humans? In this novel, yes. Gage got killed by the ginormous trucks I was talking about. Louis was devastated, and there were chapters wherein the death was all in his imagination, then his imagination was just an imagination, and in the end, Gage died. I'm considering that as a really good plot twist. I got tricked! Back to the humans resurrecting thing. Jud tells this story of Timothy(if I remember correctly) and how he came back to life, and also smelled like the muddy earthy thing Church smelled like. But Timothy was also different. He knows all of the secrets and blurts it out. He's also crazy, so just like Church the cat. Despite knowing all the crazy consequences, Louis still wanted to resurrect his dead child. And he did. The result? His wife and "best friend" getting murdered, and him murdering the resurrected crazy murdering child. Did he learn his lesson? No, because he did the exact same thing with his wife. But that was in the epilogue, and all I got was the wife saying "darling" because he had this theory that Gage went crazy because he waited too long to do the resurrection thing. We'll never know what happened to Rachel, if she became just like she was, or like crazy Gage. (hide spoiler)] I think I wrote a really long spoiler tag.

The ending was epic. I can't complain about that because I really loved it. The whole novel was really amazing for me to begin with. The characters were really likeable, and some were relatable too. I didn't like Jud that much, but everyone else managed to entertain me. The plot was a bit weird/new, and I really like that. This novel is really old, but it's my first time reading it, and it will surely not be the last.

I really loved this novel. I think this is the only novel I've read that's worthy to be called a horror novel. I used to call King the king of authors, but I think I can finally give him the deserving title of King of Horror. I can't really say though that this is my one and only favorite book of his, because I loved The Stand for a very different reason. There's a bit of a difference, genre-wise, but no matter what, this just became one of my favorites. This is a novel that I'm sure I'll be reading again in the future. I really enjoyed it and I'm highly recommending it to anyone. 5/5 stars, just read it (I hope you don't own a cat).
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Dec 04, 2018 Kyle Warner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, horror, dark, paranormal, demons, zombies, body-horror, magic, supernatural, occult

Dark as fuuuuck.

Full review later.

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Jun 17, 2025 Jessica Chantelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of King's best. He does not hold back in this story of parenthood, death, and grief. I'm convinced that he has a deeper understaning of human nature. I can't believe it took me 31 years to read this. I felt like a kid reading again. The ways in which this novel explores death and grief makes for a very disturbing experience. But so beautifully written. Reading about the origin for this story makes it all the more devastating. Wonderful characters and the audiobook narration by Michael C. Hal ...more

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