Im a long time fan of mister king, having read multiple of his books and right now I rank pet sematary as his opus magnum. The true horror of this book does not come from scary monster, it comes from the fear of the inevitable death of someone you love.
I had to put this book to rest a few times because it left me filled with dread and anxious feelings. But then I realized that, one day, when I lose someone really close to me, I probably wouldn’t be able to touch this book, so i had to read it while I still can.
This is not a book I will ever recommend blindly to anyone, since I believe it contain triggers to people who had to deal with grief.
So im truly curious, has anyone read this book after losing someone they love? Was it difficult? How did it affect you?
by Tenorius
42 Comments
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I read it long ago. I have lost several people I was extremely close to in the past three months, and I guess I could read Pet Semetary through that lens, but frankly, it’s a novel that never really left my psyche. I hadn’t lost anyone significant when I read it, and the book still left me with palpable grief. It’s not my favorite King novel (that’s The Stand) but it stands the test of time and is definitely one of his best and most consistently written.
I read it years ago after my cat who I absolutely adored more than anything, died. I actually couldn’t finish it and had to come back years later and finish it. I only read it the once. Once was enough. I guess you’d say it was succesful because it scared and traumatized me. I tell people it’s a good book but I can’t recommend it because of how it got to me.
edit- typo
edit 2- Just to restate, I think it is a really good book, one of his best. It just pushed my trigger buttons so well. Too well.
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Have you read Salem’s Lot? I’ve seen both movies so it’s not like I don’t know what happens. But King is so great at creating suspense I stopped at Chap. 6 and I’m scared to pick it up again. lol
That’s my favorite Stephen King book, too, and the only one I recommend to people when they want a thriller. IMO it’s his most complete story, ending and all.
I’m an avid reader of horror and love a good building of suspense. This is one of the rare few books that filled me with dread too! It was like a terrible car accident; I wanted to stop looking but I couldn’t pull away
PS is the first book to ever give me actual nightmares. At least two that I can connect to the book. Absolutely one of the best
The only book I’ve ever read with all the lights on and someone in the room with me.
Not since they’ve died, but I certainly feel I can relate far more after the fact. And for the record, I would be the one burying people in the pet sematary. I know what happened to church and gage, I know sometimes dead is better. But I’d still do it. It resonates so much more with me as a story of overwhelming grief. In fact, I likely will reread it soon.
I loved the boom. It was the first book I read that accurately described how a ptsd flashback felt.
The part where it keeps looping the crash scene. That’s how flashbacks feel.
I’ve never felt more seen
Pet Semetary is one of the few narratives I don’t think can really be *spoiled*. Personally I felt like you could see what was going to happen a mile away, but it’s the *tension* leading to it, and understanding the how and why along the way that makes the story so good!
Ha!
Have you tried Salems Lot?
There are several scenes that are literally dreadful and my fave is the cemetery scene where the gravedigger has the obsessive feeling that the corpse is watching him and he *has* to open the… just read it.
I won’t read it again now that I’ve had kids, honestly. I love dark horror and noir but that particular book ship has sailed.
I read that book a half dozen times over the years. It was my favorite Steven King book. I read it for the first time back in 6th grade. The last time I read it, I was in my 20’s. Then I had kids.
I can’t handle it any more. Dead kids aren’t a “trigger” for me or anything. Just that one particular book.
Pet Semetary, Misery and The Shining are my top 3
I read it after having kids and it hits hard. Growing up, Zelda from the film always terrified me so anticipating her parts filled me with dread.
I read it when I was about 11/12; the first and only book I needed to store in the freezer because I was scared of what might escape
I love King, I own and have read a majority of his work and Pet Sematary is a book that has always truly scared me. One of his best.
I’ve lost pets before, but just under a year ago our newborn son passed away. I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to read this book again, because now I understand better the madness of grief that overtakes you when you lose a child. Losing one of my older children has been a fear of mine since they were born, but now that I’ve lived through it with an infant I don’t think I could handle reading it again.
It might really be King’s scariest book. The stuff about the Wendigo was really unsettling and I don’t know why it’s been completely taken out of *every* movie adaptation of it.
I have all of Steven King’s books except for Pet Sematary, and Danse Macabre, which was appalling. I read P.S. a few times in the late 80’s & early 90’s. Then one day in downtown Cincinnati, I heard screeching tires and a sickening thud maybe 30-40 feet behind me. A little girl had run out into traffic, and got hit by a car. I didn’t see the impact, but heard it clearly. She was literally knocked out of her shoes – I will never forget the sight of her shoes on the ground under the front of the car, and the girl, motionless on the pavement, several feet away. I have no idea if she survived.
A few months later I saw Pet Sematary… >!and the little boy gets hit by a truck!< … and while we don’t see the impact, we hear it, and then we see the empty shoes. That was enough Pet Sematary for me, thank you.
Edit: added spoiler formatting.
Its a fave of mine because it was a completely new type of horror: realistic.
Yes, theres obvious supernatural elements, but the entire time I was reading i could identify with the protagonist. All the motives were human and plausible, all the horror was presented through his perspective, and the types of horror were varied and far-reaching. From absurd supernatural to just creepy habits of the human mind most of us have already personally experienced. And as he deteriorates, you *feel* it. Theres no neon sign telling you what to feel, you just do.
Its very good but definitely not for everyone.
Before kids: oh man that shit is fucked up.
After kids: … I cant
This is the only book that has ever made me outright sob. Like, I had to put the book down and cry into my hands. I just had my son 4 months ago and really should’ve looked into the content before reading it (I didn’t want spoilers). That being said, it’s incredibly well -written and I would certainly recommend reading it… before having children and before dealing with the loss if a significant loved one.
i lost a baby in the 3rd trimester and i kept thinking of this book (i’d read it years before)…it is haunting and i will never touch it again
I listened to the audiobook. It was read by Michael C Hall which only made it scarier and better at the same time.
I dont know if this directly applies but I read it after my dog died and it helped with closure.
For context my dog was very old and hung on a long time, through things like not being able to do steps well or be trained to be inside.
I guess these types of things made me realize that I should cherish the healthy times the things and people I care about have and not wait until it’s too late to cling to them while they suffer.
I haven’t really heard people have this reaction and I’m a little different so idk if this will be that palatable for everyone.
The part where Jud tells Louis what happened the last time a person was buried there has stuck with me.
I don’t think that was in either movie but it was by far the most disturbing part.
I read an interview somewhere that stated the only plot King would change would be with Pet Sematary. I haven’t read the book, and now having a dead daughter I will never read it. But I appreciated him saying that.
Michael C. Hall performa the audiobook version and definitely upped the unsettlingness of it for me.
I remember the dread and horror were not so much of the supernatural, but of the long, slow, inevitable destruction of a man by crushing and profound grief.
Being a father who has lost a child only made me all the more able to appreciate King’s ability as a writer to be able to see the horror well in advance and be unable to look away.
He does this well in The Shining, too. Jack’s alcoholism, guilt and shame gradually but inexorably consume and destroy him and you cannot avert your gaze.
I can’t speak to reading it after a death, but reading it late at night whilst babysitting a sleepwalking toddler in a rattling trailer in a windstorm is an experience I hope never to repeat lol. Come to think of it, that’s about when I quit babysitting
There’s reading Pet Sematary before you’ve experienced a grief that tore your heart in two and reading Pet Sematary after you’ve experienced a grief that tore your heart in two.
There’s also reading Pet Sematary before you’ve had children and reading Pet Sematary after you’ve had children.
I believe King himself has said it is the book that scares him the most. I love Pet Sematary and will read it every few years. An amazing story.
I always think of the movie HEREDITARY as being the best modern retelling of King’s PET SEMATARY. Not the same story, but it shares DNA in many places.
This was the first King book I read.
I am still a huge fan.
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Michael C. Hall (Dexter). His voice was perfect for the creepy atmosphere in this one. And some sections were rough to say the least.
>!Like those flashbacks about the sister with the spine disease!<
That’s probably the bleakest book I’ve ever read. Got to the end of it and just thought ‘f*cking hell’.
Did you catch the part about the shine? Do you feel like deep down, a lot of his books have some aspect of the shine in them?
He has said that Pet Sematery was the most horrific book he’s ever written and when he first thought of the idea he had to put it aside because it horrified him that he came up with that idea. I’m glad I read it before I had my kids. I would never pick it up now.
That bit where he thinks it was a dream and then he gets to see gage grow up before walking and realising that no, he is actually dead. That hits really hard, you do forget sometimes when you’re sleeping.
My favorite king book, the sense of unease and representation of grief are the best I’ve ever read.