Do the Indians win in The End?

PET SEMATARY contains my favorite "fictional" scene of a soul-renewing interaction between a father and his male toddler. The warmth and joy exposed in the kite flying ... the word that comes to mind is "ceremony"... in this story goes beyond worthy of a great literary novel. Yet, by setting literary gems like this scene within the pure honesty of the horror genre, King is contributing more to human art and literature than he could have done as a Charles Dickens, an F. Scott Fitzgerald, a Joseph Conrad, or a W. Somerset Maugham... or even as a Walt Disney.

Maybe Stephen King is too honest a man, too raw a personality, too richly complex a talent, to deal with life's pain (and joy) anywhere but within the in-your-heart reality of horror.

I can't think of a better novel to help an innocent heal from and accept the grieving process and finality of a terribly difficult death. Upon first having that thought, prior to stating it, I cringed, and checked my emotional inappropriateness gauges, if not my sanity. Then, I read many of the customer reviews on this book and gave 99% of them a "Yes" vote, in growing awe of the composition and comprehension clarity this novel has drawn out of readers.

I was especially confirmed in making my above statement when I read "A Kid's Review" on PET SEMATARY.

I've come upon a couple kid's reviews on Amazon and each time I've been so impressed I immediately looked for an E-mail address to praise the youngster beyond his wildest nightmares. Not finding an address (and understanding why), I made an extra special effort in clicking:

"YES! This review was HELPFUL (and good, and amazing, and awe inspiring, and it made my day)!"

I can honestly say that, so far, the two kids reviews I've read on Amazon are the best, clearest, most balanced, most creative in simple, effective composition, most living in words, which I've read anywhere on anything. Maybe kids haven't yet forgotten what stories are supposed to be and do?

Even though the word "ceremony" fits the immensity of emotional impact of the kite scene between Louis and Gage, it is too formal a word for that major but so simple event in which this father and son go out into the yard and soar a kite across the heavens. It is that scene, the perfection of the simple joy written into it, which seeds a simple source of hope and redemption which sneaks into this novel and cracks the egg shell of a seeming finality in death.

Because of that scene, this book doesn't just dramatize too exquisitely why "dead is better." It paints a better than Norman Rockwell scene exposing simply and without overdone sentiment, the why of life and birth.

I saw a preface for this reason in the emotion flickering between the brightness of a soaring kite and the darkness of the flesh-and-soul smashing-and-ripping loss of a child to a terribly young death.

That perfect preface was in the first few pages of PET SEMATARY, as the Creed family is clearly shown in a common, natural, grating tension in which relentless little stresses build to a point of members giving serious private thoughts of blasting the family into tiny bits of a jigsaw puzzle never to be returned to wholeness. Then the family is shown with dark emotions transformed in the brilliance and speed of a lightning flash, as each member views the gift of their destination, a house and setting which immediately speaks to the group as that rarely achieved, ever sought comfort as HOME.

As if the above dark/light, flickering symbolism weren't enough to earn praise beyond the grave, I would like to note that the symbolism is also perfect and pregnant in the use of names in this book:

-- "Church" for the nickname of the cat (even though it is short for Winston Churchill
-- "Creed" for the family name
-- "Rachel" for Louis's wife (the essence of a biblical name for a wife heavy with dark emotions)
-- "Zelda" for Rachel's sister (F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife's name was Zelda)

Then there's even MORE symbolism and depth in the situation of:

Primitive-Evil-Backdrops-Modern-Age. At-Home. Where-The-Heart-Is. Checkmate.

That's the setting for the situation in PET SEMATARY. It is drawn through the lonely, paved highway set up for frequent, messy, gut wrenching road-kill in the "front" of the house property; contrasted by the back door of the property bordering on the power of evil in the ancient soil of the Micmac Indian burial ground, an essence-of-place which was "there' since the beginning of earth.

Shiny, glistening, blood-stained-blacktop loses to dark, dank, rich soil.

Chaotic, greedy speed is swallowed seamlessly by the timelessness of an organic return and metamorphosis, total or incomplete, your choice.

This novel is whole. It is richly complete. Possibly that might be its strongest compliment.

I believe we all win, eventually. Life is soaring, now and then, and in the (true) end.

Go fly a kite!

Linda G. Shelnutt

Many who have read this book find it as King's most frightening book. Personally I agree. This book is so realistic, it tricks you into believing things you thought not possible. It is suspenseful, a real nail biter by my terms. I've always been a King fan, and this simply reinforces my love of his work.

The book is about the Creed family, who moves to Ludlow, Maine. The family consists of Louis, a doctor at a university infirmary, Rachel, his wife, their daughter Ellie who is just starting kindergarten, their infant son gage, and their lovable cat Church. Louis instantly finds a friend and a father figure in his neighbor Jud. Jud shows the family a place called Pet Sematary hidden behind the forest near the Creed's new home. Ellie starts having prophetic dreams her cat Church will die, and Rachel is thoroughly disturbed due to the trauma she suffered as a child when her sister Zelda died. There's a gruesome secret behind Pet Sematary, and Louis will soon find out.

When Louis goes to work on his first day, he has a sickening experience with a patient named Victor Pascow. A car while jogging struck Pascow, and it isn't pretty. The most disturbing part, is the fact that Pascow warns Louis to stay away from the cemetery.

While the rest of the family goes to visit Rachel's parents, Louis stays home. Church is killed. Jud leads Louis to a place behind Pet Sematary, where they bury him. All seems well, until Church comes back, different...dead but alive. Soon Louis finds out more than pets can be buried there, and some things are just better off dead...
LM

This book introduces the reader to Doctor Louis Creed who takes up a Medical Position in a small town University . His daughter's Cat is killed and he is instructed by his elderly neighbour Jud to bury the cat in an old Native American Burial Ground which has the power to reanimate dead tissue. Upon being confronted with his first serious Medical Emergency Dr. Creed takes a Tuinal (barbituate) to cope with the sudden demands of his new job. Perhaps this is a reflection of King's own life where he abused substances presumably to cope with all of his success ,money and Celebrity Status. King himself has called this a "dirty, nasty book" which should never have been published and I am truly disturbed by the large number of people out there who consider it to be one of King's "finest works". Perhaps like Louis Creed they should all resort to some serious Heavy Duty Medication and Therapy in order to cope with the demands of the Real World. I give this book 5 stars because once again King has succeeded in getting the Reading Public to buy this book in the hope that it might be as good as his books were 20 years ago. Sadly this is not the case.

Louis Creed moves his wife Rachel and his kindergarten-age daughter Ellie and his toddler Gage into a new home in Maine. He instantly befriends the friendly old man across the street you takes the Creed's through the woods up to see the pet cemetary, where the neighborhood pets have been buried for generations. Rachel, who still hasn't come to terms with witnessing her sister Zelda's horrific death as a child is extremely disturbed by the place, and Ellie begins having nightmares that her beloved cat will die.

On Louis' first day of the year back on the job at an infirmary, he witnesses an extremely disturbing display-a young man who was struck and killed while jogging. The young man's last words to Louis are a warning to stay AWAY from the cemetary.

Well, it just so turns out that those buried in the cemetary have a pesky way of crawling out of their graves and coming back...changed. Dangerous. And with out giving too much away, lets just say that tragedy befalls the family and Louis discovers that pets aren't the only things that can be buried there...and brought back from the dead. And he soon finds himself in a whole lot of trouble....

Definetely one of my favorite Stephen King books, next to Rose Madder, Misery, and Gerald's Game.

Commonly, very commonly, I'll come across an avid Stephen King fan. And every time I ask this avid fan what their favorite Stephen King the book is, the answer I usually get is "The Shining."

But if you were to ask me what I thought was Stephen King's best book, I'll respond with "Pet Sematary". It was a book that kept me on the edge of my seat, and it had a good story to tell.

Louis Creed and his family have just moved out into Ludlow, Maine. The woods just beyond their home (a part of their property) hold a dark secret. That secret is known as the "Pet Sematary." But there's more to it. Beyond the Pet Sematary is an even darker secret. This dark secret will eventually allow Louis to play God, and nullify the rules of death. But in the end the secret becomes horrifying and bone chilling.

What makes Pet Sematary a good read is probably that it deals with a common fear many people share. Death. It's not the thought of dying that's scary, it's the thought of what's after it that is (for most people). Stephen King puts this fear into a novel and not only are there some chilling lines ("Sometimes dead is better.), but a few gruesome images.

I do have one complaint (two actually) about the book. For one, the characters aren't as well developed as they were in "The Shining." The reason I began to fear Jack Torrance was because I KNEW Jack Torrance by the time he went insane. In Pet Sematary none of that seems to happen.

My second complaint is a mild one. I liked the pace of the story, but the scariest part of the book came extremely late, and when the rollar coaster began to go downhill, the ride was over faster than I wanted it to be. In all essence, I thought there could've been more to the books final fifty pages.

The ENDING is what saves this book from losing one star. Stephen King, to me at least, has done some weird endings in the past ("Christine", and a few of his short stories in "Everything's Eventual"), but this one was just perfect. Not only was it terrifying, but it left you with a thought so creepy you kept your bedroom light on.

Overall, I'd say Pet Sematary is Stephen King's best book (with "Misery" and "The Shining" coming in second). It had terror, suspense, and an underlying fear we try as little of as possible.

A breathtaking, bone-chilling read.