Pet Sematary review

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King was born in 1941 in Portland, Maine, USA. He is a famous American novelist and short story writer, whose story collections and films, based on his horror fiction literature have made his reputation world-wide. He is an especially talented storyteller in the field of horror fictions and his well-known works are Carrie, The Dead Zone and The Shining. King's books have sold globally more than 100 million copies and because of his popularity and because I like horror, I chose a part of his famous horror story called Pet Sematary to be reviewed.

Pet Sematary was first published in 1983 and it tells about doctor Louis Creed, who moves because of a job to new a house in the country with his family (wife Rachel, daughter Ellie and son Gage). One day Ellie's cat Church is run over by a truck. Louis' neighbour Jud Crandall offers to help him and suggests that they will bury the cat in an old pet cemetery nearby. It was a Micmac burial ground and possessed great, but unknown powers, which controll matters of life and death. After Louis had buried the cat and comes back home, Church suddenly returns. When their son Gage dies, (run over on the same road Church had been) Louis desides to bring him back to life against Jud's warnings and buries him in the pet cemetery. Howewer, his son comes back, but he is possessed by the dark spirit and kills Jud and Rachel. Louis buries Rachel in the ground one more time. At the end of the novel she's return is strange.

Because there was only a part of the whole story in the book, where Louis and his neighbour are going to bury the cat, it's hard to say if King is such a talented storyteller and if he really can scare the reader. Nevertheless the setting of a dark and unfamiliar forest, which is described well, creates mysterious atmosphere. King tries definitely to increase the excitement by detailed description on characters' feelings that they undergo in particular events. He is obviously more focused on ordinary people and on psychological horror than on mutated vampires like in the X-files.

References

1. English Update Highlights, Course 6, page: 108-111
2. http://www.stephenking.net/biography/index.htm
3. http://members.tripod.com/~charnelhouse/petsematary.html

Image references

1. Stephen King: http://www.castlerock.it/mansion/bedroom.htm
2. Book cover: http://members.tripod.com/~charnelhouse/petsematary.html