It gave me nightmares and serious childhood trauma's I had seen the movie when I was seven and every night when I had to go to bed, I jumped from a few feet distance into my bed, terrified Gage Creed would be under there ready to slit my achilles I have read the book little over a year ago and it made me cry, shudder and yes, chills were present too. Especially in the end.. Spoiler Darling, it said.
I'd seen the movie before reading the book and I think that enhanced it (having mental images of the dead guy and ressurected kid). I thought the scariest part though was the wendigo (I guess cause that was new to me). Wish King had expanded on that more in another book.
I'll let you know.. I asked the person closest to him, apart from his family You're right. King stated that this was a book he would never reread and he wouldn't even have published it if it weren't for some legal issues. Thanks to King's lovely assistant for answering my question!
I think the motif he creates with 'soil of a man's heart, stony and shallow. But he tends what he can, and he tends it well.' was really great.
I've read it a few times and consider it one of King's best works. The movie isn't all bad. I do like most of the cast. But in the end the book just feels more complete.
King was disgusted by this book, afraid he'd gone way too far. He locked it in his drawer and planned to throw it out, but his wife found it and forced him to publish it. He explains this in the introduction, and says that out of all the books he's written, Pet Sematary is the one that he himself finds the most scary, even though most people say The Shining is his scariest book. It's a great book though, and is genuinely scary. Fun fact: King says that several of the scenes from the book are based on his own life. For example, the scene with Gage running onto the road is based on an incident his own son had. He managed to get his son off the road just in time and his son was fine. But then he thought, "What if?"--and thus was born Gage's death. Kind of a chilling thought. This book also has a lot of powerful lines, but the one that was most memorable--and chilling--for me was this: “He looked up and saw a billion stars, cold lights in the darkness. Never in his life had the stars made him feel so completely small, infinitesimal, without meaning. He asked himself the old question—is there anything intelligent out there?—and instead of wonder, the thought brought a horrid cold feeling, as if he had asked himself what it might be like to eat a handful of squirming bugs.” Now I have to go reread this.
The one time I have ever thrown a book, it was after I read that scene. I threw the book against the wall, hard. And I didn't go back and finish the book for many months. My son was about Gage's age at the time.
I remember being both disgusted and spellbound by that book. I still don't -like- Pet Sematary, but it's a superb showcase of King's uncanny ability to play upon our greatest fears.
