Book - Stephen King's Pet Sematary (1983)

Almost every horror fan has a favourite Stephen King novel. For me, that novel is Pet Sematary. A gripping tale about a young, rural family and the traumatic veil of death. It starts out when the Creed family moves from the city into Ludlow, Maine. The family befriends their neighbours, Jud and Norma Crandell. The Crandell's have been in Ludlow for years and they seem to know a lot about the area. The story really starts to take off when Jud shows the young family the Pet Sematary one day while they are on a walk. The Pet Sematary, a sanctuary for dead animals made by the children of Ludlow many years ago, is initially what introduces the family to death and it's imminent approach.

Though the story can be quite traumatic, as it features many hard deaths and grim images, it is very complex as well. In the true spirit of any Stephen King novel, it pushes us to the edge of suspense and believability. Of course, few people would see the story as anything but a tale, it brings almost a sense of realism to the monster story. A normal family plagued by ghosts of the deceased. A family within walking distance of an ancient mystical site. Why, anybody who has lived in a similar rural area could easily believe such a thing.

I first read this in high school. It terrified me, simply shook me to the bone. Why? Well, because we know families like the Crandells, we live within walking distance to multiple cemeteries, we live on the edge of a highway. In fact, so much is similar to my own family in this story that it was hard not for my imagination to run wild. Of course, for all intents and purposes, it is just a story and nothing like that could happen to someone like me. It's practically a fairytale. The moral of the story, is don't mess with something you don't understand.

Pet Sematary was such an amazing read. I've read it twice more since my first intital read. It still shooks me by how close, yet terrifying it is. Stephen King is a literary genius. Not many other authors could pull such fear and emotion from me. I literally could not put the book down until I had finished. It was seriously the best page-turner I have read. I recommend that any horror-lover read this book if they haven't already. I can almost guarantee that your local library would carry a copy. Mine does.