3 Stars
Cons: King's references to songs and protagonists strange inner monologue can be annoying/The real tragedy that occurs I felt was surprisingly glossed over.
Full Review:
Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, their daughter Ellie and infant son Gage move from Chicago to the woods of Maine so Louis can act as the chief attending at the University of Maine. It's quiet in the woods and their land follows a path up to an old pet cemetery that their kind, elderly and knowledgeable neighbor, Jud Crandall, guides them to. In Jud, Louis finds a quiet, gentle acceptance and a father figure. His Maine drawl and Northeast slang put the family at ease in a new and unfamiliar place. Ellie starts Kindergarten, Gage continues to grow and speak and all seems well.
It isn't until the first day of Louis' new job at the University that things start to go south. His first day on the job and a young boy, Victor Pascow, is brought in with a mortal head injury. And before he dies, he whispers something to Creed about the Pet Sematary. And later that night when Pascow visits him, blood and gore still fresh in his wounds, Creed tries to convince himself that it's a dream, a terrible, horrible dream. But when he wakes up and his feet are covered in dirt and pine needles from having walked in the woods with Pascow to the cemetery, he's not so sure it wasn't real.
He manages to convince himself that he was sleep walking. That it was just a one time thing, brought on by the trauma and stress of Pascow's violent death. And life more or less goes on routinely, normally, until Thanksgiving. Rachel and the kids go to visit her parents and Creed stays behind because there is much love lost between he and his in-laws. After having a nice Thanksgiving dinner with the Crandalls, the phone rings later that night and it's Jud, informing Creed that there's a dead cat on his lawn and he's afraid it may be Church, Ellie's beloved pet.
Creed comes to Jud and confirms that the dead cat is, indeed Church. And so Jud takes him back to the Pet Sematary but they don't stop there. They climb higher up and come upon a flattened out bit of land that Jud explains belonged to the Micmac Indians. He instructs Creed to bury Church and Creed does so, not sure what he's getting himself into but thinking if he can save his daughter some heartache, he'll do it. Jud explains that he brought Creed to this burial ground because he owed him a favor for saving his wife, who had suffered a mild heart attack earlier that year and Creed was there to administer CPR and first aid until the paramedics arrived. Creed doesn't know how Jud is repaying his debt, but he finds out a day later when the supposedly dead cat, Church, shows up on his doorstep, alive and well.
Things aren't back to normal though. It takes awhile for Louis to pinpoint what it is but it's Ellie that says it in no uncertain terms. She explains that there's something's different about Church. That he smells and Louis realizes with horror that he does indeed smell, like freshly turned earth, wet rocks and death. He never tells Ellie what he did though and she goes on none the wiser. And he puts the MicMac Burying Ground behind him, until a horrible tragedy rattles their family and he begins to think of things that should never be thought of.
In true King style, it had me hooked by page one. And though sometimes his references to song lyrics and strange inner monologue of his protagonists can be annoying, for the most part, his books are easily read, entertaining and though deeply, deeply disturbing, as this one was, for sure, I've never regretted reading any work by King.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has a morbid fascination with death, who has ever wondered what it would be like to actually bring the dead back to life and what horrible consequences could arise and anyone who enjoys King in general.
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