So Pet Semetary... Discussion ***SPOILERS***

[avidreader111]

I have not been on this forum for so long - someone surely must have mentioned W W Jacobs's The Monkey's Paw in connection with Pet Sematary. It had been the scariest thing I had ever read before reading PS.

Is anyone else scared to get out of bed at night while reading one of SK's books? I used to be, while reading his first books. (And the fact that my husband was sleeping peacefully next to me did not help.)

[Chuggs]

(And the fact that my husband was sleeping peacefully next to me did not help.)

That certainly makes it scarier. You are being haunted (or hunted) by something, and yet your sleeping spouse knows nothing of it. It seems that that happens a lot in the movies, etc.

[Leeanne]

Pet Semetary was the first real scary film I had ever watched and at the time I didn't realize it was a SK story... God it scared the **** out of me. I imagine the book will be scarier. Is it better?

[Canis]

Pet Semetary is my second favourite after Cujo.
Perfectly paced, a brilliant and chilling concept with great characters, a rich setting and is unpredicitably harrowing. King teases you, he lets you know where he's going with something and you cotton on and wind up begging him not to go there.
Then he does it.

[Banjo Kazooie]

I agree. This book was an absolute blast to read. Easily one of his best. And what an ending.
"Darling," it said.

[Evil Queen]

I just finished this last night & Wow! What a great book! I read the last page & wished that there was a Pet Sematary II, is there? Could there be sometime?

[not_nadine]

Ack! The last line of the book, you said! I know it's an old book, but.. spoiler, maybe?

[JellybeanJay]

I just finished this last night & Wow! What a great book! I read the last page & wished that there was a Pet Sematary II, is there? Could there be sometime?

I don't think I could make it through a part 2!

[weezergirl]

I've been a fan for over 20 years and never did read this one until recently! (crazy I know) It's one of his very best imho, but not the one that disturbed me most. (that was the green mile and IDK if I'll ever re-read that one.)

I really like the original poster's idea about them becoming the "new Jud and Norma"! Never thought of it, but now that it's mentioned it makes a lot of sense. I also enjoy imagining what could/might happen before and after the tale is told.

[jajatoff]

I liked the story very much. I will confess that in terms of the plot

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I had expected it to be his wife that dies rather than his son

but that didn't stop my enjoyment. The whole thing touches on a whole theosophical dilemma I've always had - regarding teleportation of all things. When an identical 'you' is cloned at some other place - will it get your 'soul' or ..... something else?

One interesting approach I liked was that sometimes Mr King plays with you .... I had not come across an author who did that before (though I did in a story once long after Pet Semetary was written but a year or so before I'd read it). Of course, detective stories and mysteries play with the reader with their red herrings etc and I guess every book leads you down tracks for effect but I adored the part where

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the accident didn't happen and Gage goes to college etc - which is then torn from us again to be replaced by terrible reality