Pet Sematary--My Most Terrifying Read!

[Jack Frost]

Okay, so now it's time to share the Pet Sematary story (as I had said I would in my first post to explain some of why it's the most terrifying book I've ever read)! :eek2:

So, let me set the stage:

When I first read Pet Sematary, I would have been the summer before my sophomore year in high school back in 1987. The house we were living in at the time had aluminum siding. It was late one hot summer night. Late enough that I was the only one awake--yet, being Pet Sematary, I simply could not put the book down.

There I am, sitting up in bed, one small reading light on. I have reached the point in the book where Louis is journeying up to the REAL Sematary alone. Many would agree this is one of the most intense and frightening scenes in the entire book.

Suddenly, I hear a faint screeeeeech outside my window. Needless to say, I jumped just a little! So I ever so slowly peek out my window--nothing there! "Hmmmm", I think...heart beating a bit faster, but I return to the book. Reading at a feverish pace, palms sweating, heart racing...:eek2::wow::eek2:

SCREEEEECH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCREEEEECH!!!!

So now, I'm pretty much freaking out. So I grab my flashlight, go to the window next to my bed, and shine the beam, right on a pair of glowing, beady little eyes looking back at me. The flashlight drops, my heart ready to explode, I'm sure my face as pale as a ghost (okay, probably the wrong choice of word)--now there is no "pretty much" about it--I have TOTALLY freaked!!!

I grab the flashlight, and go to look again.

Much to my relief (kinda), the light shines on a mother Raccoon and her babies. They had been outside the house scratching on the aluminum siding, providing a young teenage boy a mild heart-attack.

Adding to the horror and terror of a MASTERFUL story by Sai King, this gives the account of the most terrifying book experience in my life! :biggrin2:

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Great story, thankee for (finally) sharing it.

No kaincidence that it should be Pet Semetary then - 'what I consider to be the most frightening book I've ever written' (2000 Introduction).

Long days and pleasant nights

[Ubasti]

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I've experienced the little beady eyes glowing just outside my window too. It does pause your heart for a few second ... and then quickens it.

[nunu_chis]

It is funny that right now I have a cat looking trough my window and his eyes are very big and green and shining... he`s trying to be part of the family, but my dog wouldn`t let him. If he had been looking at me like that when I was reading Pet Sematary he wouldn`t have seemed only a nice cat, but a monster to me! LOL
I have had some bad experiences while I was reading at late hours too, the most recent was a spider by my side, that I hadn`t noticed until it was too close to me, while reading "the green mile", it was the part of Delacroix`s death and I was too "inside" the book as to look around until that huge spider (maybe it was normal size but it looked huge to me) was like one inch away from my leg and I ran, screamed and cry and it took me some minutes (almost hours) to recover from the shock. I really hate spiders!

[Jack Frost]

Good Lord I don't know what I would have done if I had shone my flashlight down on a cat! I'm quite sure whatever it was, it would have woken up everyone else in the house!!!:eek2:

[tillyn]

Well, that would scare anyone. Ever hear cats fighting? We thought it was babies crying they really sound weird. The darn cats were on the fence at my bedroom window staring down one another. Yes Pet Semetary cat came into my mind.:eek2:

[jack12k8]

I've read a ton of horror type books, but I was most terrified when I read Amityville Horror when I was in Jr. High School back in the day..the levitation got me..prob. would not have effected me as much if I had read it when I was older.

[tycho]

While reading through Pet Sematary, I got a call that one of my friends had died. After a very long couple of hours, I got another call explaining that it was actually his father that had died. While this was still horrible news, it was a huge relief to me, which led to quite a bit of shame. I couldn't pick up the book for a long while after that.

[c13tex]

The first time I watched "The Exorcist" I was home by myself, I was 15 at the time, and it was about 10:30 at night. So I'm sitting in front of the TV in a darkened living room, engrossed in the HBO channel, when my older sister's baby grand piano behind me starts playing by itself. The hairs on the back of my neck went as stiff as bristles on a brush, and my heart rate went from about 100 to 150 like a jackhammer! Turns out it was the damn cat that had slunk into the living room without me knowing it, hopped silently up on the piano, and had started walking down the piano keyboard in a slow and lurking manner. Dang feline almost gave me a teenaged coronary!

[Susanne]

The first book I read and I loved it. I read it in 1993 (I was 11 years old). I heard about the movie but I didn´t know who SK was. When I saw the book I bought it out of curiosity and got hooked. SK´s books became my addiction and I bought more and more of his books. My boyfriend doesn´t like horror at all and now he has to live with it. Thanks Stephen. :D

[goatfarmer123]

So this one time I was watching the X-Files and it was the one where this creepy wood-dwelling monster is killing people and it had glowing eyes... bet ya can see where this is going. Anyways, there was this one scene where it was hiding under a little boy's bed, and he looks over at it and all you can see are these glowing eyes. So I go up to my room and get ready for bed, and I'm still kinda freaked out but I'm a big girl so I decided just to check under my own bed really quick. I had turned out the lights in my room already but the hall lights where still on. You know how cats eyes reflect low level light? Yeah, my cat was under my bed. Dang animals and their reflective eyes! :P

[crazycrashink]

FONT="Arial"]I put reading Pet Sematary off for quite awhile because I had seen the movie, and wanted to forget it so I could have fresh impressions of the book. I knew the main plot from the movie, but the details in the book are terrifying. The scenes where Louis is walking to the MicMac burial ground have led me to decide never to be a hiker :eek2: [/FONT]

[Zgirlie]

This was the first one I ever read. I got kicked out of class for it, actually....it was 3rd grade and apparently my teacher was not a fan. Shortly after I read it, I had to bury a baby mallard duck that I had briefly claimed as a pet, and I would often lie awake nights wondering what the soil of a man's heart would do to a duckling....

[Spawn]

For me the horror scenes in that book were more intense then in any book I've read after, I didn't find it as scary as The Shining, but that was because The Shining was a more frightening concept to me ,but when the graveyard scene came about, I was so terrified I had to stop reading for a bit. Great Book though.

[Natjen26]

I was like eight when I watched the adaptation of Pet Semetary (too young to be reading the story :smile2:). There's this scene in which Gage, back 'alive' again, waits under the bed of Jud and he slices Jud's Achilles tendon.

I think that for the next six months every time I had to go to bed, I jumped in from about a meter away, too afraid that Gage might be under my bed too. I never dared to look.
And now Pet Semetary is one of my favourite books of Stephen King, but I admit most are. I think 40 books of him are in my top five!! :laugh:

[lilredkdn]

This book scarred me for life. I decided to read this book about a year after my son was born. Definately a bad idea. I don't think I could re-read this book if I wanted to.

[Lina]

Pet Semetary is one of my favorite books. I've read it about three times. I don't find it to be very scary but it's really thrilling. To my mind it is one of the best books of Stephen.

[michal]

It was the first of Mr. King's books I ever read, and you hardly forget a first love (although my second one, It, has certainly tried...).

I read it when I was no more that 11 or 12 and the ending, that is, teh very final paragraph, still gives me goosebumps.

[JohnDalglish]

I read it when I was no more that 11 or 12 and the ending, that is, teh very final paragraph, still gives me goosebumps.

Hi,

Indeed, I think the last line is the most chilling in literature.

'Darling', it said.'

Long days and pleasant nights

[harvester_of_sorrow]

I have read Pet Sematary cover to cover, but have yet to see the movie. I have my version that i see in my head when i read it, but should I even watch the movie? I've had times where the movie just ruins the book, and would rather not for this one. It was indeed hands down the most frightening things i've ever read not because of glowing eyes resembling to those of Church, but because it was all already told in my head. When my father died my freshmen year of highschool, I became Louis Creed. I didn't have a pet sematary to go to, but i had all the same thoughts he did and probably would've done the same thing. I had nightmares of my father's corpse for months after he died, just lika Zelda and rachel. I couldn't put the book down. It was kind of funny really. to see my past thoughts and feelings written down by someone who has never met me, yet said the same words I did. amazing.

[Jack Frost]

I have read Pet Sematary cover to cover, but have yet to see the movie. I have my version that i see in my head when i read it, but should I even watch the movie? I've had times where the movie just ruins the book, and would rather not for this one. It was indeed hands down the most frightening things i've ever read not because of glowing eyes resembling to those of Church, but because it was all already told in my head. When my father died my freshmen year of highschool, I became Louis Creed. I didn't have a pet sematary to go to, but i had all the same thoughts he did and probably would've done the same thing. I had nightmares of my father's corpse for months after he died, just lika Zelda and rachel. I couldn't put the book down. It was kind of funny really. to see my past thoughts and feelings written down by someone who has never met me, yet said the same words I did. amazing.


I absolutely HATED most of the movie. The kid that played Gage was awesome, but I didn't like what they did to much of the storyline. The book is FAR superior, IMHO.

[thymeoperator]

Well, that would scare anyone. Ever hear cats fighting? We thought it was babies crying they really sound weird. The darn cats were on the fence at my bedroom window staring down one another. Yes Pet Semetary cat came into my mind.:eek2:

foxes are the worst - sound like babies being killed or something, they upset me so much, i hate their sound

[rawhider]

This is the ultimate scary book for me. I have re-read this book so many times. Always gives me chills and makes my imagination go wild. Awesome! Everything about it just builds fear and the final page is unbelievably haunting. Brilliant work!!! I still have my original copy though it's a little worn on the edges. I treasure it. It's the best fright book ever written! Thanks for the life-long nightmares Stephen! I love it! How does one go about getting an autograph or signed photo from the man???

[Jack Frost]

This is the ultimate scary book for me. I have re-read this book so many times. Always gives me chills and makes my imagination go wild. Awesome! Everything about it just builds fear and the final page is unbelievably haunting. Brilliant work!!! I still have my original copy though it's a little worn on the edges. I treasure it. It's the best fright book ever written! Thanks for the life-long nightmares Stephen! I love it! How does one go about getting an autograph or signed photo from the man???

I would have to completely agree with you. The final page just gives me chills. Could be the best ending of all of his books IMHO!

[The Outsider]

Usually, I don't get scared by books or movies, but I have to say, this was some scary stuff. The weirdest part is, that it was mainly what could've happened that scared me more than what actually did happen. When I lay in bed each night, I scared myself so bad with possibilities that lay ahead in the novel.

Either way, I vote for scariest book I've read by anyone.

[Jojo87]

This was a very scary book. And I just loved it. But this book not give me nightmare. A

[Jojo87]

This was a very scary book. And I just loved it. But this book not give me nightmare. A

Here I meant to write that actually no one of Steve's book's has give me nightmares yet.

[MrsMarsten]

This is on my list of books to read. I just started reading SK just about a year ago. Gonna save it for this winter when i am snowed in and nothing else to do.

[Travisisdead]

Pet Semetary was my first SK book. I was 15. I had a huge window at the head of my bed (where I do most of my reading, even now, 21 years later).
This is the ONLY book that I ever read that I was too scared to get up and turn off the lights when I finally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and went to sleep.
Years later, my son, up until he was about 6 or so, would sleepwalk and I would wake suddenly with him standing over me and staring at me, and whispering "momma".
GOD ! My own son scaring the crap out of me!!!
2 fave parts of Pet Semetary: the winnebago while Louis was climbing the mountain (or whatever) and when Louis opens the casket of Gage, and his son's head isn't there!!!
OMG!!! I have to read this again!

[JRM]

I'm currently reading it. Only 10 pages in, though, lol.

[liya]

Pet Semetary was my first SK book, read it when I was 12 and it absolutely terrified me. First book or movie to ever do that. After that i was hooked!

[JRM]

Just finished it. GREAT book. So disturbing and deep. Thought-provoking, too.

[punkmonkey]

this was a great book, one of my first ones i read by stephen king, but it wasnt THAT scary though

[MistahJ]

I first read it in 2007 and like you could not put it down...

I have a cat by the name of Bela (after Bela Lugosi) which is abnormally quiet...He never meows...I was very into the book and was at the point where Louis is talking to Jud about the only time where a human was buried in the burying ground

So anyway my cat was hiding somewhere. Not sure where. I heard a noise that I've never heard him make before...It was a thumping noise but because of the acoustics in my room I wasn't sure where it was coming from...I looked under the bed, in the closet, on the windowsill, in his cat tree but to no avail

Finally I opened one of my dresser drawers (which had no clothes) and he jumped out and ran off...I screamed and woke up my wife who still hasn't stopped making fun of me for it