Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Pet Sematary

"Maybe I did it because kids need to know that sometimes dead is better"- Jud

My first Stephen King read, deep dark slow burn of a horror book. I appreciated the way it often touched on death, grief and loss of a loved one. I loved the overall premise of this book and what it's trying to say but half way through I had to pick up an audio to help me get through this because it dragged. I got more suspense/thriller vibes until about 20% left of the book. I think this could've been 50-100 pages less and been a 4-5 star read. The audio was great but still the story was just unnecessarily too long. I am new to the horror genre don't typically read from this genre, 2/5 on the scare scale for me, more creepy spooky than anything.

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_toni_'s review

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dark sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

My third time reading King and I still don’t see what the fuss is about. Concept is deeply chilling, but my god does this man love to go off on pointless tangents. I’m noticing a pattern.

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emimcmanis's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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gandalftheugly's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It sadly slows down more and more up until the last quarter and then rapidly speeds up again, which i appreciated.

I still prefer the the old film and i really see how well these two versions of the story fit together very neatly as they were both written by King!

It is absolutely worth a read and i can see why Stephen King is one if the most popular authors in the world :)

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lmm0's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is the first Stephen King book I’ve read - I listened to a short story a couple weeks ago (2 hour audiobook), but besides that, I’m still a newcomer to his works. I decided to listen to the audiobook when one of the hosts of Book Talk etc said it was narrated by Michael C Hall - Dexter Morgan? Seriously? Sign me up.

I particularly liked that the author’s note was at the beginning, and it discussed how absolutely haunted King was by this book. To the point where he put it in a drawer when he was finished, seeming to be in disbelief with what he just wrote/completed. I felt like that hooked me before the chapter 1 even started. It truly holds a dark and twisted message - one that is sure to resonate deeply with those who are familiar with grief and loss.

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