Tag Archives: #gangstercats

Book Review

Review: Pet Sematary

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Pet SemetaryPet Sematary
By Stephen King
(Pocket Books, Mass Market Paperback, 9780743412278, 2001, 576pp.)

The Short of It:

Probably one of King’s best.

The Rest of It:

In my late teens, early twenties, I somehow managed to read Pet Sematary twice. I think I read it a second time, right before the movie came out. I remember it being appropriately scary but not overly so. To compare, IT, to this day, is still his scariest book ever but anytime death is involved and you try to change things, you are really grabbing the bull by the horns and things just can’t go well when you try to do that with death. Trust me.

After Louis Creed accepts a position as a university doctor, he and his wife Rachel buy a house in the country and look forward to raising their two small children, Ellie and Gage, in the beauty of God’s kingdom. Except, there is a pesky road that is the main through-way for trucks getting from point A to point B. Across the way, are their elderly neighbors, the Crandalls and oh, let’s not forget the Pet Sematary, which is really the smaller part of an Indian burial ground and which just so happens to be on their property.

Indian burial ground. Yep.

As you can probably guess, that busy road becomes a very important part of the story, as does the Pet Sematary, which is spelled that way because that is how a child chose to spell it years and years ago. The story reads quickly, because once you get to a certain point, you really can’t stop reading as you must know how it all turns out.

As you may recall above, I didn’t think the book was overly scary when I read it in my twenties but that was before kids. Reading it recently, I couldn’t  help but flashback to those times when my kids hurt themselves or how afraid I was of hurting them accidentally. Really, just recognizing how fragile they were. Well, the experience of parenthood adds some additional terror to the mix. For sure.

I read this for the #gangstercats read-along so I definitely had the support of others, which always makes reading a book like this a lot more fun. Plus, we got party favors too! There’s nothing like a good King discussion to bring people together. There was some interest in maybe watching the movie while live tweeting, so if that happens, you’ll hear about it soon.

Pet Sematary Read Along

King’s new book Finders Keepers comes out in June but what shall we read next?

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Bookish Talk

Fluffy, Furry, Stinky – Pet Sematary (Final Stretch)

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Tony - Catuck
After a lumbering start, I am in the final stretch of the Pet Sematary read-along, affectionately referred to as #gangstercats on Twitter. Check out Tony (above). He’s really a duck but he thinks he’s a cat. Sent to me by the host of this read-along with instructions to gussy him up. So he’s all decked out in his gangster-like finery. He’s meant to protect. But will he?

BTW, the whole #gangstercats thing is actually from a line in the book. You know, in case you were wondering and thinking we all lost our minds.

Some observations of the book so far (without spoilers):

  • This is my 3rd time reading it, but my first time reading as a mom and let me tell you, the kid stuff is a little hard to digest. It’s rough going from here on out.
  • The “cat-uck” (half cat/half duck) you see above can’t hold a candle to the cat in the book. The cat in the book is scary, smelly and not the fun-loving furry minx you’d expect from a family pet.
  • King has said many times this is his scariest book to date and yes, I can see that being an accurate statement. But at the same time, I don’t have nightmares about this stuff. The evening news scares me more.
  • Reading the book has made me want to see the movie again and let’s face it, the movie was horrible.

That’s it for now. I plan to finish it up soon but what does one read after a book like this?