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A review by kirby2002
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
3.5
I will forever hold a special place in my heart for Stephen King. I did a High School paper on The Shining, and it brought back my love of reading. But the more I read of his, the more I realize I don’t like his books. He is a fantastic writer who creates the most unique and interesting stories but gets bogged down in detail and world-building. I’d say I like 1 out of every 5. As much as I don’t like some of his books, I will continue to try to read everything. Because when they are good, oh man, they are fucking fantastic.
When researching what horror novels to read for spooky season, I found this book on multiple lists of best horror novels. I was intrigued and when I saw that Michael C. Hall narrated it, I was in. I did not find this scary at all. First off, we all know the story: his cat gets killed, and he finds out that if he buries it at the Pet Sematary, it will come back to life. Of course, it doesn’t come back quite the same. It’s basically a zombie cat minus the eating of brains. Then, in a tragic accident, his son is killed by a semi-truck. Louis gets it in his head that if he buries his son there, he will be OK, and what happened to the cat won’t happen to his son. But of course, that’s not the case, and the kid goes on a murder spree. I listened to this book, which is over 15 hours long, on the longer side of audiobooks. His son doesn’t get killed until about 12 hours in. That is 12 hours of world-building and backstory before the “scary” stuff is about to happen. Then, once the “scary” starts, it feels super rushed. It all happened in the last 3 hours of the book, and it wasn’t that scary. Was it creepy? Yes. Did I have to stop listening because I was scared? No.
I would have enjoyed this more if a good chunk had been cut out and if I had gone into it thinking it was a thriller. I enjoyed the majority of the first 12 hours, but I kept waiting for the kid to die and for me to start shitting my pants. That never happened, so I am disappointed.
Stars: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: .5 🌶️
Eyeroll: 1⭐️
Genre: Horror
Series: No
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Michael C. Hall
Narrator Rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No
When researching what horror novels to read for spooky season, I found this book on multiple lists of best horror novels. I was intrigued and when I saw that Michael C. Hall narrated it, I was in. I did not find this scary at all. First off, we all know the story: his cat gets killed, and he finds out that if he buries it at the Pet Sematary, it will come back to life. Of course, it doesn’t come back quite the same. It’s basically a zombie cat minus the eating of brains. Then, in a tragic accident, his son is killed by a semi-truck. Louis gets it in his head that if he buries his son there, he will be OK, and what happened to the cat won’t happen to his son. But of course, that’s not the case, and the kid goes on a murder spree. I listened to this book, which is over 15 hours long, on the longer side of audiobooks. His son doesn’t get killed until about 12 hours in. That is 12 hours of world-building and backstory before the “scary” stuff is about to happen. Then, once the “scary” starts, it feels super rushed. It all happened in the last 3 hours of the book, and it wasn’t that scary. Was it creepy? Yes. Did I have to stop listening because I was scared? No.
I would have enjoyed this more if a good chunk had been cut out and if I had gone into it thinking it was a thriller. I enjoyed the majority of the first 12 hours, but I kept waiting for the kid to die and for me to start shitting my pants. That never happened, so I am disappointed.
Stars: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: .5 🌶️
Eyeroll: 1⭐️
Genre: Horror
Series: No
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Michael C. Hall
Narrator Rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cliffhanger: No