Pet Sematary
Stephen King

"Sometimes dead is better..."
When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son - and now an idyllic home. As a family they've got it all... right down to the friendly cat.
But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth - more terrifying than death itself... and hideously more powerful.

While the film version of this is decent, it also doesn't hold a candle to the novel. The novel is more terrifying not only because one's imagination can come up with things that film cannot, but also because there are parts of the story that are even darker than in the movie.

King commented that after he wrote this novel, he thought he had finally gone too far. He put it aside and only brought it out when he was about to change publishers and owed his old publisher one more novel. After reading it, they did not think it had gone too far. While I agree that this novel does not cross that invisible line, I also think that because it is darker than most other King novels, it's one of his best.

Combining classic horror elements (an Indian burial ground, things coming back from the dead, etc.) with real life grief (the loss of a pet or a family member), you can't help but think that you might have gone the same route as the main character did. Reading the book, you want to scream at him not to, but who wouldn't take the chance of getting a loved one back? Even if they did come back a little... different.

This is one of King's best novels and even though the real terror doesn't come until close to the end of the book, it's an absolutely thrilling and amazing read.

I highly recommend this novel.

My rating: Five out of five snails.