Still The Scariest

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Mr. Crandall

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Jan 17, 2014
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It certainly is the most disturbing novel of King's that I've read. It's a good mixture of terror, horror, and revulsion (using King's definitions from Danse Macabre). For me, the most terrifying moment stems not from the loss of Gage, but the just-barely defined nature of the Wendigo. That is one of King's strong suites: providing just enough details about a monster to make it go bump in the night, and letting your imagination fill in the rest. I was genuinely on-edge during Louis' trips up to the Micmac burial ground, but I suppose it was "only a loon."
 

Ebdim9th

Dressing the Gothic interval in tritones
Jul 1, 2009
6,137
22,104
I heard on a radio show the other night someone jokingly suggesting buring a family pet at the foot of a cell phone tower and it'll come back from the dead, and the other guy said, Stephen King wrote a novel about that and it didn't end well. They also mentioned the 'quid pro quo' quote from Silence of the Lambs...
 

Shoesalesman

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2010
1,814
4,093
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Read it for the first time last year. Got up to the halfway point... and stopped, knowing what was about to befall the Creed family. After three days of trying to get my nerve back, I took a deep breath, picked the book up and went through the rest of it in one day. Never has a book challenged me like that. As a parent, I felt I really went through something when I finished it. Remains one of my absolute favorites from Stephen.
 

WesleyGman

Well-Known Member
Jan 2, 2013
57
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KY, deep in the country
My son is two, and every time we go outside, I never let him get remotely close to the road, and it never fails that this book pops in my mind when we are outside playing. This book seriously got to me, maybe because my son was entering the Toddler age when I read it last year, and combine that with all the emotion SK injected into the story. I will never forget this book, because every time I take my son out I am reminded of it. I live out in the boondocks on a country road, so the amount of traffic isn't very heavy at all and no tractor trailers coming up here; one sigh of relief at least.
 

F. Campbell

Member
Apr 4, 2014
6
39
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I would have to agree with the other people saying it was disturbing vs. being scary. Still, love the book and I'm currently re-reading it. I read it the first time when I was pregnant with my daughter. Had she been a boy, her dad would have had to fight me not to name her Gage, lol.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
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sweden
I remember reading it a few years after it came out and had to sleep with the light on in the hall for a while. Then my biggest mistake was rereading it after our first child was born, for me that was worse. Don't get me wrong I LOVE to be scared ****less, but the thought of losing a child drove me nuts. I thought my hair was going to turn white (like Lewis Creed's did) before I finished.
I totally agree. Terribly scary. Probably the only book that really, really scared me deep down. I actually haven't dared to reread it because I am still scared and it must be 20 years at least since I read it. I dont have kids but i have imagination and it just thinking about this one keeps me awake at night. If you ever can say that a book is too scary, this would be about this book. But i remember it clearly and love it.
 

Sunlight Gardener

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
375
1,273
Disturbing is a nice word for that book.

I read it for the 2nd time a couple months ago. The first time was 20 years ago. That should sum up my feelings on the disturbing nature of that book. A great story, but disturbing to the point of being unpleasant, to me at least. Can't say that about many other SK books. Cujo was another one for me. Mostly because of the ending. I remember wanting to throw my copy out the nearest window when i got to the end for the first time. Another one i just re-read after a couple decade hiatus. I read them again because I felt it was my duty as a SK fanatic ha ha.

They are not nice books but they are good no doubt. They just leave me with a crappy feeling pretty much from cover to cover.
 

Flat Matt

Deleted User
Apr 16, 2014
518
3,194
I recently read Pet Sematary for the first time and really enjoyed it... in an uncomfortable sort of way.

It's disturbing, creepy and sad, but it is also amusing in places. The grave-robbing sequence was so intense and had me gripped, but there were some good one-liners in the book as well.

I absolutely love Jud Crandall. In fact, I'd say he's my favourite of Stephen King's characters. Stephen has an incredible ability to portray elderly colourful and knowledgable characters. It's a shame they didn't give Jud a bigger role in the movie.
 

flipska19

Disremember
Jul 18, 2014
4,175
10,152
43
This is the first SK book I read when I was 11, and I am currently re-reading it. The part that gets me is:

Why isn't the bedroom floor dirty with muddy foot prints when Dr. Creed wakes up after his "dream" to the Pet Sematry? I always imagine he some how teleported back to his bed.
 
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Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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Sorry for the random question but I didn't feel it worthy of its own thread.
Jud tells Louis of a rabid bull that is buried and I think comes back, I don't recall. My question is...is this a moose? In Maine they call some moose bulls or bull moose. In Alabama a bull is quite different. I just wondered if King was referring to a moose. Both would be terrifying.
 
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Aloysius Nell

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2014
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Sorry for the random question but I didn't feel it worthy of its own thread.
Jud tells Louis of a rabid bull ..... My question is...is this a moose? In Maine they call some moose bulls or bull moose. In Alabama a bull is quite different. I just wondered if King was referring to a moose. Both would be terrifying.

I don't even think it's worthy of a spoiler! (I removed a little just in case.)
I would assume he means bull, as in male bovine. The term bull moose just means male moose, like bull elephant or bull walrus.