This book really scared me!

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John Wardell

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Nov 25, 2014
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I read (sorry, tried to read) this book years ago and couldn't finish. it bothered me too much. Have tried several times over the years and I still can't. What scares you?

I only had this happen once before with a very B-movie called "Let's scare Jessica to death" I called it "Let's scare the hell out of John!

Any comments?
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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...did not scare me a whit, but it did make me very sad and depressed...such a dark place it came from...but personal fears have a way of doing that...
 
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Sundrop

Sunny the Great & Wonderful
Jun 12, 2008
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This is tied with Salem's Lot as my favorite SK novel.
When I was reading Pet Sematary, there was a stray cat that sat on my porch for an entire weekend.....I found that kinda creepy, but loved the story.
 

notebookgirl

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2013
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Somewhere over the Rainbow
I think it's scary now that I am older. I haven't read it in awhile. I might have to go back. I might have to look up that movie you mentioned! I still can't see Hannibal, that scares the heck out of me. "It" sickened me so bad, I had to put stop on the audio and take out my earplugs. It had me quite shaken. I guess that's how you can tell the writer (Sai Stephen King, in this case) did a good job!
 
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Rockym

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Feb 11, 2012
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Wow, I remember "Let's scare Jessica to Death". I watched it as a kid in the 70s on the ABC movie of the week or something like that. Scared the hell out of me.

I also agree that Pet Sematary is one of the scariest SK novels. I just finished re-reading it. I also felt kind of sad and depressed at the ending as well...

I just kept thinking about poor Ellie in Chicago and that she lost her whole family (I'm presuming from the ending, 'undead' Rachel ends up killing Louis), and we were never told what happened to her. I think this is another novel that SK can do a sequel to if he wanted to. Maybe Ellie returning to Ludlow when she's older to confront her evil, undead mother or something or maybe Rachel hunts Ellie down to kill her as well. There's quite a few possibilities, actually.
 

Sunlight Gardener

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
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I have trouble with it. Not because it's not good, but because it's beyond disturbing. While it's a good book, it's not a pleasant experience for me to read it whatsoever. To me it's the darkest thing he has ever written and there isn't even a close 2nd.
 

ParmaViolet87

Member
Oct 6, 2015
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This book disturbed me too. It was so dark and filled me a sense of dread. I closed it a couple of times and thought to myself "Jesus, I'm not reading this anymore." But I finished it.

My boyfriend heard me yelling "What the hell is that?" when I read the bit when Louis was carrying his son to the burial ground...the bit with the Wendigo? Scared the crap out of me!
 

César Hernández-Meraz

Wants to be Nick, ends up as Larry
May 19, 2015
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I have not been scared by SK's books, but that's just because I really find them interesting and want to know what happens next (I have trouble putting them down), but when I close the book, I keep thinking about the cool story, not about things that happen in the book suddenly happening outside of it, too.

But I think this book would be hard to read if I had children. In other books, I can try to imagine the story happening to me. But with this one, this is something that one would not want to happen, not even pretend it or imagine it.

There is one thing I noticed about this book since the start, which is obvious from the title, but pretty evident when one starts reading. The focus on death is too strong, even from the first sentence. I think of my boyfriend, who really reminds me of Rachel. He totally hates even speaking about death. I cannot mention things like "when I die" because he shuts me up. He does not want to imagine that death is something natural (as Louis repeatedly says) and that it is coming for all of us. I believe he would be frightened by the book even before the cat is neutered. :D
 

Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
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...did not scare me a whit, but it did make me very sad and depressed...such a dark place it came from...but personal fears have a way of doing that...

I would agree with this. It's much more troubling to me than scary. The studied ease and cold calculation with which Louis descends into his particular madness is . . . well . . . it's unsettling is what it is. It's not the kind of thing that necessarily scares me . . . but it does get me to wondering about some of the people I have occasion to meet out there in the "real" world.
 
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gevans81

New Member
Nov 14, 2015
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The stuff about Louis' uncle 'the undertaker' creeped me out a tad. All those things they have to do to corpses really doesn't bare thinking about. Also the cotton wool.
 
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Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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I found it a dark novel and depressing, as many others noted. There are several moments that made the hairs on my neck stand on end and my stomach tighten with dread. It's always felt like Melville and Hawthorne in tone. Like the best Shakespearean tragedies it lingers long after finishing the last page. I really do think it is the scariest of King. It lives up to the initial hype of 1983. Even though we've becomed case hardened I'm hard pressed to find a scarier, nerve jangling King novel. Perhaps, The Shining, Christine and The Tommyknockers (despite its cartoonish and droll moments) are worthy challengers.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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Really? Which book to youis his scariest? I mean, I don't expect you to be shaking in the corner but this book is not something I'd want to be thinking about alone in the woods at night, heh heh.
....the Wendigo was creepy but the rest really was "meh".....I think The Stand scared me most due to the real possibility of a pandemic...
 
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