Hello earthlings!
It has only been a few days since I left you with my first post of 2020 with another series of me rambling on this blog that sounds sad (almost), in fact I was feeling down when I was typing. It gives me a heads up that I should not do an entry when my feelings are getting in the way. Instead of just doing ramblings on this blog like how many fillers we've watch on Naruto that we almost forgot about the actual story line, I figured out I should do a book review. How come I didn't think of that and it only crosses my mind now that I don't have anyone to tell what the book is about. So for the next books I'm reading, if I feel like I'm going to do a review, I would do an entry. the review of this book was posted but it felt like i was throwing up all the words that i can make of after reading the book so i guess this entry sounds a lil professional than the original entry..oof
I am a fan of horror myself and it only focuses on horror movies. This time I thought I wanted to read a horror book, preferably by Stephen King. I avoided reading IT because I've watched the movies (uncultured swine). After some time, maybe I would give a shot since there's a probability a lot of scenes did not make it to the movies. Right of the bat when I was reading the Pet Sematary, Stephen King mentioned on the introduction of the book that he said one of the most frightening books he had written is Pet Sematary. As soon as I read that sentence, all I can think is "Honey! You got a big storm comin!". This was my first time reading a horror book that focuses on the age range of young adult or adult (perhaps my guess) because I've read a few books of Mr. Midnight and it is also my first book of 2020. GREAT!
I was not expecting a book review but I couldn't help as I was reading more and more I noticed details about characters and things that I wanted to discuss about. It is also my first time annotating/tabbing but the thing is I forgot the purpose of each colors as I went through of details that I wanted to focus on. Might want to improve that bit to be more focused on the story and learn through the author's writing.
Moving on to actually talking about the book, I spent 20 days reading because I have an attention span of a goldfish. Read the last 200+ pages in a day (almost) and finished it right on midnight. All I could say is, I felt the grief and sadness portrayed in the book (will be discussed later on). I didn't actually think that I could be attached to the characters and it blew my mind how things just happens in the book makes me bawl my eyes out to cry. I rated it 5/5 stars on goodreads, I could see why it was one of Stephen King's best book and everyone's favourite.
***SPOILER ALERT***
This part is split up with categories in which it will be : Story line, Characters, First Impression, Character Development and Movie Adaptation. please note that these are all my opinions, not a professional book reviewer but i knew as i read this in a few years time i might cringe a little
It is my first time reading a horror book, I honestly can't help to think now and then there's going to be a page that will chase my soul away while reading. But this book, it started off slowly to give you the atmosphere of the Creed family, the Crandalls, their house in Ludlow and also the Pet Sematary. The book has 3 parts in it where each part starts as another terrible incident that's about to happen or an incident has happened in the book. In "Part One: The Pet Sematary", important events happens such as Victor Pascow's death, Winston Churchill's death and their tour to the Pet Sematary lead by Jud Crandall and Norma Crandall's death and Rachel's breakdown about Zelda all happened in part one. Part two of the book which titled "The Micmac Burying Ground" includes Gage's death and funeral, Irwin Goldman's fight with Louis Crandall, Ellie's dream, etc. In part two, there's a lot of things happening to the family that it takes time to process all of it. The dialogue gives you a feeling of rush because of Louis's plan. In part three, titled "Oz The Gweat and Tewwible". Despite the book being cutely titled like how a toddler would pronounce it, this is where all hell breaks loose. Gage is back from the dead, Jud Crandall was stabbed using a scalpel by Gage, Rachel was dead and etc. Couldn't really list off what happens in detail about what happens in the last two chapters because things went chaotic, just like how Louis went mental at the thought that he can actually bury a person in the Pet Sematary.
The characters in this book includes the Creeds which is Louis, Rachel, Ellie (short for Eileen) and Gage, the Crandalls which is Jud and Norma and Winston Churchill which is Ellie's cat. There are side characters too which is Victor Pascow, Steve Masterton, Irwin and Dory Goldman and Missy Dandridge. In this book, it provides point of view more on Louis Creed. As it reaches to the end, we are given dialogues of Rachel, Jud and Steve Masterton.
In this part of the review, I would give my first impression of the book and the characters. Frankly saying, I've watched the trailer of Pet Sematary before finding out that it was an adaptation from a book. The trailer did not give me the spooks at all because what I initially thought was its a movie about burying animals and when they'll come back from the back to seek revenge. I guess I was close (enough). I think I saw a booktuber recommended Pet Sematary as their monthly reading, I decided to give it a try on the horror genre. Didn't actually think that Pet Sematary would be THAT scary at all since I have higher taste on what would scare me, well guess what. Couldn't really sleep at all at imagining what would Zelda and Gage coming back alive would look like.
The only characters I had an impression on is Louis and Jud. Being the main character in the book, I really thought he was a terrible father with a bad temper because of the single line in part one, page 8, that said "His hand itched to slap her and he grabbed his leg hard". As I continued to read, he's a good father to his kids and a sweetheart to his wife. There's a lot of scenes between his kids and his wife in the book and I love every one of them. I really did let those scenes clouding my mind not realizing that there's going to be hell happening in a few chapters or so. (Proof is that I was shocked to find out that Gage died as soon as I was finished with the previous chapter, where they spend time together with Gage and then boom, the kid died)
The last and second character I had an impression on is Jud. Jud Crandall was the one who told Louis about Pet Sematary and brought him there to bury Churchill, lead the family to the Pet Sematary to introduce them what was "up" there and telling Louis there is, in fact someone really did buried a person in the Pet Sematary. So let me explain why was I so suspicious about Jud. Without any explaination, he told Louis to bring Churchill's dead body to the Pet Sematary. He messed up the reasons and the timeline about when and why his pet dog Spot died. He even lied about there's nobody who would bury a person's dead body to the Pet Sematary. But in part two, he told Louis why he lied about it in page 290 of part two, saying "Because you didn't need to know..but now you do". After he said that, he explained about what happened to Timmy Baterman. Basically, a man who died and brought alive. When Louis asked what Timmy was like, his behavior after coming back alive. Jud told Louis in page 298, "Timmy Baterman was like that, Louis, like a zombie in a movie, but he wasn't. There was something more. There was somethin' goin' on behind his eyes, and sometimes you could see it and sometimes you couldn't see it. Somethin' behind his eyes, Louis". In my take, he explained this as in saying that a person wouldn't come back the same even if you brought them back. Despite Jud's little story time, Louis still had that plan at the back of his head, that he's going to bring back Gage alive again. I could say that Jud's plan to bring Louis to the Pet Sematary to bury Churchill was because he knew that Louis didn't want to make his daughter felt sad as she was so upset about the idea of death. The least Louis could do is not terrorize his daughter with Churchill's sudden death. However, the burial and the Pet Sematary really did went to Louis head. He became selfish and it leads to a lot of horror happening to his family and to Jud.
The character development I've noticed here is Louis and Ellie. In page 14 of part one, after Jud introduces himself to Louis, he invited Louis to his house for a little hangout. Louis was almost hesitant and had monologue saying "The next thing would be an informal (and free) diagnosis of Norma's arthritis on the porch..". Louis thought that Jud is a nice old man but not in a way that he would give a free check up on Norma's arthritis. Soon enough in page 111, Jud told Louis that lately Norma have been having chest pains. This leads to Louis saying, "I'll be happy to examine her..No problem at all". This tells me that after spending some time with the Crandalls, he realized that they were close in his heart. The Crandalls treated Louis's family like no strangers and so as Louis's family towards both Jud and Norma.
For Ellie, she's a child at the age of 5-6. We've all know that children is hard at accepting death or maybe we just don't talk about death at all in front of children. This happened to Ellie as she was curious about death after her visit to the Pet Sematary. She asked if death will soon come to Winston Churchill, the cat she loved dearly. For short, Louis did explained the meaning of death and it is inevitable for both human and animals. This gave Ellie quite a shock and refused to believe that Churchill will be gone one day. In page 117 after Norma's heart attack incident, she told Louis that soon enough Norma will die of heart attacks. This also made Louis questioned that why was Ellie so calm at the thought of Norma Crandall dying but the thought of Churchill's death gave her a shock. (i'm beginning to think that it was just the sugar rush ellie had that night because she went trick-or-treating)
Finally, to the last category of my book review. After finishing the book, I watched the movie. I believe that there was another movie made about Pet Sematary back in 1989 and another recent one was 2019. Both movie was made different, as in Gage died (like in the book) in the 1989 version but Ellie dies in 2019 version of the movie. Haven't watched the 1989 version but will it dissappoint me any less if I have watched it? guess not.
The movie did not portray the emotional roller caster as I was feeling in the book. It was weird to me because watching the movie felt like I was skipping through the book, by luck I was reading the important events of the book. I could understand that movie shouldn't be so long, I am convinced that audiences might be bored if they were watching a slow-burn horror movie. But I will doubt that if it was made into a Korean movie because korean movie productions could grasp emotions so well. Like the horror movie, A Tale of Two Sisters (recommended!).
Anyways, I do not know how to actually rate the movie, it did not meet my expectations for it after
reading the movie. The book was scary but the movie was not. I only appreciate the cat's acting skills. I hope the production team paid the cat enough.
So, the book is great. I still get scared thinking of Gage and Zelda. It was a fun book to read, I would read it again and I like each characters really well. I could definitely see why Stephen King chose this book as one of his most frightening books he had written. Especially at the end, where Louis brought his wife back alive. It just ended with "A cold hand fell on Louis's shoulder. Rachel was grating, full of dirt. "Darling," it said.". Wow, I had chills while writing that out. Who gave me the right to do a scary book review at 1:04AM!!
Therefore, this marks the end of my entry. I did not want to end the book review by saying what I have learn by reading the book because I....do not learn the lessons after doing regrettable things..ahhaha..OR! Maybe I did, I guess everyone had different views so I'll just keep it to myself. The next book I will be reading is The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. It's a romance genre, like a desert for my brain that's filled with horror.
sincerely,
i was excited to post this review but i was too lazy
