Pet Sematary - Stephen King

[vivid forge]

From <t:1726790400:D> to <t:1733011200:D> | Leader(s): @vagrant solar

Book Link
Cover: https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/q1xc3mblplo8r52wsqjosp96hcvt

ID: 66df2070188387f684997745
Announcement: #buddy-reads message

[vagrant solar]

The collection has begun

[novel nest]

YESSSS you got the same cover

[glass belfry]

I'm waiting on my secondhand copy

[vagrant solar]

i had to drive like 45 minutes to get it because they didnt have it where i usually buy my books

[novel nest]

Worth it

[copper sphinx]

Leaving, don’t have time to read it in this time frame. Sorry 💜

[paper sigil]

i already bought my book, i‘m hyped

[novel nest]

Rin!!! A BR with you

Exciting

[glass belfry]

I love my copy and I may read this in the following months due to IRL and other BRs pilling up but the S. King corner is READY

[paper sigil]

And my first King Read on top of that!!!

[novel nest]

Omg I’m so excited for u

[worn nova]

Yay! This is my first time joining the discord so I'll join this group 🙂 Been some time since I read SK. I tried reading the description of how this works, but can someone else give me their explanation as well of how this works please 🥺

[novel nest]

You read the book within the given timeframe and post your thoughts here regularly in order to get points when the BR ends

Some post their thoughts by the chapter or just whenever. Whatever you like best

[worn nova]

Ohh ok! That's what I was thinking. Tysm!! ❤️

Literally my first book club 🙂 Im excited

[vagrant solar]

Also remember to use spoiler bars

[worn nova]

Patiently waiting for the library book to come in to my location 🙂

[vagrant solar]

Don't worry the br hasn't even started yet

[vivid forge]

@vagrant solar,@safe pasture,@glass belfry,@copper sphinx,@grave robin,@novel nest,@crimson basin,@plain cave,@stuck wave,@crimson chasm,@foggy adder,@wild shoal,@paper sigil,@rocky notch,@glad frigate,@stray badger,@tiny jasper,@rancid ermine,@deep steppe,@worn nova

Hello everyone this br started today
This book like most of Kings books can be a hard read sometimes so make sure to check the trigger warnings below taken from storygraph
just a warning that they can contain spoilers but its better to be safe than sorry

Graphic
||child death, Animal death, Death||
Moderate
||Sexual content, Alcohol, Violence||
Minor
||Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury||

Also remember

• Use spoiler bars in your messages
• Discuss and read the book with in the given timeframe to get br points
• if you dont want to be part of the br anymore then press the leave button in the br announcment

Some starting questions

1. Do you have any pets? Which ones?
2. Which copy of the book are you gonna read?
3. When do you think you are gonna start

As always i hope you will enjoy this read or if not then atleast have fun hating on it with others

[worn nova]

1.) I do not have any pets at the moment. I used to have budgies, but we gave them away since we had to move. 2.)

2.) I'm unsure which copy of the book I'll be reading but it's this one 3.) I think I'll be starting next week because I'm still waiting for the book to transit to the library I'm picking the book up from.

[glass belfry]

1. My dog, Nita! She's the best. I can tell this (and Cujo) are gonna be hard reads
2. I'm reading the 2011 ed. of the Hoder's mass market paperback - whoever it belonged to before seems to have enjoyed the hell out of this book, so I'm hoping I do too.
3. I will probably start sometime in October or November.

[grave robin]

1. I own 1 Wig.
   https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/811095704357175336/1265460926895620186/20240709_190032.jpg?ex=66ef6054&is=66ee0ed4&hm=f8cdc1c083222ace43ec532ede45cf2b3d2e0f318000d8c14c5d257e6ac32863&
   But I've also had another dog and 6 cats previously.

2. https://preview.redd.it/pet-sematary-covers-v0-it5t0vh9ls0c1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=2e116b57db3f0949e4e096ae580f47607bb33737
   Mine is the one with the black cat

3. Don't know! I can usually breeze through Stephen King rereads in a few days so I might squeeze it in next weekend.

[novel nest]

1. I’ve had a lot of pets throughout my life, but as of now I have a dog, two geckos and four spiders!
2. See below
3. This is book #3 in my personal queue right now, so probably in October. Mid October I’d estimate?

[stuck wave]

yooo you have spiders? thats cool af!!! what kind/s are they if you dont mind me asking?

1. yep!! as of rn, i have 6 degus, 4 guinea pigs nd 1 dog though ive had dogs for the majority of my life nd we've had like 10 guinea pigs total over the last 5/6 years!
2. i also have the one w the black cat on the front!!
3. current plan is to get to it in october but my tbrs for months have not been going well so we'll see

[foggy adder]

Just got an email saying this has been banned before so it's very fitting for banned books week (September 22nd - 28th)

[paper sigil]

interesting, why did you get an email for it if i may ask

[short yacht]

interesting, why did
you get an email for
it if i may ask

- rin!

[foggy adder]

It was just a general email from Simon & Schuster for banned books week and discussed a few books/authors like SK, Ellen Hopkins, Judy Blume etc.

[paper sigil]

oh that's so cool!! might be good for another upcoming thing as well 👀

[stuck wave]

damn this has been banned? id be genuinely curious as to why lol

[worn nova]

same, does the email say the reasoning to why it's banned?

[foggy adder]

omg rin did you think I had bingo intel?

the email didn't say unfortunately but I'm doing some research

a lot of his books have been banned in florida

[paper sigil]

LOL no but it was so perfect you mentioned it just now but i did genuinely wanna know where you got the info because i haven't heard that this book was banned somewhere!!

[foggy adder]

I'm making my way through this list and man, Clay County really do not like him

[paper sigil]

ooh interesting! thank you for the link

[worn nova]

that's crazy

the way I think if people banning your work then you must be one hell of an author 🤣

[novel nest]

I mean look at Rage

[worn nova]

oh dang, I had to look it up

I didn't know that omg

[stuck wave]

tbf i can defo see why rage got banned iirc he was like "yeah ban that shit" too HAHA

[novel nest]

I have it and I didn’t think the book itself was worse than others, but it was the people basing their crimes on it

[worn nova]

yeah like in the end its your actions but i understand why King didn't want that book to ciruclate anymore

[stuck wave]

oh for sure, like if theres even a possibility someone else could read it nd base their crap on it again then immediately that shits out. it also cant be great for publicity knowing your work inspired something as fucked up as that

[worn nova]

exactly

[crimson chasm]

i still honestly dont understand why it was banned

[stuck wave]

it wasnt necessarily because of the material, it was largely because such a fucked up guy referenced it as like his "inspiration" for the crime he committed, nd ig to avoid more people being "inspired" it was banned. since the stuff in the book was somewhat linked to, like it being in ref to the same crime thats why too? ik stuff like that is a really sensitive thing in the US so they just didnt wanna take any chances

i get what you mean though its kinda a weird thing because its like the guy is responsible for his own actions but also i can get why SK/other people dont wanna take the chance

[worn nova]

i agree

[worn nova]

The book came! Going to pick it up at the library today and start reading today 🙂

Has anyone else started reading the book?

[grave robin]

I might start this weekend! It's a reread for me!

[worn nova]

ooh!! so exciting!! while i got it my dad was like "why dont you just watch the movie" 😭

[safe pasture]

1. I have three adorable cats!! Sometimes annoying but always adorable!
2. Most probably I'll go with the audiobook
3. It's coincidentally also my irl bookclub's botm for October and we meet at the end of the month, so I'll probably read this closer to the end of Oct

[grave robin]

The original movie is good at least maybe after the read

[worn nova]

oohh really? there was a recent one that came out right?

[novel nest]

There’s at least two yeah

[grave robin]

The first one is a classic but the more recent one is (IMO) kinda boring and ass, they changed a lot of the plot to suit modern audiences.

But just my opinion ofc.

[novel nest]

Tbh I think this just doesn’t work well as a movie altogether

[worn nova]

Oohhh like a book that shouldn’t be made as a movie as a whole?

[novel nest]

Yeah

I like the first one better but it’s just not it in general

The concept doesn’t work

[worn nova]

Noted, don’t watch the movie 😂

[novel nest]

I mean you can def try! This is just what I think :D

[worn nova]

True true

Im also not a fan of scary movies either tbh LOL I’m ok with books

This is my second Stephen king book, my first was IT. I tried reading Gerald’s game but it was just too vulgar for me in the beginning

[worn nova]

So far I'm on chapter/section 7 in the first part. So far I like the character ||Crandall|| So I'm curious to see the character development in the plot.

[little lion]

Have reserved the book at my local library, hopefully will have time to read it

[worn nova]

Just finished section 9-12 of part one. Section 9 definitely brought some memories from my own experience. More specifically, || when Louis and Elli had the conversation about pet death and her fears if/when Church dies. And then the argument between Louis and Rachel of how visiting the semetary affected Ellie and how the conversation of death shold go, etc. I would agree with Louis that death anywhere is a part of life. || When growing up, I only saw and remember one death in my family. I experienced one pet death as well. Or even in movies/shows, I was exposed to that. Of course it's sad to witness and experience, but it's a part of life. And my aunt and uncle, they have two boys, one is almost 8 and the other is 5. They don't like to talk about death whether is real or fictional like character stories/moves/shows to their sons. But how and when will the conversation come about if we don't talk about death? I think if we don't talk about it before, it would be a confusion and shock if/when a sudden death happens in their childhood. I'm curious if anyone has any personal opinions and/or experiences with this as well.

[grave robin]

I feel like it's important to let kids know about death when it feels like they're emotionally mature for it. It's something we're gonna have to face - whether it's a pet death or a family member and being able to process it can make a world of difference. I think it has to be on a case by case basis and done very... carefully.
I hate to say it but a pet passing is an ideal teaching moment that sometimes the people we love best will leave us and how to deal with that grief (source: my cat passing away when I was in primary school )

[vagrant solar]

i lost both my grandmas and my dog when i was 6 years old so that was how i learned about death
from what people have told me i had trouble actually understandiing that they didnt come back
and apparently i asked my aunt and uncle if they would leave me too

[worn nova]

Thats true like an appropriate moment and the way how you lead the conversations can be impactful

[worn nova]

Yeah it’s a common age to be confused I think I was around the same age when I experienced my first family death. And I was more confused and upset of how my family was reacting. But as an adult I understand they wanted to protect us in a sense I guess.

Ty for sharing your experiences btw 🥺 ik this can bring up some past emotions and can be hard to talk about

[vagrant solar]

i honestly dont remember much of it so it dosnt really bringup alot in me
but i can imagine it was extra tough for me since i lost my only remaining grandparents and my childhood dog in the same year

[worn nova]

that is super tough, especially at a young age 🥺 and it happens to children when they experience trauma like loss, they forget what happened or dont have memories during that period

[stuck wave]

i dont really have a whole lot to add that other people havent already said but i 100% agree that its something parents should talk to their kids about, or like introduce it to them through media and stuff. like my mum introduced me to a lot of harder topics through books (like death of close family members, divorce, etc) which i found was helpful when i then unfortunately experienced it a few years later when my grandad died very suddenly while i was around. while it was still extremely difficult, it was easier to talk about with people and for my tiny brain to process because i understood how death worked nd that it was a natural thing that happens to people sometimes. ik my dad would get angry at my mum for letting me read these books (mostly Jacqueline wilson books tbh LOL) but it really did help me out in the long run!

"i dont really have a whole lot to add" he says before he proceeds to send a whole paragraph LMAOO mb

[worn nova]

ooohh i'd have to look into those books!

[stuck wave]

her books are actually really good, they touch on a lot of difficult topics!!! a really popular one in the UK (as in its still talked about today even though it hasnt really been a thing for over 10 years and the spin off (kind of) of it still runs today) is Tracy Beaker, its about a girl in foster care living in a group care home! its really good nd the show itself is really good too and my childhood

as someone with experience in foster care i can confirm its p accurate though its not as interesting as the show/book makes out its just sort of normal nd boring

[worn nova]

Now looking at the book covers, they do look familiar! I prob saw them at the school library when I was in elementary

[worn nova]

How's the reading going so far 🙂

[glass belfry]

This will probably be a November read for me! have you started?

[short yacht]

This will probably
be a November read for
me! have you started?

- Alex🌻

[worn nova]

yes! I'm almost halfway done

[vagrant solar]

do you have any thoughts to share

[worn nova]

i'll use spoilers! but right now I'm at the part where ||church died and jud and Louis are walking to the woods/cemetary and he'll bury Church. And it's so funny because in the beginning i was like aww Jud seems like a nice guy but NOW he seems a little sketchy|| and when my dad came home I was like ||noooo the cat died 😭 || cuz he saw the movie I think, the first one

also I'm unsure but I think they're making a new one? I saw in one of the streaming services, unless they meant they're just uploading the newer one into their platform

[worn nova]

So far I noticed this book is very easy to read. Most of it is dialogue!

[worn nova]

Finished part one! || I felt so sad after these last few chapters when reading the death of Norma and when Rachel was telling about her sister's death. I read and studied a little bit about grief and family members taking care of their loved ones, especially when they know the family member is on the verge of dying. And so for Rachel to mentioned her true feelings that she wished her sister would just die because of her actions and the cost is piling up, in a sense they're natural comments from an 8 year old. (in my opinion). Now, I feel like she hasn't fully grieved and still latched onto that mindset. I don't believe the "evilness" the sister had when you're sick. Because when you're sick, you're not yourself, but again that's the interpretation of an 8 year old younger sister character.|| For sure it was hard to read in the last chapters, because I was thinking about my personal experiences or in the future and how I'd react for certain people. But excited to see y'all reactions when you finish part one! 😃

[worn nova]

🥲 im in the first chapter of part 2 and I'm not ok 😭

[worn nova]

Finished!

[vagrant solar]

could you share some more finishing thoughts?

[worn nova]

sure! I think it was alright overall. If I was honest, I'm not sure if I'd recommend reading this book to someone else. But I always wanted to read it since I was little! So marked something off the bucket list 🤣 but I'm very glad I did not read it when I was younger

I think things really picked up towards the very end. So I was hooked on reading yesterday and today to see what was going to happen next because in my mind I was like "no way"

I think this book is more suspense and creepy, but not scary (in my opinion)

[slate plume]

1. I have 2 dogs. Belle, a 6 year old Belgian Malinois, and Thamuz, a 4 year old golden retriever..
2. I have an ebook
3. I’m starting today!

[crimson chasm]

1. yeah i have 1 cat named Bruce
2. here’s my copy
3. i’m aiming to start today

[worn nova]

Yay!!! Let us know your thoughts when you’re reading

[crimson chasm]

definitely! this is a reread for me but it’s been a year so looking forward for coming back to it

[worn nova]

oohh!! idk if I'd ever reread LOL my heart is too soft

[crimson chasm]

haha i enjoy the abuse 😂

[worn nova]

Omg

[deep steppe]

I'm reading it for the first time, a little over 50% and I regret reading it before bed - cried hard, couldn't fall asleep, now I just want to finish it and know how it'll all end

[vagrant solar]

i wasnt aware that you were reading this since you havent commented anything nor joined the br here #buddy-reads message could you maybe write some of your thoughts about the book using spoiler bars

[worn nova]

I felt you 🥺🥺

[deep steppe]

Thank you. I'm new to discord, when I clicked to Join, it didn't seem to do anything, so I thought following this is meant joining... To be fair, I didn't know I'd read this book, just wanted something scary for the spooky season and the book was available at my library ) My thoughts for now is that I'm not sure if I'll ever pick up another Stephen King book after this one, if I do, it won't be soon. Chapter 39 || right now I'm at where Jud tell the story of when a person was buried in the Micmak place. The pressing question is whether Louis would do it, I hope he doesn't||

|| I also have a question about Jud and Norma - it seems like they married young, loved each other, lived together the entire time, but I wonder if they have or had kids... seems like they don't since no kids of theirs were mentioned at Norma's funeral... I wonder what happened to them and if this would even be uncovered in the book... Jud is a very mysterious character||

[deep steppe]

thank you )

[vagrant solar]

np its more so for the br points since you have to actually discuss the book to get them
also its best to put what chapter you are on outside of the spoiler bars so that people know if its safe to open

[deep steppe]

Thank you for the suggestion!

[worn nova]

Oh i never picked up on that when I was reading! That’s honestly a great question

[little lion]

If anyone enjoys metal music then I recommend checking out the song Funeral Derangements by Ice Nine Kills as the song is based on Pet Sematary (the movie) (the song is somewhat heavy metal, but the band also has more theatrical metal songs all of which are based on different horror movies)

[stuck wave]

funeral derangements is one of my fave ice nine kills songs would 100% recommend it nd tbh all their music is really cool nd based on horror movies!!

[worn nova]

Oh my

[deep steppe]

What were your thoughts about this? I'm on Chapter 49 now. || Jud talks a lot about the past, but mostly about the town, not really himself or his family. If the book doesn't tell whether he and Norma had kids, what would you guess? ||

[worn nova]

I don’t remember which chapter shows what without spoiling. ||But I do agree after he showed the pet cemetery to the family, he became like a suspicious character.||

[deep steppe]

Ah, can't wait to finish this book!

[deep steppe]

I finished it just now. What a book! My heart is pounding as if I ran a sprint. Also the weather is so appropriate for this book and it's ending - dark, windy, and pouring. Even though it's not bedtime yet, not even close, I just hope I sleep well tonight. I need a good, wholesome read now, or a nonfiction.

[worn nova]

Im not sure any Stephen
King books are wholesome 😂 but yeah nothing I expected for sure either! But yes self care afterwards is a must 😭

[glass belfry]

I feel like there were really wholesome moments between characters in "Billy Summers"

[novel nest]

yeash there's definitely wholesome moments in most of his books

[worn nova]

Ooh ok!! That’s good too now bc the only other book I read from him was It

To know*

[deep steppe]

I only read two other SK books: Misery, had no wholesomeness whatsoever, and The Girls that loved Tom Gordon (a short novella but published as a book), not sure it was wholesome either... Each time I had to pick up something easy and light afterwards, so much so that I ended up reading the Secret Garden!

[rocky notch]

1. ehe I dont. I want to have cats tho someday, be the old lady with cats
2. The audiobook from Simon & Schuster
3. I'll start in November!

[slate plume]

i finished it. i think this is the best spooky book i've read for 2024..

[crimson chasm]

4
not much to note so far, i just love Jud 🥰

i wanted to name my son Gage because of this book, was almost chosen but wasn’t

6
|| st. bernard got rabies 👀👀 ||
i love this man 😂😂

[crimson chasm]

9
|| i really don’t find Louis out of line at all discussing death with Ellie. she’s a child, of course death will make her sad, death makes adults sad .. but i agree for it to be discussed because it is something she’s going to experience no matter what. of course it’s awful and unfair and no one wants to deal with it, but i think a discussion and words about it in the back of her mind will do something instead of never discussing anything and then something happening and she’s left with facing it like that .. i get why Rachel is so touchy about it considering her sister, but i almost feel she should be more on board to discuss and not pretend it never happens .. i think she definitely freaked out on Louis and she was in the wrong ..

the pet sematary sounds like a place i would want to goto .. it’s nice for the animals to have a place and their owners being able to visit and sit with for a little or while whatever they want. they’re gone but not forgotten and the upkeep from the kids seems like a mature and comfortable thing to do ||

[safe pasture]

Started today. I'm on chapter 8 now. My copy has an author's note and I found it so interesting that it was based on real life things that happened for SK

[worn nova]

Omg

[safe pasture]

Just finished Ch 8 ||I can relate so much to people much older than me being much fitter than me! || So according to the author's note, ||Smucky was SK's daughter's actual cat, and "He was obedient" was the actual epitaph for Smucky, but Smucky was not obedient ||

[safe pasture]

Ch 9 : Whoa, that escalated! ||Rachel needs therapy to deal with her feelings on death, but I get that therapy isn't so common or well-looked upon back then. It's interesting to see inside their argument though and how unhealthy Rachel is being about the whole idea of death. I agree with Louis that other than childbirth, death is the most natural thing in the world, and I also agree about children learning about death from a young age||

[crimson chasm]

^^ you know what i thought was weird with all of that?
|| rachel said death is the most unnatural thing and Louis as a dr should know that .. i was like wait, what??? ||

[safe pasture]

Yes! That was so bizarre!

I highly recommend getting a copy with that author's note if possible, or maybe finding an excerpt of it online, it also mentions that ||SK's daughter irl did get mad and say that whole thing about, "let God have his own cat, Smucky is my cat!" It's simultaneously so adorable but also heartbreaking to imagine a little girl feeling that way about her beloved pet.||

[crimson chasm]

i know, i think he captured that very well but assuming due to real situations so he had a good example to lead from

[worn nova]

Omg I forgot she said that but it was weird she said that!!!

[worn nova]

It’s such a realistic little kid thing to say too

[crimson chasm]

i’m on the middle of 22 and jesus
|| this gets dark and twisty SOOOOO quick
the “dream” with vic would scare the hell oit of me, especially waking up with mud and pine needles on your feet being proof you actually left your house! then you start questioning your sanity, friggin Louis is in the shit now!!

poor church 😭 ||

[safe pasture]

Up to Ch 20
||Ellie's reaction to Norma's heart attack vs her earlier reaction to the Pet Sematary and Church's mortality; Idk, maybe there's a difference when we think about the potential death of older people who have lived long lives, vs. pets that don't live very long. Also, I'm sure Ellie has a stronger bond towards Church than with her elderly neighbors at that point. It also makes sense that Rachel is so traumatized still by her sister Zelda's death if it happened when they were young, especially considering she would not only be traumatized by her sister dying, but also her own parents' handling of their child's death. We don't know the full story but I'm thinking it probably wasn't a good first introduction to death for Rachel! ||

[rocky notch]

Starting!

[safe pasture]

Just finished Ch 25! It's almost bedtime and this is a good place to stop 😅 ||Church is back but he/it is not Church! It's so creepy and I love my cats but idk if I'd be able to cuddle them and treat them the same if they came back from the dead. Curious about Jud's dog that died and then came back and then died of old age again though, I'm assuming they're not all creepy then? And other locals apparently know about it and do the same thing so why is Church the creepy one? Or is it that Louis perceives Church as creepy and different? If my cats came back from the dead but looked and acted exactly the same, I'd be okay I think, but if they're different and creepy then of course not!||

[rocky notch]

I'm up to chapter 10 ||and so far so good, I was a bit confused (and amazed) at first because I thought he was a single father with 3 kids that I had to rewind my audiobook just to realize he did mention a wife It's cool to know our MMC seemed to be (half) aware of his "daddy issues", growing up without a proper father figure and now meeting Jud next door.

I wonder what would happen to the children and Church tho. I think its a fair point from Rachel about letting kids going to cemetery would bring more harm because they didnt really understand death and supernatural stuff could always happen there, especially knowing the kids are really close with their pet. Louis strongly opposed neutering Church also... ||

[vivid forge]

@vagrant solar,@safe pasture,@glass belfry,@copper sphinx,@grave robin,@novel nest,@crimson basin,@stuck wave,@crimson chasm,@foggy adder,@wild shoal,@paper sigil,@rocky notch,@stray badger,@tiny jasper,@rancid ermine,@deep steppe,@worn nova,@slate plume,@deep steppe

We are now halfway through this spooky time br
Finished: Brenda, LY
Currently reading: Nyx, Haze, Scarlettsens

make sure to tell me if i missed you

Here are some mid br questions

1. Who was/is your favourite character
2. Did you feel like the children in the book actually felt like children?
3. Are you celebrating Halloween?
   4.Did you have any parts of the book that stood out to you?why?

[novel nest]

I’m starting this next

[glass belfry]

I'll start this next week and get to all the Qs!

[worn nova]

1.) The son (I forgot his name omg)

2.) I do think Ellie was an accurate depiction of a young girl her age, developmentally wise.

3.) The ending stood out to me. The beginning to middle was a slow burn and the ending just came out nowhere with twists and turns.

[safe pasture]

Ch 26 - Well, I'm glad this chapter answered all the questions I had in Ch 25! ||Also that ominous question about whether anyone has ever buried a person there, and the way Jud answered and Louis thinking there's more than what Jud is telling him. Pretty sure worse things are coming! ||

[safe pasture]

Up to Ch 32
||Yeah I have to agree with Louis here about Rachel's parents. How could they leave an 8 yo to be the caretaker for her very sick older sister while they go out for Passover? I can totally feel Louis' anger too towards her father, especially with trying to pay him off to break up with her, which she still apparently doesn't know about. I get that Rachel's father is overprotective, or whatever, but I still hate it. She's her own person and she can make her own decisions, and the whole paying Louis off thing is not only insulting to him, but also to her. She's not an object they can haggle over! 😡 ||

[safe pasture]

Ch 35 ||Wow I didn't expect him to say so blatantly that Gage has less than two months to live ||

[safe pasture]

Ch 36 ||omg, Louis' mental description of how it happened is so brutal. So painful 💔||

[deep steppe]

1. Fav character Ellie - at the very end of the book || love how astute she becomes and how she shares her concerns with her mom and makes her believe something is wrong and is kind of the force for action ||
2. Even though I don't have children, I think both Gage and Ellie behave and feel like real children. I even developed a certain love for them myself.
3. nope
4. the entire time I was reading the book, I felt something was off with Jud and his family. A lot of things were uncovered about him at the very end of the book, and it all got clear for me. And overall the ending was not something I expected, I think the combination of events would be very tough to guess, so the end should surprise most readers

[worn nova]

Cried sm

[safe pasture]

Stopping at Ch 42 tonight. Just before ||Rachel and Ellie leave in the morning and Louis gets on with his plan. Ellie's "prophecy" about Louis dying... Another foreshadowing? This is a reread for me but I don't remember what happens to them and I'm worried! 😭||

[safe pasture]

Up to Ch 57
||Getting more and more intense now. We're still waiting on something to happen with Gage, but omg the way the tension builds! And I'm just realizing that it started from Ch 43 when Rachel and Ellie leaves all the way until now - Louis' planning, execution, waiting, mental gymnastics for justifying what he's doing. And the evil forces trying to keep Jud and Rachel away too. And we're still anticipating zombie Gage! All the shivers down my spine!!||

[safe pasture]

Finished!
||Omg I did not expect Rachel to die. This is so heart wrenching 💔 I can't even think about poor Ellie... Losing her brother and her mother, and her father too. And all those nightmares leading to those losses. I'd be surprised if Ellie doesn't go a little mad herself from all that trauma. And obviously she also lost Church. She was only just learning about death and dying, and worried about losing Church, and now she's lost everyone. Shit, this story is brutal I'm going to go lie down ||

[worn nova]

Self care bud!

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 6
||these kids are so annoying goddamn. I really like Jud and that he’ll be like a father figure to Louis. I never really know what to say for rereads cause I already know everything 😭||

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 9
||I don’t like Louis at all. Not wanting your cat to get fixed because you think it’d crush your own fragile masculinity and he so very clearly prefers his son to his daughter. I believe every parent has a favorite child, but god don’t make it this obvious 💀||

[worn nova]

Not them being annoying 😂 and then I saw you mentioned it was a reread and I was like Oop

[novel nest]

Yeah most of my SK reads are rereads

[vagrant solar]

Oh no that's one of my biggest pet peeves

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 11
||Rachel is overreacting about the whole pet cemetery thing 💀 I think 5 years is an appropriate age to learn about death, especially when you have a pet (or an outdoor cat that can and will die a lot sooner than later)||

[crimson chasm]

i finished part one last night

[crimson chasm]

part 1

|| the description of Church when he comes back to life or whatever the hell is going on with him, is just sooooooo friggin eerie .. the smell, the oily texture of his fur, mudded eyes, so gross. and Ellie is even like yeah no he can die now i’m not sad he stinks 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

i’m unsure if Jud did right by Louis for Ellie .. i know his heart was in the right place, but then he describes the pull of the cemetery.. like how Jud buried spot so now Jud has to pass it along and tag the next person in .. i do feel for Jud ..

the whole kite scene with Gage and Louis has me in ALL MY FEELS .. this is my 2nd time reading and i didn’t flinch last time. now having a son, this hits way differently and i actually had to put it down last night i just needed a breather. ||

37
|| yeah i really can’t comment much on Gage …..
SK i feel really captured that scene as he’s describing all the characters and how they’re reacting, it’s just very, very real. and then with Louis and Rachel’s dad, the tension was just fuming off those pages ||

[crimson chasm]

39
|| i really. and blame Louis for having that thought
i can’t imagine dealing with the loss of a child, and to be able to bring them back even with severe consequences, who wouldn’t contemplate that??

the story about Timmy was creepy AF, especially at the end of it with him knowing things about the men who came to confront Bill.

it makes me sad Jud believes the cemetery made him responsible in a sense for Gages death .. i’m not sure what i believe there regarding that, maybe if you bury something there and end up killing it again, it punishes you taking something else from you? i’m not sure ||

[rocky notch]

Ch 13 ||Okay.... that was pretty gory. Also what is up with Louis and his giggling habit?||

[rocky notch]

Ch 18 ||maybe Michaelides should read this in details to understand how authors write psychoanalysis ||

[glass belfry]

Some first thoughts, ch. 6: ||I love how King can make me care for a family in a matter of a few pages. The character building is impeccable as always. I'm always scared for the family relations in his novels (especially coming straight from reading #1288463550540681231 ). Also, Cujo mentioned ||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 7: ||Everyone's so happy I'm going to feel sorry for this family when shit starts to go down, I can tell||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 9: ||samesies||

[crimson chasm]

that was such a perfect child thought too

[crimson chasm]

i think that was a question that was posted regarding the kids was capturing a child like sense and i do think he accomplished that well with Gage and Ellie

[novel nest]

Ellie is definitely a lot more authentic than Danny

[crimson chasm]

i like how he wrote out the words for Gage i read it like a little boy in my head 😂

do you find her more authentic due to her age compared to Gage?

[novel nest]

i'm actually not sure how old gage is, louis just refers to him as the baby 😭

[crimson chasm]

according to google, he’s 2 .. i’m unsure if his age is actually mentioned in the book or not?

[novel nest]

I had in mind that he was 2 as well, so the whole “baby” thing felt confusing to me

[novel nest]

So far it’s not

[crimson chasm]

yeah i can understand that being confusing

and Ellie is 5-again, unsure if that’s mentioned in writing

[crimson chasm]

43
|| it’s so frustrating how Louis disregards Ellie with him being so involved in his mind about resurrecting Gage .. she knows something’s wrong and she just wants to be with her parents and not leave, but Louis is just not receiving reality ..

he has been doing a shitty job of supporting his family since the death .. it’s apparent to those around them too which makes it even worse ||

[crimson chasm]

45
😳

[glass belfry]

Now I'm curious

[crimson chasm]

he pisses me off as a character ..
for being up to ch 46 now
|| i understand he just wants his son back, being a parent myself i can understand how this can be a conflicting thing .. but sending Ellie and rachel away is just insane because he knows his wife would more than likely protest and he doesn’t want to hear “no” when he knows it’s wrong but has to do it anyway .. ||
he’s really failing as a husband and father.

[novel nest]

||yeah i hate that guy so much||

[crimson chasm]

i should finish today and if can stop being distracted by a UFC fight

[crimson chasm]

like 4 th paragraph in 51 says gage is 2

[crimson chasm]

i just finished

i’ll post everything tomorrow for final thoughts

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 16
||totally not creepy to follow a mangled guy up into the woods this book is so good||

[crimson chasm]

final thoughts
|| whyyyy didn’t louis learn the first time?! i sooo wana know what happened with Rachel coming back .. poor ellie, no one’s paying attention to her and all her premonitions and now her mothers dead and now changed .. louis just isn’t right ..

it’s interesting reading SK and how the men are easily manipulated into the darkness that tempts them

this time reading was the saddest hard hitting time, and i believe that’s due to me now having a son of my own it just hit me so hard

i really wish to know more aboit the Wendigo, some of those descriptions were just out of this world scary AF like imagine being in those woods by yourself hearing all kinds of things, knowing you’re burying the dead to come back to “life” and experiencing pareidolia every which way you turn .. that was so fucking creepy and how you get into this trance almost while venturing to the location .. just such a dark, dark place .. ||

happy to have read this again. i think the first time i flew through it and didn’t indulge much like i did this time. i really took in each part and description and really felt it a whole lot more this go

[novel nest]

Chapter 22
||what an eventful chapter 👀 it’s really sad that Church died, but now things are running their course. The writing is so flowy and easy to get through||

[worn nova]

As humans is interesting to see how our emotions can make us do things we think we would never do

[crimson chasm]

seriously
and this hitting such a legit topic really making the reader question what they’d do

[worn nova]

1000%

My dad saw the movie so he didn’t tell me what would happen but when I said it he nodded

And we’re a family who has lost and grieved and he said “well can you blame him?”

And I had to hunk about it

Think

[crimson chasm]

yeah i feel like it’s 100% normal to have the thoughts, even to carry it out because || who wouldn’t want to see a loved one or pet or whoever one last time || but obviously the consequences are just ..

[worn nova]

Exactly

||like it’s not them anymore so why create or “bring them back” when it’s not truly them||

[crimson chasm]

because of “hope”

[worn nova]

Sadly

Some people and even things, I would say, preys on the vulnerable

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 27
||It’s interesting that it doesn’t seem to faze anyone terribly when the dead pet suddenly comes back. I don’t know how I would react 💀 The story of Spot was really interesting||

[crimson chasm]

|| i find that common with the villains and their prey in SK books ||

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 30
||I’m biased because I don’t like Louis at all but???? If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions!! Stop mistreating the cat ||

[crimson chasm]

ugh i know

[worn nova]

For real!

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 33
||Poor Norma :(
I’m also glad that Rachel finally opened up about her sister and man what a gruesome thing to do to an 8 year old. Louis is right to despise her parents||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 11 and things ||seem to be going well. I wonder what's going South first; the eldest child or the parents's relationship surprise me, Stephen. I genuinely cannot tell what's going to happen in the next 50 pages besides that damn cat having something to do with it somehow ||

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 36
||shit’s going down! I can’t even imagine something like this happening||

[crimson chasm]

https://tenor.com/view/panda-eating-popcorn-akademiks-gif-4852066732879832234

[novel nest]

up to chapter 39
||damn what a messy viewing. i hate louis but i hate rachel's father even more. i get that you're looking for someone to blame in a situation like this but that's ten times too far.||

[worn nova]

It really was

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 42
||Idk man I guess grief does crazy things to you because he was so harsh to the cat and now he wants to bring back his son. He knows he’ll be changed to hell||

[crimson chasm]

exactly

[novel nest]

Up to chapter 52
||this man is crazy I’ve said it before 💀 also wild that Ellie has this dream as a premonition? It’s all very eerie and wrong||

[crimson chasm]

Louis || is such a difficult character. you dislike his choices and scream in your head at him, but the. there’s a part that can understand his choices ||

[novel nest]

Yeah absolutely

Hoping to finish this tonight

[novel nest]

Finished it!
||This is one of my favorite Stephen King novels honestly because I really like the plot and it’s eerie and atmospheric. I don’t like Louis and never have, he’s making one questionable decision after another and it’s hard to relate to him. Sure, losing a family member like that will probably drive you crazy, but it’s his actions way before that that made me dislike him so much. He brought Church back and knew exactly what was going to happen and then he mistreated the cat every chance he got.
I love this concept as a story, but imo it doesn’t work as a movie at all which is why the two movies I watched just seemed ridiculous to me. The ending in the book is also a little ridiculous and I can’t really take it seriously? There is no way a grown ass human can’t hold back a 2 year old that just came back from the dead with a scalpel. I think the decision of essentially making a small child say all these things to Jud was questionable at best as well and I wish he hadn’t spoken at all tbh. In one of the movies, I think the newer one, Ellie dies instead which makes the murdering Jud and Rachel a little more believable but still. I love the book though and it was easy to get through||

[grave robin]

I'm planning on double-featuring this over work the next few days with the #1290216602733903872

[glass belfry]

Ch 15: ||I'll say it: I don't mind most of Stephen King's sex scenes. This was nice. I hope this couple doesn't turn terrible ||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 18: ||the mental convo with himself just to confirm he's still about to do the thing I'm liking Louis so far.||

[worn nova]

You know what I agree it wasn’t that bad. I tried reading Gerald’s Game and I was like nope the language wasn’t for me. It just felt unnatural to me

[glass belfry]

Midway through ch.. 22: ||aww shucks, Church. Also, no way in hell I'm willingly visiting "Dead Man's Bog" but you do you, Louis.|| This is a big ass chapter

[glass belfry]

Very eery

[rocky notch]

Ch 22 ||umm... what's the correlation between burying Church right away with the love to his daughter... Him saying he felt good, just after Church died and being in the sematary late at night ||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 25: ||an immortal cat is a perk in my eyes ||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 26: ||Should I be worried about the undead animals? I'm just... sad for them I'm just... unsure why Jud would do this, knowing the bull "turned bad". I understand Jud wanted Ellie to learn about death and sickness and everything else... but I'm sure the "dark glee" Louis glimpsed in Jud's eyes was something.||
||Oh, it's a compulsion Jud is sharing a curse ||

[novel nest]

||omg i'd never thought of it as a curse before but it makes perfect sense||

[glass belfry]

ch. 29: ||Kinda pissed by this dude for mistreating his undead cat ngl||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 30: ||man, fuck Louis (not literally, and I mean good for you girl, get those diamonds) but stop kicking the damn cat||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 32: || I'm about to throw hands at the parents-in-law||

[short yacht]

Ch. 32: ||
I'm about to throw hands at
the parents-in-law||

- Alex🌻

[glass belfry]

Ch. 35: ||*King: establishes a heartfelt connection between a father and his small child. Also King: anyway, the kid died 2 months later. *||
||King does NOT shy away from killing the babies huh. I noticed this in some of his other books. No one is safe. This was honestly so unexpected, got me munching on them popcorn like nothing else ||

[rocky notch]

ch 26 ||oof monka, if we bury a person will the person be "resurrected" then?||

[glass belfry]

omg, I just read THIS ^ and after ch. 35 (spoilers for ch. 35): ||are we burying the child in the Pet Sematary ||

[novel nest]

Don’t open this until after you have your answer to that question ^
||This book isn’t really about the pets… ||

[glass belfry]

The tension is killing me

[worn nova]

LOL honestly so real

Just a smudge bit

The way I never would think that would be the plot

[glass belfry]

Ch. 37: || is about to hit the 🪭||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 40: ||||

[rocky notch]

NOW IM SO CURIOUS

[glass belfry]

Ch. 43: ||Man's really intended on bringing his son back from the dead and thinks the only repercussion will be him being "a little slow" good lord Louis||

[rocky notch]

ch 35
||> And Gage, who now had less than two months to live, laughed shrilly and joyously.
huh, did I miss something? why is Gage had less than 2 months? ||

[glass belfry]

I know, it was a jumpscare

[crimson chasm]

i know, this kind of drove me nuts cos it was like someone shoving your head underwater and you come up for air like wtf just happened .. and then you’re thrown into the abuse .. and it all makes screwed up sense ..

[rocky notch]

ch 37 ||ellie's telling she's gonna pray really hard for gage broke me ||

||she really acts like a child grieving tho, bargaining and being stubborn about keeping gage near her everytime. her saying she'll eat gage's food even though she doesnt really like it.. aw baby ||

[crimson chasm]

that broke me as well

like it shows how || she doesn’t fully understand death and thats where i feel he captured her age perfectly ||

[glass belfry]

I personally really like how King ||captures children's thoughts in some of his work. It's endearing, frightening, convoluted and complex.||

[rocky notch]

The Shining ||makes me think of Danny as an older child due to his maturity, trying to keep his dad sane in the middle of nowhere.||

But Ellie ||is really really real, with her temper tantrums earlier about Church and now processing her grief.. ||

still ch 37 ||....did he... dig up gage's burial place and then bury him again in the pet sematary...||

[crimson chasm]

he really does a great job in that area

i’m curious with this book being based on personal events for him, if that’s how he was able to capture that realness involving his own children?

[glass belfry]

Ch. 45: ||as someone who grew up in the 90s and wasn't aware of the concept of phone operators, King has the ability to remind me about them in every one of his older novels, it seems ALSO I hope Jud intervenes.||

[crimson chasm]

i used to prank call them lol

[grave robin]

I finished this and The Outsider today
I've reread this one many times so this might not be terribly long and in-depth just because I really struggle to add tons of insight/new thoughts into books that I've read a lot And I don't think "me like it" is really great discussion

||“Sometimes dead is better”||

||To me this is one of the most harrowing and carefully curated amongst King's works- while there's kind of an ongoing jest about how King tries to make random objects scary or that a lot of his ideas are 'out there' - this hits at the heart of what I think every human is deep down afraid of. Death. Or even more so how we plan to cope when we lose those we can't bear to lose. Between this and WakeWood this is particularly rough when you've been in the situation of thinking "I would do anything to see them again". It's human, it's raw and it's inevitable. ||

||“May be she’ll learn something about what death really is, which is where the pain stops and the good memories begin. Not the end of life but the end of pain.”||

||I don't need to summarise the plot, It's something about the way the book is written, the close proximity and homeliness of all the characters, the bond between family and neighbours, even the punch up later on, rather than the stark horror itself. We don't get to see many lurching monsters but can regularly feel the evil under the surface as it waits to rise up and take over because we invite it into our lives through ill-advised perceptions of what's right and wrong. It's our silly egos, our inability to accept loss and move on from the past, while trying to make everything whole again at any cost or consequence.||

||This book makes you realize that we are sentimental to the point of absurdity and unable to forget because, after all, that's all we have, our memories and connections to each other. It's hard to admit that this will ultimately be our downfall. This is profound horror literature instead of jump scares and cheap thrills and if you're looking for serious gore or mayhem (even the fate of Victor Pascow and Rachel's sister is sickening but not treated as gore fuel - The scenes involving Rachel's sister continue to be some of the most haunting scenes that King has thought up just because of how grounded and harsh it is). It's hard to tell where the supernatural influence and the pure drive of grief begin in end for fuelling his actions; that ALONE is terrifying. The driving force behind what makes this so giant in scale is: would you be able to fight the temptation?||

||“He held her and rocked her, believing, rightly or wrongly, that Ellie wept for the very intractability of death, its imperviousness to argument or to a little girl’s tears; that she wept over its cruel unpredictability; and that she wept because of the human being’s wonderful, deadly ability to translate symbols into conclusions that were either fine and noble or blackly terrifying. If all those animals had died and been buried, then Church could die||
||(any time!)||
||and be buried; and if that could happen to Church, it could happen to her mother, her father, her baby brother. To herself. Death was a vague idea; the Pet Sematary was real. In the texture of those rude markers were truths which even a child’s hands could feel.”||

||I'm sorry for the amount of quotes but God this book is well-written; kind of like how you spend most of Cujo fighting back tears, this falls into the same category. I'll be the first to admit that while I love King, sometimes he falls short or fails to write a satisfying ending. This is one of his best and it shows from start to finish. This is one of the books you give to someone who wants to start reading King to get them hooked.||

[worn nova]

That was such a good review

You write very well btw

[novel nest]

wake up babe new vaude br review dropped

[grave robin]

Thanks very much! I really enjoyed going back and looking at your thoughts, Brenda! What you said about how our emotions can make us do things we think we would never do was 20000% correct!

[worn nova]

Thank you 🥺

It's very disturbing to think about of how like what we're realllllyy capable of doing things if our emotions are very intense

[glass belfry]

Ch. 51: ||The narrator is selling this like rent is due – I actually felt myself tear up when Louis first held Gage's corpse at the beginning of the chapter the strength it must have taken for Louis to do this is insane. Also, Rachel tried so hard to get that plane.||

[glass belfry]

50 pages left on my copy and I couldn't resist checking your review – % with you; ||this book is such a hard hitter and I really feel the connection to the parents and the animals and their stories. Rachel's sister and the chapters where we learn about the reality were HAUNTING.|| This is one of King's finest imo.

CH. 54: ||"Jerusalem's lot." – nice short story reference, Stephen ||

[glass belfry]

Ch. 55: ||This is terrifying ||

[crimson chasm]

yeah that really was

[glass belfry]

Finished

[worn nova]

dun dunnn dunnnnnn

ayyeee!!!

thoughts?

[glass belfry]

Final Thoughts

||Dare I say this is a new-found Stephen King favourite of mine? I adored every second of it. The slow descent into madness on Louis' part, his rationalisation of the Pet Sematary itself, his thought process and how we could clearly understand what was happening next and relate to his actions, in a way. I loved Jud. Justice for Jud (and Church, while we're at it).||
||In short, this had everything I wanted from a horror novel: believable actions (to a point), incredible monster characterisation and suspense, buildup, interesting family dynamics, tragic backstory that felt human and relatable, small nods to other SK works (as always) and that ever-present feeling of doom, loss and betrayal on Rachel's part that I really enjoyed.||

5 for me, no notes

[worn nova]

Left no crumbs

[rocky notch]

Ch 44 ||why is louis convinced he could murder his undead son if he came back a bit fucked?! ||

[rocky notch]

Ch 61 ||damn Louis...look at what you did...||

Finished! okay I gotta lay down ||in a burying ground somewhere that wont bring back to life ||

[rocky notch]

Final Thoughts: 4.5⭐
||I enjoyed almost every single second of this audiobook, the eerie sound made this very fun to get through. I like Ellie the most, her childlike innocence, throwing temper tantrums here and there, forcing her way into everything, then meeting new friends in her new school and had fun for halloween events. Her grieving arc and even until she went back to Chicago for the second time were so well written, I feel really sad for her by the end. She just lost her brother, then lost her mom because she was worried for her father, then lost her father too because there is no way Louis wants her to be with Ellie, right? At least I hope so, I'm scared for the future in which Ellie meets Rachel again, knowing Gage did murder his own mom after only 2years of living together. What would happen with Ellie who probably acted like a spoiled brat during her childhood phase?

I dislike Jud's arc towards the end (died? after falling asleep? very anticlimatic) and the other side characters seemed to have no impact for me.|| Spoiler for The Shining ||because Hall in that book seemed to play the same role as Jud, but he didnt die wastefully ||

||I like Rachel's arc with her parents and sister too, uncovering the story about her sister made the entire journey facing Gage's death and then going back to save Louis seemed more meaningful. I feel bad she had to meet Gage first, Louis shouldve met him first so we know the conclusion of whether or not he'll murder his own son ||

[glass belfry]

This book really is the embodiment of "it isn't the consequences of my own actions"

[stuck wave]

im planning on starting this today!! im really excited but also scared for the emotions

[crimson chasm]

did you read this one before, Zander?

[stuck wave]

I've not read it, but I've seen both the original movie and the new one!! i say new, I think it came out like 2018/2019 lol but it was my first horror movie in theatres

ik apparently the movies are different but if the plot points are the same I'll probably cry

[crimson chasm]

you’ll love the book more, obviously

and yeah your soul will be crushed

[stuck wave]

oh I cannot wait

[stuck wave]

ok so far I'm up to chapter 2 nd ||eileen is annoying, yes, but Louis response to her is just so bad. Stephen King just loves writing shitty fathers huh ||

[stuck wave]

bout to try and put a dent in this!! im really tired though so lets see if i end up passing out LOL

[stuck wave]

chapter 6: I'm a few pages in nd ||I'm glad I started this after reading cujo just sitting here like||

https://tenor.com/view/captain-america-i-understand-i-got-it-i-know-gif-22069086

[stuck wave]

last night i got up to chapter 9 and i did pass out eventually LOL i woke up with the book on the floor rip nd im soo hooked icl. ||going to the pet sematary the vibes were on point, i felt so uncomfortable. rachel i too wouldve wanted to leave immediately nd i dont have a dead sister. i love how stephen king can somehow make even the most mundane things nd the most generally normal people feel uncomfortable. generally i prefer outright horror nd am not the biggest fan of kinda just “the vibes are wildly off but idk why” kind of horror, but the start of stephen king books are an insane exception. like the vibes are wildly off. Jud, youre a vibe i love you but you’re worrying me man 😭 || this is kind of a comment based on the movie too so theres some spoilers for later on in the book in this next bit but ||the focus on how Louis says “street” instead of “road” is interesting. just in general the focus on the road is adding to the creepy vibes, considering that road claims the life of not only Church but also Ellie||

god i wish i didnt have uni work and some meetings today. i just wanna sit down nd read this

[crimson chasm]

omg .. i cannot wait for to get further in .. i don’t wana say anymore until you do
i’m loving this being your first time reading it

[stuck wave]

damnn now im even more excited to keep reading gonna do a few hours of uni work nd just sit nd consume this for a few hours as a treat

[plain cave]

Starting this now

I liked the author’s note, the backstory is cool

Ch 1 ||A 17 year mortgage, ffs. Most are 40 now||

[plain cave]

Ch 10 ||Pretty standard stuff so far. Weird dad that immediately jumps to “want to hit my kid” when they’re stressed. Feels closer to old man he just met than his kid. Vague, interchangeable wife who nags and literally could be anyone. Like why wouldn’t she not like the pet semetary, it’s creepy and it creeped out their daughter||

[plain cave]

Ch 16 ||Overly detailed sex scene, check||

[plain cave]

Ugh this is dragging

[plain cave]

Ch 25 ||”all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” live reaction: ||

[plain cave]

Ch 38 ||”This is what happens when you marry without your parents permission” whaaaaat ||

Ch 39 ||Now I know a lot more about graves lol||

[plain cave]

70% through this book and we still ||haven’t gotten to the spooky stuff ||

[plain cave]

Ch 61 ||I wonder if the daughter has a little shining ||

Glad King acknowledged in the intro that this book is problematic. ||I don’t consider myself an expert but I’m pretty sure “Indian burial grounds” and “wen*****” is super problematic||

Ch 62 ||Dang those in-laws are going to be so insufferable now||

[plain cave]

Finished and it was ok. ||Kind of predictable and very slow-paced. I don’t think this needed to be 400 pages, which I know is very brief for SK, it just didn’t feel like a fully developed novel to me. Felt like it was very back-loaded as far as actual action. Also felt like Lewis and the neighbor’s relationship was kind of weird. To only have known each other a few months but to call Jud Louis’s true father or the man who should have been his father? Uhhh ok.

For actual vibes, the scariest part of this book is that it was based on an actual near miss where SK’s toddler son (Joe Hill I presume?) started to run into traffic and King just barely caught him. Like what

The more I find out about Joe Hill’s childhood the more I hope that some of that novel money went towards therapy. But given that Hill is also a horror writer, maybe not enough 5/10 spookies||

[foggy adder]

I will be starting this tomorrow

[wild shoal]

Starting this one

Chap 9: ||Some good quotes scattered in this intro. The one about cats being gangsters of the pet world is so fun! Love when Stephen King focuses on the elderly and they just get introduced with a whole backstory. Louis is like barely contained anger for a good chunk of this. Like do I take his side with his major fight with Rachel about teaching kids death? Yes but I ain't happy about it. Super weird that the path to the cemetery is both a difficult hike in and also a groomed path. I'm not sure what to make of that quite yet. Now that I feel settled in with the characters, I'm excited to see some action! ||

[foggy adder]

Amanda I swear I will get to this asap but I need to finish #1254763945844281374 and #1281523166359064588 first

[wild shoal]

I'm almost done, last 100 pages

[vagrant solar]

would you like an extension

[foggy adder]

If anyone else wants one then yes please

[vagrant solar]

i would love one too since i was planning on just skipping this if no one needed one

[foggy adder]

whichever length you want then

[vagrant solar]

okay the i think 2 weeks would be perfect
are you going to try and do it or should i do it

[stuck wave]

wooo extention!! life got very busy very quick nd ive not been able to read really this last couple weeks

[foggy adder]

If you put the extension request in the usual place then I'll extend it

BR extended!
<t:1726850940:D> - <t:1734284940:D>

[vivid forge]

Ongoing BuddyRead

Pet Sematary - Stephen King

Description

Its spooky season again so Stephen King is a must read
I have talked about BR'ing pet sematary for a while and it seems that there is some interest in reading this classic Stephen King book
I have given the br long duration since i know that alot of people have been swamped with buddy reads so i hope this will be enough time

Start Date

<t:1726790400:D>

End Date

<t:1734220800:D>

Thread(s)

#1282968429111803946

Requested By

@vagrant solar

Leader(s)

@vagrant solar(0)

Interested (20)

@vagrant solar,@safe pasture,@glass belfry,@copper sphinx,@grave robin,@novel nest,@crimson basin,@stuck wave,@crimson chasm,@foggy adder,@wild shoal,@paper sigil,@rocky notch,@stray badger,@tiny jasper,@rancid ermine,@foggy pollen,@worn nova,@slate plume,@sweet trail

Event ID: 66df2070188387f684997745

[vagrant solar]

[wild shoal]

Part 1: ||That ending was fast and unexpected. I was thinking the sematary would be related somewhat but we'll see. ||

[wild shoal]

Chap 49 || OMG He opened the coffin. Would rachel make it in time or Jud this is thrilling ||

[wild shoal]

Finished! Omg that ending

||My god, what did I read. King's work is just at the peak in this novel. It deals with the intrusive thoughts of a human being. Sometimes I could relate with the sudden change of thoughts that are no where related to what's happening within your real surroundings.

Louis is a perfect example of a normal human being and his constant changing thoughts. This book deals with Psychology and it leaves its imprint on the mentality of the reader.

The final words " darling" just crept me out.

As for the white hair and old face of louis I believe that bringing back dead to life takes a toll on the body and on mentally on the person who buries the dead in micmac grounds. ||

[stuck wave]

I'm gonna get the audiobook for this because I don't trust myself to actually finish it in time otherwise LOL but I'm excited to finally actually make a dent in this only been reading this for like 3 weeks now

[foggy adder]

When I have more energy I'm reading this 🙏

[vivid forge]

@vagrant solar,@safe pasture,@glass belfry,@copper sphinx,@grave robin,@novel nest,@crimson basin,@stuck wave,@crimson chasm,@foggy adder,@wild shoal,@paper sigil,@rocky notch,@stray badger,@tiny jasper,@rancid ermine,@deep steppe,@worn nova,@slate plume,@deep steppe

Hey, hey, hey, I'm taking over this BR for Amanda! I'm not going to be extending it but if anyone needs a few more days, let me know!

[foggy adder]

me please! I'll try to finish by the end of tomorrow

[grave robin]

No problem!

[stuck wave]

yess me too I've got the audiobook so I'll be able to blast through this in just a day or two that way

[foggy adder]

These are some pretty short chapters so far which is making it go quickly but I'm struggling for things to say after the first three

Chapter 6: ||I get why pets are fixed so there isn't an overpopulation of them but I still think it's kind of a cruel procedure||

[foggy adder]

||Also Church just reminds me of Shadowhunters because that's what the cat is called in that. I wonder if it was inspired by this||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 8: ||Biffer and Smucky are such silly names but at least they're pet names and it's not like when dogs are called Roger or something way too human for them||

Chapter 9: ||Gruesome deaths caused by a dog? I know where I've heard that story before||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 13: ||Just casually talking about giving people tranquilisers? Okay||

Chapter 15: ||I hate the random sex scenes that SK writes that add literally nothing to the plot/story||

[foggy adder]

I fear I'm not gonna liike this based on what I've read so far

Chapter 22: ||Ew ew ew male gynaecologists give me the ick for this exact reason because 100% some of them are way too into performing medical procedures on women and it's so gross||

[stuck wave]

chapter 15: ||what happened to hello? how are you? did not expect to pick this back up to that ||

[foggy adder]

Just started chapter 25 and ngl but if this wasn’t a BR I might have dropped it already

||I feel like a doctor would still be able to tell if a cat is dead or not and that a twisted neck is pretty bad. You don’t have to be a vet or a doctor to tell that ||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 27: ||If I had a pet and it harmed me I would cry tbh||

Chapter 28: Some of the outdated/ableist language in this is

||Choking on vomit 🤢 throwing up almost solid vomit 🤢 ||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 30: ||Louis saying he'll never tell her and then immediately telling her ||

||Sorry but Church just does not have the gravitas of Cujo||

Chapter 32: ||Imagine pissing the bed just to be vindictive and have control over others. How hateful must you be to do that||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 40: ||Two thirds of the way in and the horror elements of this are just so underwhelming so far||

[foggy adder]

Chapter 45: ||Sigh, there is way too much vomiting in this book for my liking||

Chapter 51: ||There is absolutely not enough happening in this book at this point for me to care or feel invested in it ||

I'm almost finished 🙏

Chapter 58: ||The way some women are talked about and objectified really gives me the ick||

Chapter 61: ||Basically at the end of the book and finally a bit of action happens. It's still too little too late for me personally though||

Epilogue: ||The police having no suspicions tracks in this tbh. I was expecting no investigation or a botched investigation.||

Finished. ||Sigh, this book is definitely my least favourite SK yet. It was just utterly dull and dragged throughout for me. It combines some of the worst traits of SK's writing (gratuitous sex scenes anyone) with characters that are just not memorable and a plot that felt really weak/thin to me. It was a bit of a slog to get through and I just wanted so much more from it. 2 ⭐ max for me.||

[foggy adder]

1. Genuinely none of them 💀
2. Some of them felt like their ages but some did feel a little older.
3. I didn't celebrate Halloween 😦 we don't even have trick or treaters come to our house.
4. Not really unfortunately

Thank you for waiting for me Vaude ❤️ sorry I didn't engage with this as much as I normally do with BRs. If I need to do anything more for engagement/points then please let me know.

[grave robin]

I think you did fine! I can see that you left your thoughts as you read and gave a final summary, I definitely get the vibe that you engaged plenty.

[foggy adder]

That's good then I really didn't vibe with this one but I wanted to try as much as I could with it

[stuck wave]

i plan on finishing this tonight or at least getting close to finishing it tonight im up to chapter 22 SO ||shit has really kicked off, jud and louis are heading up to the pet sematary with church so basically nothing good is gonna happen next LMAO i am SCARED||

[stuck wave]

up to chap 26 about to listen to some more while working nd DAMN ||Louis. you had a god damned CORPSE COME TO YOU ND TELL YOU "dont bury shit here, its bad vibes" ND YOU STILL DID IT louis is such an annoying mc nd idk if i like that or hate it. tbf i dont usually like SK mcs anyway theyre usually all POS but louis is just different. rachel, leave his ass you deserve better than a man who'll dissmiss your serious trauma just to make a point||

[stuck wave]

chap 30: ||not the crow i love crows, church you bastard cat ||

[stuck wave]

chap 37: ||god rachels father getting decked was so satisfying, him blaming louis for the death of Gage is fucking INSANE, nd then him bitching about GETTING DECKED losing my fucking mind. its almost comical how evil that is, nd rachel blaming louis for it. fucking insane||

[stuck wave]

1hr nd 30 mins left, im doing this NEOW. onto chapter 42 nd ||my entire brain was like "NO NO NO NO NO DO NOT DO THAT, DONT BRING HIM BACK DO N O T, NO LOUIS STOP IT"||

[stuck wave]

chap 44: ||"maybe gage will come back normal" this is what we call delusions. bro what do you mean, chruch didnt come back normal, jud told you the other kid never came back normal, IT WONT HAPPENNN||

[crimson chasm]

|| the denial is SO strong with Louis .. i definitely can understand it as i would of course want my child back and would probably dismiss they’d be ”different” because you wana convince yourself it’s okay and maybe this time it’ll be different and work .. desperate people do desperate things and when it comes to that as a parent, shits kind of limitless .. ||

[stuck wave]

yeah i think in general ||parents always want to assume their kids different, nd this is no different. in such a horrific situation too. ik apparently the truck driver who killed gage was really struggling with it, nd more than likely there was something supernatural that basically made the guy end up speeding that killed him but ugh i still have no sympathy||

[crimson chasm]

i know, that’s such a touchy situation

[stuck wave]

my mum knew a guy in a similar situation so i can see both sides but also

[crimson chasm]

oh wow, that’s horrible

[stuck wave]

im up to chapter 57, about 30 mins left at 3x speed nd im so excited to see the end. i know the general gist of whats more than likely gonna happen but still LOL im so tense

[stuck wave]

yeah from what my mums said ||it really haunted him. even if they found he wasnt at fault for the accident he was never able to find peace entirely. idk if he is still with us or not though... i like to think he is nd made peace with it but||

chap 58: ||sorry but gage basically saying to jud that his wife fucked all his mates is such a funny mental image. like the descriptions of how gage looks is fucked up nd really disturbing but a child basically being like "COME AT ME BRO" is hilarious. rest in peace jud cannot believe you got fucked up by a 2 year old ||

[crimson chasm]

i’m not sure if i could tbh .. that’s just an awful awful situation and neither side deserves that

[stuck wave]

100%. its really fucked up

im all done. holy shit

[crimson chasm]

holy shit is right

[stuck wave]

that ending, like JESUS ||King you BASTARD what the hell was that cliff hanger i mean its kinda obvious whats gonna happen, hes probably about to die at the hands of rachel's reanimated corpse but GOD DAMNN||

5 stars because ofc

i think theres only 1 sk book ive rated less than 5 stars nd it was billy summers lmao

[novel nest]

That’s valid

I didn’t enjoy that one as much either

[stuck wave]

it was defo one of his weaker works though tbf if i reread it, i think now im fully used to nd in love with his style id probably enjoy it more, but idk if i would reread it. definitely was not a page turner like this one

[stuck wave]

im gonna send some final thoughts later on once ive processed this a bit but i loved it, as the long and short of it lol

[grave robin]

Zander I have absolute faith in you (you are one of my lads after all) and I wanna read your thoughts but I'm gonna submit the report (you've discussed enough and obviously read it so I'm gonna put you down as read) but please don't forget to post them I am hungry for thoughts

For finished I have: Brenda, LY, Haze, Nyxx, Spinch, Vaude, Alex, Scarlettsens, Think, Christene_littlelibrary, abi, Zander

MAN what a good Buddy Read, I'm mad that this one wasn't mind to begin with /j

[stuck wave]

I ended up getting distracted last night but I'll write them up now for you vaude

[stuck wave]

ok ok im finally doing this LMAO but i loved this a lot ||like Louis fuckin SUCKED i didnt like him as a character, i thought he was dismissive of his wife nd kind of a prick to her quite often. I remember specifically, when they have the fight about death nd her not wanting Ellie to know about that yet. He didn't even try to understand her pov on it? like he was like "yeah you had a sister who died, i get it" nd then proceeded to NOT get it nd dismiss her nd basically just say "oh she was being such a bitch about it" nd dismiss any issues she had. he does this as if ellie hadnt had an entire breakdown over death nd the idea of Church dying. fucking wild.|| as for everyone else though, i loved them. ||jud nd norma, my beloved honestly the kind of old people id want to be my grandparents to get onto the book in general though because i could yap about characters all day lmao, i loved the pacing! i think usually, king has a very particularly way of laying out his books, like the first half kinda sets out his characters, you get invested in their lives, the next quarter everything starts going mildy wrong nd then, finally in the final quarter everything goes tits up to put it mildly nd everyone youve just gotten to love nd get invested in dies nd its very sad. in this though, you could kinda see everything going wrong from the start. from the second the road is mentioned, you already KNOW nothing good is about to go on, nd theres immediately these horrific vibes that just hang over everything the characters do. shit, i mean Louis' first day at work a guy gets brutually killed nd he mentions the pet sematary nd then COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM like that is horrific nd really makes everything from then on fuckin horrific. the fact Victor Pascal wasnt a one off thing either was really cool, Ellie mentioning him later on before she has a total mental breakdown is SO interesting. as for ellie herself i like to think that in the end, she never goes back to her parents because theyre dead nd she stays with her grandparents nd heals, i dont wanna think about what wouldve happened if she went back to them after Rachel gets buried in the Pet Sematary || 5 stars, chefs kiss, this has to be a new favourite of kings for me. 1000000% up there for me with IT nd The Stand.

[pseudo thorn]

its ight ngl

fire book fire characters