26 Comments

I love knowing that Pet Sematary scared King himself, because it sure scared me as a teen, and I remember being struck by the novel’s pathos. Like so many of King’s books, it’s far more than straight-up horror in other words. Time for a re-read!

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It was loosely based on an incident when his youngest son,Owen, almost ran onto a road with big trucks blasting by. It scared him so bad he put it in the book. I saw this in an interview with him.

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Yes, and the family cat actually got hit and killed. And Stephen, as he does, wondered what would happen if it came back to life in a few days.

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I say he takes a story and tilts it just a bit and says what if?"

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And it’s always filled with a bit of realistic parental shame! (See also, The Shining, with a lot of good hand wringing about the narrator having been too rough with own son—and breaking his arm—due to alcohol fueled anger. The alcoholism part also being autobiographical; see On Writing.)

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I loved Carrie, Salem's Lot, and Pet Sematery. I read them all so long ago but each still brings a visceral reaction. The Stand was my favorite King book of that era.

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Yes they're all so good! The Stand is definitely the best of his work, IMO. An American classic.

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Best of that Era, for sure. I'm partial to IT, as well.

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💯🔥the stand my favorite!!! I've read it 3 times and I have the TV series of it on dvd.

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It's so good! I've read it twice and will definitely do so again.

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I would read Stephen Kings grocery list lol. I am currently rereading Billy Summers. The only book I read one and done was Pet Semitary. If you really look in to all he has written, there are some real gems not well known. He has done a little crime-noir. "Joyland" "Later" "The Colorado Kid" and the one I'm currently reading, "Billy Summers" enjoy whatever of Mr Kings books speak to you. Just enjoy. 😁

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His range is really incredible. I have "Eye of the Dragon" up next, which seems to be a real departure from his usual stuff.

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I read a lot of King’s book back in the 80s and I’ve started reading him again. The Stand is on my list to read this year but I like the idea of reading his whole catalogue chronologically. The Long Walk is my absolute fave of his.

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Another underrated one — all those Bachman books are good (except Rage, which I didn't care for).

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I had forgotten that I read Pet Sematary in the 6th grade. I enjoyed it, but didn't find it to be scary. That said, the only book that ever scared me was Hot Zone, a deep, dive into the ebola virus.

Was the 80s cult classic movie Silver Bullet based on Cycle of the Wolf? A kid in a wheelchair fights a werewolf in that, too

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Yes, Silver Bullet is indeed the adaption of Cycle of the Werewolf!

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I guess we can add that to the good adaptation list lol

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Fun!

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It is only really scary once you become a parent and imagine what you would do for your child? That's why it's so damn scary to me.

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I totally understand *why* it's scary, but the only emotion fiction can't seem to evoke in me is fear. Revulsion, loss, happiness, laughter, all else is fair game, but the scares just aren't there. Same goes with movies. I guess I take the Bible at its word with the many "Fear nots" 🙂 (though that doesn't explain those teenager days...all the horror movies and books probably had something to do with that).

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Yeah, I'm not sure "scary" is quite the right word.. more creepy and eeked out.

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I'm the same way. True stores can scare me though.

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Pet Sematary is the goat 🐐 of King’s horror novels.

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I think "Salem's Lot" is right up there too.

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I remember reading Pet Semetary in 1987, a year after my long-lived childhood dog died. That book got me thinking, what would I do to have Rags back? And then it scared the living daylights out of me. That one is my favorite although there are some stories in Night Shift which also messed with me. Why I chose to read one short story from Night Shift every night before I went to sleep when I was in college (again in the '80s), I have absolutely no idea. Decades later he writes 11/22/63 which is a fascinating history lesson and spine-tingling "what if" story.

Stephen King is a genius.

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Night Shift is so good! I think about some of those stories quite often — especially those set in the world of Salem's Lot.

He is a genius indeed!

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