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Louis Creed, who had
lost his father at three and who had never known
a grandfather, never expected to find a father
as he entered his middle age, but that was
exactly what happened . . . although he called
this man a friend, as a grown man must do when
he finds the man who should have been his father
relatively late in life. |
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When Dr. Louis
Creed, the new director of student health at
the local university, is first taken by a
neighbor friend to the pet cemetery in the
woods behind his house, he thinks it is just
an eccentric, if morbid, local site.
However, after he learns that the Micmac
Indian burial grounds beyond it have the
power to bring his daughter's dead cat back
from death, albeit slightly altered, he
discovers that he has been touched by a
power beyond anything imaginable. Then his
son Gage is killed, just like the cat. .
.
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Annie Gottlieb - New York Times
Like most of Mr. King novels, Pet Sematary loses
credibility toward the end, as it gains in gore. . . Nor is
Pet Sematary his best book as a piece of writing. . . .
Reader, beware. This is a book for those who like to take
their scare straight -- with a chaser of despair.
Voice of Youth Advocates - Mary K. Chelton
This is vintage King, with the suspense slow, savored,
and inexorable, with all the little familiar and ironic
touches King is master of. Creed, for example, pays for his
son's funeral with a MasterCard. Possibly the best thing
about the book is that the ending is inevitable and known
almost instinctively early in the book, but the reader
simply cannot help finding out how Creed gets there, and
breath is held almost the entire way. King fans will love
it. . . . A great read for cold winter nights.
Library Journal
In this BBC dramatization of King's (Wizard and Glass,
Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/98) 1983 best seller, Dr. Louis Creed
moves his ideal family from congested, urban Chicago to the
rural simplicity of Ludlow, ME. His property sits near a
long-established pet burial ground and a mysterious Indian
burial ground from which the dead can be raised. The program
effectively draws us into the characters' world: marriage
and family, then shock, grief and madness as we explore the
nature and mystery of death. Presenting a multivoiced
dramatization rather than a reading of the novel, the actors
work together, with added music and sound effects, to create
King's macabre world. Recommended.--Kristen L. Smith, Loras
Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA
The Christian Century - Mary Helene Rosenbaum
[The author] uses religious motifs and sentiments for
atmospheric effect, but nothing of Christianity (or Judaism)
comes near the hearts of his characters. The result is a
blurring of focus, a loss of gravitational center. . . .This
lack of focus, together with metaphysical loose ends
trailing throughout the book, leaves the reader unsatisfied.
. . . King is too powerful a writer to go on indefinitely
slinging his ink in cinematic verbal effects to no purpose.
He has shown an acute understanding of human fears; if he
can move towardan equally profound apprehension of our
hopes, he may yet write a book that transcends its genre in
the manner of all true art.
Pittsburgh Press
Unrelenting, convincing...awesome power...his best yet! |
