Pet Sematary — You will be Very Sorry!

Ajit G Kurup
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

The book is out of words now, thankfully. Stephen King was merciful enough to stop there. And what used to be one of the sweetest word is now the most terrifying – “Darling”. Even though I feel the vines of the book’s hideous spell receding off my skin, those ghastly details are, still, all over me, like maggots on a long dead corpse. While the family man in me regrets grabbing that book from Borders, the reader in me is in love with the way Mr. King confabulates. Yes, you become a part of the story, and just like Pascow, you cannot stop anyone from setting into motion the macabre events that happen right in front of you. All you can do is helplessly submit to the trance Mr. King puts you in, and let it course through, and linger in you, keeping you terrified for a very long time.

You are bound to fall for pace of Mr. King’s narration. In the first half, I was clueless that I am holding something which could even trouble my thoughts (horror was farfetched). Not that all was sunshine and flowers, but everything was natural – the occurrences in a household, in a neighbourhood, in an office, in a hospital. Even the first violent human death – with unnerving discomfort for Louis, a rational doctor – slides off naturally, vanishing out of the picture. But as the pages turn, you can feel the tendrils of something (something) sliding on to your skin, from down below. Something you cannot fathom – just as how Jud and Louis couldn’t comprehend the purpose of the powers of what was “beyond the deadfall”.

As the sentences pass by, they twine gently over your skin; quietly, not wanting you to notice. Then with the second, far hideous and violent human death, the creepers grow stronger. In the burial ground, you can see the creepers dragging you to the mouth of hell itself. Page over page, line after line, the thousand vines turn into ropes, constricting you, tugging you towards the abyss. You are terrified, but you can’t help but submit to the spell, the grip of Mr. King’s words. By the time you grasp the real intention of the wretched creepers, “Its too late”, just as Ellie’s ‘friend’ says in her dreams. The only way out for the deluded you, is to finish the book; to complete the task, just like Louis was forced to.

Being a husband and the parent of a beautiful child, I would want parents/married individuals to give it a thought before you let the book in your life.

Sometimes, dead is better.

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