Reviews with content warning for Child death - Friedhof der Kuscheltiere

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Friedhof der Kuscheltiere by Stephen King

231 reviews

vinett's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bookishchaos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was so good!! I'm a big Stephen King fan and this has gotta be my favorite (so far).
The beginning was slow but after 100 pages, the story speeds up and I was hooked.

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sarinaisreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Spoilers below!

My review:

Overall, I enjoyed the book and definitely think the concept is weird and wacky but I didn’t find it overtly creepy, hence the 3.5 stars.

I thought the writing was well done and I really loved how King set the scene. This book was easier to follow than some of King’s others such as Salem’s Lot and The Stand as it mainly focuses on one family.

Weirdly, I found some similarities with The Shining but I think this is due to the fact that it focuses on a family in a remote location.

I thought the ending wasn’t as punchy as I expected it to be; I think it would’ve been interesting how life turned out with Rachel being resurrected, though I think that’s part of the mystery. What about the in-laws and Ellie? Will they ever catch up with him again? How did Rachel react when she saw Gage? I truly thought that one plot twist in the book would be that Louis would explain to Rachel that he was trying to bring Gage back to life, Rachel would side with him and kill Jud as he is stopping these plans, and that they’d be happy together (a very overactive imagination lmao).

I think another thing I found ‘comical’ in my head is the idea of a 2 year old murdering two adults which is perhaps why I wasn’t extremely creeped out. I haven’t seen the picture adaptation but it seems that in this case they chose Ellie to become the resurrected child which I think would be creepier and scarier, though I enjoyed her premonitions in the book.

I feel like I didn’t fully understand the incorporation of the Wendigo but I think this is also skewed because of my understanding due to the video game “Until Dawn”.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys supernatural reads. It has an interesting (though expected) ending, and if anything, grabs at your heartstrings due to the complicated family issues.

Plot summary:

This book follows the story of the Crendall family, made up by husband and wife Louis and Rachel, their two children Ellie (5) and Gage (2) and their cat, Winston Churchill or ‘Church’.

Following the acceptance of a new job offering at the local university working within the infirmary, this book sees the Crendall family moving to the city of Ludlow. It is here that Louis makes friends with next door 80-year-old couple, Jud and Norma.

Showing them around the neighbourhood, Jud takes the Crendall family on a walk in the woods behind their house where they come across the ‘Pet Sematary’, where families bury their beloved pets and have done so since the 1900s.

Things begin to get creepy the first day of Louis’ day at work when someone of the name Victor Pascow is brought in on the brink of death, with one of his last few words telling Louis to stay away from the Pet Sematary.

Over the family holidays, Rachel and her two kiddos decide to visit her family though Louis decides not to participate due to long lasting issues with his in-laws, who believe Rachel married outside of her league. It is here that Church gets killed as he was crossing the road, with death being a sensitive topic for Rachel.

At this point, Jud decides to show Louis the Micmac burying ground, where things that are buried are brought by back to life. Church comes back to life the next day, thought with some abnormalities including a nasty stench and a weird limp.

Months later, their son Gage is also hit and killed by a truck. Overcome by grief, Louis instructs Rachel and Ellie to visit her parents, deciding to bury Gage and resurrect him too.

Once resurrected, Gage kills Jud and Rachel as she returns to Ludlow after a few premonitions shared by Ellie. Unaware that Gage had returned, Louis walks in on both murders and decides to kill Gage again.

Devastated, Louis sets the house on fire but takes Rachel’s body to be buried, and at the end of the book she walks up to him and calls him Darling, implying she returned back as normal.

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jensen1's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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zoe_archambault's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

throughout majority of the book it dragged and i just felt like it was so long and then by the time the huge climax was happening at the end, i was too put off and literally queasy reading it. it was harrowing and depressing under the guise of ~spoooky~ ?? still a fan of the overall premise and how it leaves off though.

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sarasreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was my first King book! I don't think it'll be my last either. I was expecting it to be far more thrilling than it was. Not that there weren’t creepy or disturbing parts, but the book is more sad than scary. Honestly the scariest parts had nothing to do with the supernatural elements at all, and everything to do with the true-to-life medical events.

It deals heavily with grief and death, and the ways various characters react to and process the deaths of their loved ones. I have some trauma around sudden loss, so this book resonated with me in that way.

It’s a slow building book, with most of the horror action in the last 30-40 pages, but from the first inciting incident it sucked me right in and it was hard to put down. King really has a way with words and turns of phrases that I enjoyed, as well as repeating phrases and themes. I’m never going to hear that Ramones song the same way again, that’s for sure. Hey-ho, let’s freakin’ go! (Or don't. Probably better to stay put actually.)

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