Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

40 reviews

amandalouise717's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

kacyn21's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It has been well over 15 years since I last read Pet Sematary and I am so happy I got to read it again. I had forgotten so much about this book and how much I actually love it. This has to be one of the few books that SK wrote that isn't long-winded and drones on the whole time. Don't get me wrong, there were some parts where this fid happen, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There's such a creepy and great atmosphere, and the pacing is just perfect. I must admit, I think some parts went by too fast while other parts (that I personally didn't think mattered much) were lingered on. You can bet that I will read this again. Oh yes, I will read this again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Pet Semetery may be the scariest book by King I’ve read so far and it’s definitely the best one I’ve read since The Shining. I think often King’s novels are like the longest build up ever to the world’s saddest orgasm but I actually felt that the pay off was worth it in this novel. I’ll also say that this was some very strong character writing but despite that maybe only two characters were actually likable, though I do at least think the mental decline in Louis over time is articulated well. I was also slightly put off by the completely out of place sex scenes that added literally nothing to the story but King is nothing if not horny. Even though I love to complain about King’s books I really did enjoy this one and would actually recommend it to people especially if you’re new to King or horror in general. I still think it could’ve been edited so much shorter but for the most part it felt more evenly paced than other King novels and I wasn’t often bored. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

weinerman's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bahamyulala's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

sidekicksam's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Did I binge-listen to this in, like, 3 days? Yes. Yes I did. 

I am, slowly but surely, making my way through King's (most popular) backlist. Pet Sematary was one of those books I heard about but didn't really know what it was about. A Pet Sematary, obviously.

This was not the book I expected it to be, and it positively surprised me. I'm a big wimp so I thought I'd be super scared, but this is not that kind of horror story (though I did feel a bit odd about my cat for about 0.5 minutes). This book chills you to your bones, and though the plot twists are not entirely surprising, the way King writes the story, I still felt robbed somehow. 

This book was so addictive, I did not want to stop listening to it. The narration by Michael C. Hall (you may know him as Dexter) was an excellent choice, his mysterious voice adds that chilly layer to the story that other narrators might not have managed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

artiiichoke's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, and Murder

sapphicmuscaria's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.25

Not really scary, it's more sad, with its scary elements being more interesting and eerie than horror. I don't think that was a bad thing with this book though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, and Medical content

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is only my second Stephen King and  sure how I feel about his style still. It's also hard to write a review on something I knew the general story premise for before reading it. I have not actually seen either movie adaptation but seen enough clips and heard enough discussion to know what was going to happen. 

With that, I thought that very little happened through most of the book. It didn't necessarily make it feel slow most of the time. For me, whenever it started to be dragging something big would happen for a couple mins. But nearly all the major action happened in the last 2hrs of this 15+ hr audiobook. 

I liked the commentary on death and grieving. Everyone really does grieve differently whether in a healthy way or not. Death is also truly an important part of life regardless of if we want to accept it.

Michael C. Hall was also an awesome narrator for this; I could listen to Dexter read horror all day, every day!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Car accident, and Death of parent