When Louis Creed is appointed the director of the University of Maine’s campus health service, he moves his family from Chicago to a large house in the small town of Ludlow. Despite the sudden death of a student on his first day at his new job, the first couple of months living in Ludlow pass by without incident as the family begins to settle. But when their cat is run over and killed on Thanksgiving, Louis is introduced to Ludlow’s secret—a secret that very few know of and one that will haunt Louis for the rest of his life.

Since I have recently inherited about 20 Stephen King books, I decided it would be a good idea to start reading through them. The only other Stephen King book I have read was The Shining, which I really enjoyed, but, being the scaredy-cat that I am, I wanted to pick a book that wouldn’t be THAT scary. Pet Sematary isn’t scary in the traditional jumpy sense. Out of the two Stephen King books I have read so far, what I liked about them the most is that they are more psychological scary. They focus on the fragility of the human mind and how an evil entity can easily corrupt and they easily put the reader on edge. But that is part of their charm.

The only aspect of Pet Sematary that I did not like was a section (or maybe two) where Stephen King uses the ‘it was all a dream’ method to trick the reader into thinking something that did happen didn’t really happen (although it really did). I felt like that cheapened the section and if it had been removed would have made the section flow better. Overall, though, the story was well written. Stephen King definitely has a way with words where the story keeps moving without feeling rushed, which is a style that can be rare in a time where writers seem to speed through a story it keep their readers engaged in the action. His stories have the capacity to drag the reader in and keep them there. Even with the few parts that took me out of the story, I would say that I was still thoroughly entertained and captivated by the story.