When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…

‘Pet Sematary’ is the third book in my Stephen King 2026 Reading Challenge and I’m setting it aside at 10%.

The decision to set the book aside is more about me than it is about the novel. 

I started it two weeks ago, and I’ve only made it through the first two hours of the audiobook. That’s not because the book is hard to read. The prose is accessible. Michael C. Hall’s narration captures the nuance of the text and the dialogue. The characters are clearly drawn. The sense of place is strong, and the sense of threat is even stronger.

The problem is that this is not a book that I want to read. Why? Well, firstly, after the briefest of acquaintances, I decided that I don’t like Dr. Louis Creed. He’s judgmental, combative, condescending and more than a little wrapped up in himself. Secondly, and more importantly, I can sense the tsunami of grief that is going to crash over him and his wife, and I want none of it. 

Stephen King says in his introduction that this is a book he was reluctant to publish because he felt it had crossed a line. I’ve barely scratched the surface of it, and I’m already conscious of the transgressive nature of the novel. This is going to be about death and grief and rage and despair, and I don’t want to go there, partly because I know that Stephen King will make those experiences traumatic by making them have the emotional weight that they deserve. 

So, I’m moving on to the next book, ‘Rose Madder’, which is longer and perhaps sadder than ‘Pet Sematary’, but at least it is about a struggle where it’s possible for the protagonist to win through in the end.