This article is about the novel. For the film see, Pet Sematary (film).

Pet Sematary is the 17th book published by Stephen King; it was his 15th novel, and the eleventh under his own name. The book was released by Doubleday on 14 November 1983. King calls it one of his darkest novels.

PlotEdit

Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago, moves to a house near the small town of Ludlow, Maine to be a doctor for the local university with his family: wife Rachel; their two young children, Eileen ("Ellie") and Gage; and Ellie's cat, Winston Churchill ("Church"). Their neighbor, an elderly man named Jud Crandall, warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house; it is used by trucks from a nearby chemical plant that often pass by at high speeds. One day, Church is run over and Louis tells Jud about it. Jud suggests that he bury the cat on an old Indian burial ground located just behind a pet cemetary (crudely spelled by local children as Sematary). Louis does so and Church is resurrected, though the cat gives off a foul smell and is acting strange. Later, Gage is hit by one of the trucks, and an obsessed Louis buries Gage in the burial ground. He comes back to life, but also displays strange behavior and odors. Gage starts killing people, and winds up killing Jud with one of Louis's scalpels, later killing Rachel. An insane and obsessed Louis ignores the obvious consequences and buries Rachel in the burial ground and she comes back to life. She says "darling" with her mouth full of dirt.

AdaptationEdit

The story was adapted into a film in 1989.