424 pages
English language
Published Aug. 7, 1989 by New English Library.
The road in front of Dr. Louis Creed's rural Maine home frequently claims the lives of neighborhood pets. Louis has recently moved from Chicago to Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their children and pet cat. Near their house, local children have created a cemetery for the dogs and cats killed by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. Deeper in the woods lies another graveyard, an ancient Indian burial ground whose sinister properties Louis discovers when the family cat is killed. ([source][1])
4.5 stars
Hoo boy. Not scary like I expected but scary on an existential level. Definitely check the content warnings if you’re unsure.
Me encanta releerlo casi cada Halloween
High expectations for this one...
I recall picking this up 3 years ago, reading the first hundred or so pages and putting it back down—I now see why. It's not that it's poorly-written, it is quite good but 'the best of Stephen King' is just not the title I'd willingly give this book.
3/5
Alright read.
"The soil of a man's heart is stonier."
I really enjoyed this book. I found a lot of analogies with addiction and regret. That nagging feeling that's hard to shake. King was in the middle of his addiction when he wrote this, and there are several bits taken from his actual life.
"Smucky, he was obedient."
i would call this book mildly spooky, not the peemyself terrifying that i expected. this was my first king novel and i was expecting to be wholly engrossed in a creepfest, but it was more of an on-off ominous read. king’s style is a 7/10, but his horror is a 6/10 at best. i only found about 3 pages closer to the end to be close to “hair raising”. being said, that may just be my own inability to lend myself fully to the story. enjoyable read, but not what i expected, and i dont think its worthy of the hype.
I know Stephen King is like the godfather of horror novels, but actually I get the impression he writes social studies more than horror.
It took 4/5ths of the book to finally get to the horror part, which was admittedly creepy, but more in a shout-at-them-in-my-head way. They're such idiots? And they learn nothing? Not ever?
I guess it's just not my kind of horror. I prefer they've-done-everything-right-and-are-still-f@&#ed kind of stories.
4.5 stars. As usual, Stephen King inspired and scared the pants off me in equal measure. Also as usual for vintage King, there's a lot of period-typical misogyny and racism in this book which took me out of the story at times but it wasn't more than what you'd expect.
This book is essentially a book about death, moreso than any other book of his I've read. It's about our relationship with death, our fear of it, the shocking finality of it, and the importance of accepting that it is natural and inevitable and always just around the corner.
This doesn't mean that there's non-stop gore in this book. In fact, it's mostly two dudes sitting around philosophising about death and telling stories about the people and pets who are no longer with them. Not to say that it was boring because it definitely was not. This is what King …
4.5 stars. As usual, Stephen King inspired and scared the pants off me in equal measure. Also as usual for vintage King, there's a lot of period-typical misogyny and racism in this book which took me out of the story at times but it wasn't more than what you'd expect.
This book is essentially a book about death, moreso than any other book of his I've read. It's about our relationship with death, our fear of it, the shocking finality of it, and the importance of accepting that it is natural and inevitable and always just around the corner.
This doesn't mean that there's non-stop gore in this book. In fact, it's mostly two dudes sitting around philosophising about death and telling stories about the people and pets who are no longer with them. Not to say that it was boring because it definitely was not. This is what King does best in my opinion. Not the twists and monsters but the in-depth character studies and meandering monologues that give the characters and world a weight and realness that other authors can only dream of achieving. This is how King builds the suspense that he's so famous for. He hints that something bad will happen then spends hundreds of plotless pages building up his characters so that when the inevitable disaster comes it punches you right in the heart. And yes, very, very gory.
I'm taking off .5 stars for the treatment of the female characters and the lack of minorities except as off-screen wise, mystical ancients. I've read Stephen King say that any sexism and racism in his books is meant to be part of the characterisations of his characters, because real people are that way, but that doesn't explain the structural sexism and racism in this book. Certainly when in the first chapter Louis Creed thinks about how he'd like to smack his daughter because she's annoying him, that's part of his character. But the fact that the only adult female characters are just there for the main male characters to protect and worry over and no Native characters are given a voice but they're constantly referred to in a stereotypical way is on King. I'm willing to forgive this because 80s but I thought I should point it out.
tl;dr: heartbreaking, gruesome, and poignant book that deals with death in all its complexities. Highly recommend.
Kolejna dobra książka Stephena Kinga, którą przeczytałem w ostatnim czasie.
Senne miasteczko w USA, które skrywa mroczną tajemnicę związaną z pobliskim cmentarzem dla zwierząt. Jak daleko można posunąć się, aby zatrzymać przy sobie najbliższych? Czy śmierć można pokonać, a jeśli tak, to jaką cenę trzeba będzie za to zapłacić?
Fani gatunku z pewnością nie będą...
Still one of the best books by King, this one is competently told, slowly, strongly and inevitably builds towards the devastating end and features one of the best final lines in history.
