 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about my first ever Stephen King book, Pet Cemetery. Stephen King, I don't think I need to tell you who Stephen King is. I had obviously never read any Stephen King before. Is this true? I don't think I've ever seen any adaptation of a Stephen King story either, like any of the movies or TV shows. I might be wrong about that because there's so many, but I'm pretty sure that I haven't. I mean I haven't seen Pet Cemetery, I haven't seen it, I haven't seen The Mist, I haven't seen, I haven't seen The Dark Tower, I haven't seen, yeah I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any. I'm an utter king virgin until now. Obviously I was aware of Stephen King and I have a lot of friends who are big fans of Stephen King and I for a long time, I am here to talk about Pet Cemetery for real, but this video is also just about like my first experience with King and like my expectations going in and whether or not like he met them, lived up to them, was different from them. So bear with this introduction. For the longest time I thought if I'm gonna read a King book, my first King book I think should be Dark Tower because I mainly read sci-fi fantasy and he mainly writes horror, but he did write sci-fi fantasy, The Dark Tower. So I thought that would be the most logical bridge into Stephen King. However, after thinking that was a good idea, multiple people told me that The Dark Tower, love it or hate it is not a good example of his writing. Like even if it's a favorite thing ever, you wouldn't call it a good example of like just what his style is like in general. People were like maybe read it, maybe don't, but don't start there. Don't make your decision about King based on The Dark Tower. So I was like okay, uh what should I start with then if not The Dark Tower because he only has like a hundred books to choose from, like where the fuck do I start? And multiple people on separate occasions, multiple different people who have different tastes themselves, but like King, all told me I should start with Pet Cemetery. So after the resounding consensus being I should start with Pet Cemetery, I started with Pet Cemetery. After deciding to start with Pet Cemetery, I then heard from people and then in the introduction to this book from King himself that this is the book of all of his books that he personally felt was too dark to publish. And I was like what? What? Y'all want me to start with the darkest thing he's ever written? What is wrong with you? But um it was too late in so far as I had purchased it and committed to this being my first King book and I was just like all right, I mean go hard or go home, right? So I started with Pet Cemetery and I also also when I expressed reservations over this being the darkest thing he's ever written and starting with that, I did have some people tell me that it's the darkest thing he's ever written, not necessarily the scariest thing he's ever written, which is an important distinction. And I, having not read anything else of his, cannot compare it. I can't confirm whether this is the darkest thing he's ever written because I have no idea what his other books are like. But from what I gather about the premises of the premise premises, premises, the stories, like what I know about the the subject matter of his other books, I would I think I would imagine I would agree that this is dark but not scary because I don't I do think this is dark and not scary. I did kind of hope and expect my first experience with Stephen King to be scary. And it wasn't. But it was good. It was good. And it was dark. So I would say it did live up to my expectations for Pet Cemetery. It did not live up to my expectations for what my like first time reading Stephen King would be. But after having been more thoroughly prepared for specifically this book, I think it lived up to its reputation. I'm going to stop holding this up because it's kind of a thick book. It's like 500 pages. Oh my God, Stephen King is so scary looking. Oh my God, he's the scariest thing he's ever done. Just existing. I'm sorry. It's true though. It's true. Uh, yeah. Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit about Pet Cemetery specifically, non spoiler. And then I do want to talk about some things about it that are spoilery, and I'll do that at the end. So we can all talk together, those who have read it and have not. And at the end, then you can watch the end of it if you haven't read it or if you've got about spoilers. Okay, so Pet Cemetery, if you don't know the story of Pet Cemetery, I see, what did I know going into it other than it being dark and it being Stephen King? Um, the introduction to the book actually does a lot to explain that about the story that I did not know before hearing the introduction. I say hearing because I did listen to this on audiobook. And word to the wise, the narrator for the audiobook is Michael C. Hall, who that's the name. He's the actor who played Dexter in Dexter. And I really recommend the audiobook. He was an excellent narrator. And knowing there's a film adaptation of it, I'm very disappointed that he is not the person playing Lewis in the film adaptation, because his voice made, and having seen what he looks like, and he is an actor, my natural conclusion is that he should play Lewis in the movie. He doesn't, and it's fine. And I haven't seen the movie maybe I'll do a book to movie video. Would people like that? Should I watch the movie? Do people want to hear me talk about it? What I knew going into it before having heard the introduction was that honestly, small town with a pet cemetery, and that the spelling, the weird spelling of pet cemetery is something that Stephen King didn't come up with himself that somewhere in his life, and this is as vague as it was for me before I heard the introduction, was that somewhere he had come across an actual pet cemetery somewhere in America where there was a sign, and it was spelled like that on the sign, because some kids had written it. And based on just the fact that I knew kids had written the sign, and the fact that I had seen like the smallest clips of the old old movie from I want to say the 80s, I think it was made shortly after the book was anyway, there is an old movie and seeing the just the barest clips in in TV retrospectives or whatever where people mentioned pet cemetery and briefly show a clip of it. I actually thought that kids were a lot more central to the plot and kids are central to the plot, but not in the way that I thought. I thought that the more in the way that from what I gather about it, that kids are more the protagonists, more central to like there's more children and there's them actually being in the pet cemetery is central to the plot and in that sense it's nothing like what I pictured. I pictured it being a lot of kids being in a pet cemetery or dealing with a pet cemetery. The fact that the main character is an adult male and there are children that are significant to in his experience, but it's about him, not about kids really, is not what I was expecting. But yeah, so going into it I knew that there would be a pet cemetery, that the name of it came from a real pet cemetery that Stephen King had seen and thought that spelling was kind of interesting or it stuck with him so he decided to name his book that. That's really all I knew going into it and then I would always see that there's a cat referenced and on the cover of the book and I think I somebody somewhere I'd heard complain about the fact that the cat in one of Cassandra Claire's books is named church and heard someone say that they stole that from Stephen King and I had no reference for why they would say that and obviously now I do. That's all I knew going into it. All right, could have just read you the back of the book. No, but I didn't read the back of the book so I didn't know that going into it. The introduction talks a lot more about the sort of almost autobiographical nature of the story, which I had no idea until I heard that, that Stephen King drew a lot on his own personal experience to write this book, which does explain why he personally would feel like this is the darkest thing he's ever written probably because it's the most the closest to his own reality. So he would find himself relating to it more and being able to believe these things are happening because of his own experience. So for me personally and for other people it may not be that dark. It is it's pretty dark but I think that would be why it's the darkest for him because it's largely based on when he moved. If not actually to main what the story takes place he did move someone somewhere very rural. There was a road outside of his house that had Russian cars on it that was very dangerous. There was a pet cemetery nearby that was spelled with that with the s like the name of the book and he did have an experience where his own little boy ran out into the road and Stephen King saved his boy from an oncoming vehicle. So everything's fine and his kids are fine and there's no tragedy but that brief moment of uh oh like what would have happened what could have happened what almost happened is what sent him spiraling into writing this book which he then thought was way too dark to ever publish and then there's a sort of story in the introduction about how it ended up actually being published even though he didn't really think it should be. That's what I knew when I started the story because I read the introduction right before I started it so that is what I knew going into it. The story of pet cemetery is that this man who's basically Stephen King his name is Lewis is a doctor and he's moved now to this rural part of Maine with his family where he's taken a job with a local university to work in their clinic and he has a wife and he has a little girl and he has a an almost infant boy. The boy is like one or two years old so barely barely walking and talking and across the road I believe that his neighbor Judd is also based on Stephen King's neighbor when he moved to this rural place that inspired this book. I'm pretty sure that was in the introduction too that he befriended a man that was significantly older than him and that had a lasting impression on him so that the character of Judd I believe is also based on a real person. So without spoilers uh because I don't want to say much more than I knew going into it because I like to not knowing he moves there no to expect based on the fact that his own introduction says that this experience where he his kid almost died let him to write this so you can assume something like that or related to that is going to be involved in this story. You learn pretty early on when they move there Judd tells Lewis that this road that they live on is extremely dangerous that people drive really fast down it you have to be careful like if you have pets if you have small children you need to watch them you should probably neuter your pets so that they're calmer and chill and don't run around outside a lot because it's a really dangerous road and yeah that's pretty much all I can say without spoilers because I really didn't know more than that I just assumed that somebody at some point would die on that road and then Stephen Kingish type things would happen and that is exactly what happens yes there's death on the road and that leads to very Stephen Kingish supernatural horrific horror type stuff that's but cemetery yeah I don't know how else to say it so I already talked about how I expected it to be kids like in a cemetery doing creepy stuff and it's not about that it's all about Lewis and his experience of moving here with his family he's got a lot of family drama that you find out about slowly his relationship slowly developing and how he becomes really tight friends with Judd this old man across the street and Judd's wife and how this road the deaths that it causes how that changes everybody's lives and how eerie haunting mysterious horror type stuff begins to stem from the deaths so it's really a huge character study I told my friend when I was reading it that the thing that kept throwing me off and I kind of got over that about halfway through because it does start jumping perspectives a bit it mainly mainly focuses in third person but very very close third person on Lewis and it's such close third person that I kept thinking it was first person and every time that the text would refer to Lewis in the third person it would throw me because I thought we were Lewis if that makes sense because a lot of the narration is that kind of the narrator is telling you the internal monologue of the character in that really tight close way that a first person narrative would do it does later than it also did throw me when it would change perspectives because I just I feel like this is Lewis's story and that even if it's not first person which it really felt like it was at times it is only really telling everything through his eyes so later on in the book when it does jump perspectives a bit that also through me that would be my one I guess I don't even know if that's a complaint without spoilers I'll talk about it more specifically in the spoiler section without spoilers give this four out of five stars because I think the character study part of it the emotional situation this family is in how specific nuanced it is the way that the children are reacting the family dynamic Lewis is psyche and how we like really really analyze the nuances of the way that all these different things that happen to him affect him I think is totally brilliant and it's one of my favorite things in books in general it's one of the reasons I love Joe Abercrombie is his character studies the deep dive into human psyches when they're messy and not always what you'd expect would make their own kind of sense and I love that kind of stuff so that part of it I love horror side of it I didn't find it scary but again I was told that most people don't find it scary they just find it haunting or dark or depressing or tragic or whatever and it is the haunting part of it I think would have benefited from more ambiguity in my opinion there's a fine line and it's one that you it's tough to know where that line is a telling your audience too much versus not enough some texts leave things so vague and ambiguous that you feel cheated that you feel like you weren't given an explanation or an answer and it makes you angry I felt that way a little bit when I read bird box this book I think went too far the other way it put too much of a fine point on what's going on it was too clear about what was going on and to me that takes away the mystery it takes away the fright it takes away the haunting the questions because usually it is that ambiguity that is unsettling even in real life when things are uncertain that is something that humans find unnerving so as soon as you make it a certainty what's going on what's happening who it's happening to and why it's happening it loses a lot for me so I think the character study the deep dive into Lewis's psyche was really really well done and it was really tragic to follow and there was a part where I teared up but it wasn't the kind of tearing up I wasn't affected I wasn't crying in the way that I cry if I'm watching Finding Neverland or Lilo and Stitch yes I do cry when I watch Lilo and Stitch it wasn't a tragic sad glistening weeping emotional tears it was shocked I was there was a part of the book where my eyes were like bugging out of my head and there I could feel there were tears running down my cheeks but they weren't I wasn't crying I just had tears of shock because it's just so horrific it's not horror in the way of something being scary or a slasher or terrifying but it is horrific what happens and I was horrified as I think I am meant to be so it had that effect on me and that part of it was extremely well done and the part of it that did that it was nothing to do with anything supernatural I mean it does in a bigger sense ultimately everything going on here has something is tied directly or indirectly to something kind of supernatural so in that sense it is but the thing that was upsetting to me and caused that reaction could happen without any supernatural intervention it was a very real thing and that's what made it so shocking and horrifying I think it was really good and it does make me interested to pick up more Stephen King because I would like to experience terror like the horror scary kind of stuff but this was really good and I think because people do know that I like character studies and deep dives into messy human psychies that that might be why I was told by so many different people to start with pet cemetery I did enjoy that part of it a lot and I think it was really really well done the horror in terms of scare factor wasn't there and I would like to experience that I don't I will have to go back to all these friends and say okay that was good but which one will scare me I'm leaning towards the shining I feel like I've heard a lot of people say that that is the scariest thing he's written if this is the darkest thing he's written then the shining is the scariest thing they might be wrong about that but I'm leaning towards the shining which again yeah that's another adaptation I have never seen the movie the shining so oh that's not true I have seen a Stephen King adaptation shashank redemption I've seen that which I never think of as a Stephen King adaptation I'm gonna dive into spoilers now so to wrap up non-spoilers four to five stars great character study the emotions of the characters are wonderfully and intricately painted and Stephen King is a great writer I can see why he has the following that he does because it was a very well crafted book a little on the long side and the horror I would have preferred to be more mysterious so that's all I can say without spoilers bye bye the ending I would just basically them the more towards the end the last mmm the last like fifth or the last fifth or quarter of the book I it kind of lost me because that's when it really leaned into being supernatural and I just didn't find it scary and or mysterious or haunting my preference would have been for there were all these moments where I kept thinking it was going to leave it ambiguous it would say that Rachel was getting in the car but she was prevented from getting there on time the Judd was trying to stay awake but he couldn't and something was making him fall asleep and all these things leading coincidentally or intentionally making way for the certainty that Lewis is going to succeed in his mission to bury his son in the mcmack mcmack burial ground in the Indian burial ground honestly I think I would have liked the book a lot better if every single one of those people that could have stopped it we were told that something was getting in the way of them stopping it and then leave it with us wondering is Lewis really going to bury his son or not is he going to succeed in this or not or is he going to decide not to at the last minute I would have loved an ending like that it would have been frustrating to not know but I think the question of whether or not he's going to is the scariest part of this book and having it answered didn't make it scarier then it just turned into something really corny to me of the kid being resurrected and then stabbing people I there is that whole something is inherently creepy about children but it all seemed very ancient and mysterious and foreboding the darkness of it was tied more to what people are willing to do when when you drive them to their limit what is the extent of what a human might do but once it turns into a zombie kids tabbing people then it's it's not about that anymore it's just a horror monster and it's silly to me it's not scary or suspenseful and after that I I didn't care that the kid was what the kid was doing or the kid and I guess yeah it's the question of what is it this power that's possessing the kid what is this power that's possessing church what's this power that's present in the burial ground but I don't really care there's this ambiguous ending of oh someday there's going to be another family that moves there and this will all just happen again and that would be implied even in my version where you don't know what Lewis is going to end up doing or not so it seemed as though the book was attempting to have that ambiguous ending that I would have preferred after it had already answered all of its questions and I was like but we're going to be ambiguous at the end anyway and by then it's kind of to glee it could have been more hitchcockian in my opinion I would have much preferred that that I mean even when Lewis climbed into the burial ground now um for the last time to bury Gage and he sees the Wendigo and describes the bulging eyes or the glowing eyes and the horns at that point it was it turned into doctor who you know what I mean I wasn't scared or intrigued it it literally reminded me of the episode of doctor who where the whole point of the big reveal is that it's not scary where these people think they've opened a pit into hell and the doctor goes down there and discovers this thing that sort of looks the way that people imagine a devil with horns and things but the I forget it's been a long time since I watched it but sort of the the twist in the story is that it's basically this alien thing is playing up on people's fears and so it looks this way because that's how people imagine a devil to look so that's sort of the shape that it takes and it's just an appredator that feeds on your fear or something like that so the reveal of it being sort of this goofy and devil looking thing is kind of meant to be silly and point out to you that it looks this way because you think it should look this way and the kitchen and so the fact that the end of this extremely dark book it is very dark all the human side of it is so dark and to end on this goofy devil monster that raises the dead and a creepy undead kid that's stabbing people and a cat that's helping him it's just it's just silly I don't think it's scary it's just silly if it had just left it as Lewis heading now towards the burial ground and you don't know if he's gonna do it or not and ending it there that would have been but instead we had everything showed and turned into a cartoon the part that I mentioned earlier where my eyes popped out of my head and tears were shooting down my face is the part where we know Gage is dead because we have now fast-forwarded to him being dead but the text hasn't told it we weren't taken through how that happened because there's sort of this jump in time where we've again skipped to now Gage is already dead and there's a part I think it's during the funeral and one of the body viewings or something like that where in it's one of the sarcastic internal monologue moments of Lewis where someone asks something about the kid or says something about how oh he didn't at least he didn't suffer and Lewis sarcastically thinks to himself oh yeah he didn't suffer and recollects how he found the body in how many pieces he found it how far it was dragged and when he just dived into explaining the horrific way that kid was killed that was way more terrifying dark horrific than some weird monster that's like reanimating the dead in some ancient burial ground like whatever the description of first knowing that you're you've been too late to save your kid and then he's not just struck stunned and his neck's broken off to the side of the road which would be horrible enough that the body was dragged and so mutilated the way that it was described I just I was horrified and shocked and I was crying but it wasn't oh a kid is dead and it's sad it was just like what what I like my brain couldn't deal with it for a second and so that was really well done A plus Stephen King you horrified me with this child's death overall the again which I said in the non-spoiler part the the character study part of it is great the way that the logic of children is done was great Lewis's spiral into madness great his friendship with Judd fantastic his weird marriage dynamics and the dynamics with the parents or the parents in law and the history of this wife how his wife had experienced death so horrifically with her sister all of that was done really well because those were all really human things so honestly it was way more horrifying to me what Rachel had gone through as a kid with her sister Zelda dying and how she had been left there with her dying sister and what a monster her sister turned into as her disease took more and more of her own sanity and turned her into a nightmare for her sister and for her whole family that was way more horrific terrifying and unsettling than an ancient spirit haunting a burial ground I think that's all I have to say about pet cemetery let me know in the comments down below if you read me Stephen King I assume if you've made it this far in the video that you have at least read pet cemetery so you have read at least that up King if you don't care about spoilers that's why you're here and then I guess you can tell me that too let me know if I should read the shining next that is to say if I'm looking for a scary King book so if the shining is the one that I should read let me know anything and everything related to pet cemetery or Stephen King let me know if you do want me to watch the movie and do a video comparing the book on the movie because I can do that let me know the things I post videos on Saturdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you next Saturday