Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried

Spinetinglers #2

by M.T. Coffin

Run for your life!

Billy Baker's dog Howard has come back from the dead. . .bringing all his friends from the pet cemetery. Every night, long-dead cats and dogs dig themselves out of their graves in search of the people who bullied and beat them, locked them up or tied them down. Now it's their turn to get even!

Genres: Childrens, Horror

137 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guess what happens in this book?! Billy Baker's dog comes back to life! What a plot twist.

[E.H. Night · Rating 5 out of 5]

This crossed my mind today. I read this book over and over again in the '90s until the cover had basically disintegrated. I just ordered a paperback version to re-live those years again.

[Colton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously heavily inspired by Stephen King's Pet Sematary and tailored for the younger set. Still, this book manages to create a somber and tense atmosphere with ghost dogs, corrupt cops, and a weird cult. Taking place over the span of Christmas and the day after, an entire town is swarmed with animal attacks and they must figure out how to get the undead animals back into their graves. As far as spooky reads go, this is better than most Goosebumps books, and I wish I had read it when I was younger.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

An obvious homage to Pet Cemetery as well as having religious undertones, this book continues to just express how damn good this series can be. I’m not gonna waste time, so let’s just cut to the positives, starting with the writing. George Stanley did a solid job here and whilst I’ll have some major comments involving it, the potential was there from the get-go and he does a solid job at setting the tone. The story pushes the limits of kids horror but not overdoing it (because yes, there is a limit; I don’t want blatant murder and gory depictions in these books) and I highly appreciated the more mature story. There’s a slight theme of overcoming the effects of loss, obviously emanating from our dearly departed dog belonging to Billy Baker, and I really resonated with it since I have experienced the loss of a pet before. Struck home bruh. The plot is engaging, our characters are good and have emotional depth to them which I liked, and there’s some great moments like the confrontations at the hospital and the intro to the book. But… there’s some critiques I must mention. The pacing isn’t very good and there’s some parts where it’s way too fast or generally inconsistent, especially in the back-half of the book. The plot—whilst great, especially from a distance—needed a lot more pages to give it that umph. This should’ve been a two-hundred or so page novella, as it would’ve been far more grandiose and would’ve had a lot more pages to flesh out themes and untapped ideas. The whole church shit felt kind of thrown in and whilst it was a neat idea and reflected the horrendous fuckery that is forced conversion of religion, it was out of place here and felt like an idea that would’ve been better left for a longer book (again) or on the cutting room floor. And, the big moment where Billy Baker’s Dog—who has a huge role in the central event of the book—has an epiphany and does a one-eighty came off kind of flat. Again, this is a moment that could’ve sufficed from a longer book and a slower pace. But still an okay moment, just could’ve been a whole lot better than it was. Overall, 9/10. Billy Baker’s father better stayed buried, or else the sequel will REALLY be the plot of Pet Cemetery.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book in the Spinetinglers series and it succeeded in making me interested in continuing.

The emotional core of the story is the strongest point, especially Howard the dog. His loss genuinely affected me, partly because I’ve experienced losing a pet myself. The town’s atmosphere is dark and effective
While I wished for more gore or violence, I understand that this is a middle grade story, so the restraint makes sense.

The writing is smooth and easy to read, though the pacing isn’t always consistent. The plot isn’t very surprising, but the concept is engaging and easy to imagine, with clear similarities to Pet Sematary by Stephen King. The ending works well as a cliffhanger for the start of a series.

I appreciated the slightly young adult tone in the characters’ backstories too.

My main issue was the Church of the Resurrected Pets. While the idea was interesting, it felt unnecessary, forced, poorly explained, and didn’t add much to the story.

Overall, despite some drawbacks, I truly enjoyed this book and found it to be a solid and promising beginning to the series.
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Verdict
(7.4/10)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not expecting the religious cult.

FULL REVIEW: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...