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Pet Sematary / Carrie / Nightshift
Three of Stephen King's most terrifying works, this set includes Pet Sematary, Carrie and Night Shift.
800 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 1991
57 people are currently reading
2028 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,408 books888k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
July 31, 2014
Pet Sematary is my all-time favourite book and I can't believe Good Reads don't seem to have a standalone page for it.
I first read it when it came out, thought the film had it's good points
but fell way short of this book's impossible high standard.
When Stephen King writes at his very best, there is no-one who can get near him. It's like he's in (or from) another dimension.
I ache at my computer trying to come up with something even a fraction as frightening as this.
I'll post a longer review on my blog. Reviewing this is like reviewing Lord of the Rings. Every time I think about doing it, I find what is the point. You can't critique superlative writing like this...at least, I feel I cannot.
It's like trying to tell the heavens 'You could have picked another colour instead of blue for the sky'. The sky is perfect. So what the hell do I know?!
Five stars, forged in gold with a subtitle underneath saying 'this is the greatest-beeping-book of all time.'
Date I finished this book? Every freaking year since its publication.
Date I recovered from this book? I'm still recovering.
I first read it when it came out, thought the film had it's good points
but fell way short of this book's impossible high standard.
When Stephen King writes at his very best, there is no-one who can get near him. It's like he's in (or from) another dimension.
I ache at my computer trying to come up with something even a fraction as frightening as this.
I'll post a longer review on my blog. Reviewing this is like reviewing Lord of the Rings. Every time I think about doing it, I find what is the point. You can't critique superlative writing like this...at least, I feel I cannot.
It's like trying to tell the heavens 'You could have picked another colour instead of blue for the sky'. The sky is perfect. So what the hell do I know?!
Five stars, forged in gold with a subtitle underneath saying 'this is the greatest-beeping-book of all time.'
Date I finished this book? Every freaking year since its publication.
Date I recovered from this book? I'm still recovering.
May 2, 2015
This book got four stars for Carrie alone. I love the story line. It's a simple story of the prey becoming the hunter. A girl who is finally pushed to her limits and eventually snaps in a way we can not begin to fathom. I feel this is more a book on the issue of bullying and what it can do to a person, than about anything else. It explores both sides of a bullied individual; the weak, fragile and naive; and the angry, violent and vengeful. And in this book, King ventures through both, using mind and body of a shy school girl. Very powerful. Pet Sematary and Nightshift are good. I prefer Carrie.
October 1, 2015
I loved Pet Sematary and Carrie, eh I wasn't too crazy about Nightshift. But Stephen King can really craft the perfect horror story.
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June 7, 2014this book by Stephen king is a very scary yet thrilling book to read it leaves you with mystery and wanting to read more of it.Its about a family of including their pet cat,its Louis creed a doctor ,Rachel his wife and Ellie and Gage his two kids along with his pet cat church.They move from Chicago to Maine, because Louis creed being a doctor gets a job offering at a university.In Maine they move to a little town called ludlow and there they meet jud crandall and his mom Norma,Norma has very bad arthritis and they are neighbors. In the story it reviles that jud is Louis father but Louis doesn't know that although Louis feels some kind of connection.Louis and Jud start speaking more and get close,jud is the one that gives them a tour of the place and they find out that there back yard is basically a pet semetary. Rachel doesn't like the idea of that or the fact that her kids Ellie and Gage know its there,Louis reminds her that Ellie isn't so small anymore she has been knowing where kids come from and everything else for a year know.Louis and Rachel have a discussion over this but the reason why she doesn't like it is because of and incident that happened to her in her childhood that is reveled later on in the story.The next day Louis apologizes and its his very first day at work,already on the first day there was a incident. A bicyclist was run over and pushed into a tree by a speeding car,the cyclist had severe injuries and blood everywhere.His name was Victor Pascow,when brought into the emergency room Louis was the first to attend him,pascow had said Louis name and mentioned the pet semetary. After pascow had said all of that he passed away and Louis was very scared and wondered how did he know his name and what about the pet semetary? Louis went home that night terrified with mystery and questions about the pet semetary and pascow.He couldnt concentrate and had nightmares at night,he would see pascow in his dreams all bloody and with mud everywhere.after louis goes out back and is at the pet semetary he feels as if he had deja vu,he talks to jud and gets that off his mind. jud tells him of stories of when he buried his dog there, Halloween was right around the corner and Rachel takes the kids out for trick or treating jud and Louis stayed home with Norma.That night Norma had a very bad heart attack but thankfully Louis was there.he saved Norma that night jud didn't sleep and Louis intended to but even if two months had passed he still dreamed about pascow he awoke that night and saw him on the stairs. the next morning Louis went to check up on Norma at the hospital and she was doing alright, Rachel needed to catch a flight back to Chicago to spend thanksgiving with her parents but the only one that didn't go was Louis he dint get along so well with the in laws. Rachel didn't like the idea of him staying on his own so he spent thanksgiving with jud and Norma,that night he went home full and once he arrived at home he received a phone call from Rachel saying that they got there safely and fell asleep.the next morning jud knocks on his door and tells him that theirs a dead cat on the street possibly being church,he goes out to check and it turns out to be church so jud tells him to bury him in the pet semetary and he does. Louis worries about what he will tell Ellie while putting him in a bag and then in a box and six feet underground. later that day he goes home and gets a phone call from his wife then Rachel passes the phone over to Ellie and the first thing she asks for is church,he tells her that hes fine,catching mice and being a cat.Like a week later the cat returns and Louis cat believe his eyes,he's smelly and with green deominsh eyes but it was church,finally Rachel and the kids come back but Gage comes home a little sick.he lays down and the cat curls up on his chest then Gage starts throwing up,Rachel worries but Louis says its just a virus and puts the cat outside but no matter what the cat finds his way back into the home. When Louis is at work the next day he gets call saying that Norma died so he rushes home,he finds jud drinking and crying,Louis accompanies him as best he could. they drink to her honor and jud says that he hopes that where ever she is she doesn't need to deal with arthritis anymore.the funeral was set up and Louis asks if Rachel is going she gets defensive and its when she reviels the story never told to anyone.Rachel had a sister named zelda,zelda was sick and she was left alone with her at her house because her parents went out,Rachel was only 8.she feels guilty and as if its her fault she doesn't end up going to the funeral so only Ellie and Louis go. Louis is one of the men that help carry out the coffin and so he does.Finally after everything had passed Louis goes with Gage to fly a kite he thinks to himself those are the moments he will remember the most.
February 24, 2010
I read this book because I am a fan of thriller novels, so I thought that Pet Semetary was a good one to read. Some friends told me about the movie and it seemed pretty interesting. The genre of this book is fiction.
The two main characters of this novel are Louis Creed and Jud Crandall. I think that the protagonist is Jud Crandall. At first, I thought it would be Louis, but towards the end, I figured out that he is more of the antagonist. Some supporting characters are Rachel Creed, Ellie and Gage Creed, and Winston Churchill (Church), their family cat.
The central conflict in this book is man vs. supernatural. This is because Louis discovers that when you bury a pet in the Pet Semetary, it can come back to life. Louis asks Jud whether you can bury people in the cemetary and have them come back to life or not. Jud forbids it, which causes major curiosity in Louis. I am not going to spoil what happens!
The main theme of this book is how mankind deals with loss. Louis Creed loses a very close family member in the book, and goes through the stages of grief. First is denial, then is grieving and depression, last is acceptance. It is much harder for Louis to accept that he is in denial of his family member's death because he has such painful, strong emotions. This also leads to anger and frustrations, causing Louis to act out a lot.
The writing style that Stephen King uses for this book is not very clear. Most of the story is told through Louis' eyes, in third person, but it switches a couple of times to Rachel and Jud's perspectives to make the story suspenseful. I would definetely recommend this book to people who are fond or kind of bizzare, yet interesting thriller novels. Pet Semetary was kind of confusing, but it kept me at the edge of my seat most of the time. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and I would now like to see the movie that is supposed to go with the book.
The two main characters of this novel are Louis Creed and Jud Crandall. I think that the protagonist is Jud Crandall. At first, I thought it would be Louis, but towards the end, I figured out that he is more of the antagonist. Some supporting characters are Rachel Creed, Ellie and Gage Creed, and Winston Churchill (Church), their family cat.
The central conflict in this book is man vs. supernatural. This is because Louis discovers that when you bury a pet in the Pet Semetary, it can come back to life. Louis asks Jud whether you can bury people in the cemetary and have them come back to life or not. Jud forbids it, which causes major curiosity in Louis. I am not going to spoil what happens!
The main theme of this book is how mankind deals with loss. Louis Creed loses a very close family member in the book, and goes through the stages of grief. First is denial, then is grieving and depression, last is acceptance. It is much harder for Louis to accept that he is in denial of his family member's death because he has such painful, strong emotions. This also leads to anger and frustrations, causing Louis to act out a lot.
The writing style that Stephen King uses for this book is not very clear. Most of the story is told through Louis' eyes, in third person, but it switches a couple of times to Rachel and Jud's perspectives to make the story suspenseful. I would definetely recommend this book to people who are fond or kind of bizzare, yet interesting thriller novels. Pet Semetary was kind of confusing, but it kept me at the edge of my seat most of the time. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and I would now like to see the movie that is supposed to go with the book.
April 27, 2009
Amazing! It was pretty scary; not in a jump-out-at-you way, but in a twisted, depressing way.
It is pretty much about this "Wendigo" beast thing that makes things happen and that can make people do things they don't realize they're doing.
Warning: if you like happy endings, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. The ending is about as un-happy as it gets. The guy's son dies, so he brings him back to life. Said zombie son kills his best friend and his wife, so the guy kills his zombie son and burns his and his best friends' bodies. Then he brings his wife back to life as a zombie, who probably ends up killing him. The end. Oh, and his daughter, who was staying at his in-laws', turns out to be phsycic and probably ends up in a mental facility.
But honestly, I loved this book! Very well-written and scary. Reveals a lot about the human mind.
It is pretty much about this "Wendigo" beast thing that makes things happen and that can make people do things they don't realize they're doing.
Warning: if you like happy endings, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. The ending is about as un-happy as it gets. The guy's son dies, so he brings him back to life. Said zombie son kills his best friend and his wife, so the guy kills his zombie son and burns his and his best friends' bodies. Then he brings his wife back to life as a zombie, who probably ends up killing him. The end. Oh, and his daughter, who was staying at his in-laws', turns out to be phsycic and probably ends up in a mental facility.
But honestly, I loved this book! Very well-written and scary. Reveals a lot about the human mind.
November 6, 2015
I read the Pet Semetary portion of this book and found it to be very entertaining. I personally like the horror genre and for anyone who feels the same, I would highly recommend this book. The book in its imagery can only be so scary with the imagery and diction, but the moral/ethical issue with this novel invokes the fear of mortality all humans feel in one way or another. The plot seems to moved forward on the premise of Louis digging himself into a hole he cannot get out of. The plot of the novel was kind of out there, but the questions the book leaves unanswered are the main fear invoking strategy. I would read this book again, amazing novel, I suggest this to fans looking for a psychological thriller or a creepy read!
June 13, 2015
LOVE STEPHEN KING!!!!
February 17, 2016
My love of Stephen King ended with this book. It took more than a decade for me to try him again.....
January 5, 2022
Stephen King's Nightshift is a great book featuring many creepy short stories that really makes your heart beating, but it also makes you think about what stories could be half real. For example, when the main character of "The doorway" gets back from venus he starts to feel a massive itch on his left arm and throughout the story because eyes for the people on venus, making him the doorway for the people to see what earth is like. Or in "The Mangler". the speed ironer becomes a monster secretly sucking in people and killing people after tasting the blood of a virgin it makes you think what of these things could be kind of really like if there are really people on venus or in our solar system.
December 29, 2019
Just finished the Nightshift collection, for some reason it is not a stand alone in goodreads.
A great collection of classic Stephen king short stories, Some of which I would say are almost too short as I was just getting vested in the characters and story lines and then they would end. While I enjoyed most of this collection I still think Skeleton Crew was a better collection.
A great collection of classic Stephen king short stories, Some of which I would say are almost too short as I was just getting vested in the characters and story lines and then they would end. While I enjoyed most of this collection I still think Skeleton Crew was a better collection.
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November 24, 2017All three are absolute King classics!!!
June 19, 2018
Such incredible
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July 15, 2022Creepy short story collection ^^
April 17, 2023
Another excellent book by Stephen king. Kind of dragged in the middle, but the ending was very suspenseful.
January 11, 2024
OMG people. If you haven't read this just stop what you're doing and read it. Nothing quite like it.
April 13, 2014
I've always been a sucker for those little bits of writing that stop a reader dead in his tracks. For me, one such moment comes partway through this book. King writes:
"It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to admit it, human experience tends, in a good many ways, to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets another, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity."
If this isn't the perfect encapsulation of much of King's early enterprise, I don't know what is. And it's a fine paragraph in its own right. Plus, in the context of the larger story, it's one of the two or three creepiest moments --at least in my estimation.
When Nabokov was teaching literature at Wellesley he used to tell his students that a good story had what he called "shamanstvo," or an Enchanter Quality. This book has shamanstvo like you can't imagine, but it's not a pleasant, uplifting sort of magic. King takes the notion that "love is stronger than death," --which should be a comforting one-- and turns it on its head.
I've told many people over the years that if I could un-read one book, this would be it. And still, I come back to it every year or eighteen months or so, just to have another dose of the enchanter quality. Not all enchantments are positive, but they are memorable.
"It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to admit it, human experience tends, in a good many ways, to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets another, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity."
If this isn't the perfect encapsulation of much of King's early enterprise, I don't know what is. And it's a fine paragraph in its own right. Plus, in the context of the larger story, it's one of the two or three creepiest moments --at least in my estimation.
When Nabokov was teaching literature at Wellesley he used to tell his students that a good story had what he called "shamanstvo," or an Enchanter Quality. This book has shamanstvo like you can't imagine, but it's not a pleasant, uplifting sort of magic. King takes the notion that "love is stronger than death," --which should be a comforting one-- and turns it on its head.
I've told many people over the years that if I could un-read one book, this would be it. And still, I come back to it every year or eighteen months or so, just to have another dose of the enchanter quality. Not all enchantments are positive, but they are memorable.
September 12, 2014
This book was amazing. I know some people aren't fans of books taking really long to get to the climax but King really knows how to get you to care about the characters as if they were your own neighbors, friends or even family. How heartbreaking are scenes when someone you feel like you know is suffering? I liked how long this book was because it got you emotionally invested. And what's more is that King actually lived near a road like this...
"King returned to his alma mater, the University of Maine at Orono, to teach a year in return for the education he had received there. During this time his family rented a house on a busy road in Orrington. The road claimed the lives of a number of pets, and the neighborhood children had created a pet cemetery in a field near the Kings' home. King's daughter Naomi buried her cat "Smucky" there after it was hit, and shortly thereafter their son Owen had a close call running toward the road. King wrote the novel based on their experiences, but feeling he had gone too far with the subject matter of the book it became the first novel he "threw away"."
Also, fun fact this is another book that his wife made him go through with and not throw away, can we all collectively bake this woman some cookies?
May 4, 2010
Stepehen King had indubitably set new standards by which horror was to be measured or assessed in the future with this novel.
Before reading it, my notion of horror was gut slashing and blood spilling in the most grotesque manner imaginable. Upon delving into this fascinating story, I realized that horror is the most honest and at its most frightening best when it tries to unlock the human mind's hidden fears and vices and the extent to which he/she would go to see it come to fruition.
The beauty of this story is that in spite of its inevitableness, it keeps you engrossed, hoping against hope for the protagonist, if there is one this novel, to turn back or choose a different path. Mr King, once again, toys with the human psyche and produces this masterpice. Touche!
Before reading it, my notion of horror was gut slashing and blood spilling in the most grotesque manner imaginable. Upon delving into this fascinating story, I realized that horror is the most honest and at its most frightening best when it tries to unlock the human mind's hidden fears and vices and the extent to which he/she would go to see it come to fruition.
The beauty of this story is that in spite of its inevitableness, it keeps you engrossed, hoping against hope for the protagonist, if there is one this novel, to turn back or choose a different path. Mr King, once again, toys with the human psyche and produces this masterpice. Touche!
June 2, 2015
Definitely not my favourite King book. I enjoyed the first part—King writes those family with kids scenes so well, brings such life to them. And what happens to the Creed family is just gut-wrenching. But once we get to the part where we know what Louis is going to do, and we also know it’s not going to turn out well (not to mention, we’re screaming at him, “No! Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”), it started to feel (to me) more a matter of turning the pages in order to get to the end than anything else.
More of my thoughts on Pet Sematary here
More of my thoughts on Pet Sematary here
September 8, 2014
Pet Cemetery
Good book, but i feel like half of it could have been cut out. Some chapters are so boring, that i has skipping lines, hoping i would get to the good part of the book faster.
If you are into depressing, twisted and sometimes disgusting stories, this is your book. Good ending, but it became obvious a bit too early for my liking.
The detail of some particular moments from the book was so good, that i could smell the smells and feel the goosebumps the character was getting.
Glad I read it, i will definitely remember it
Good book, but i feel like half of it could have been cut out. Some chapters are so boring, that i has skipping lines, hoping i would get to the good part of the book faster.
If you are into depressing, twisted and sometimes disgusting stories, this is your book. Good ending, but it became obvious a bit too early for my liking.
The detail of some particular moments from the book was so good, that i could smell the smells and feel the goosebumps the character was getting.
Glad I read it, i will definitely remember it
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August 4, 2011I finished this book last night. And I must say, King could have gotten rid of 3/4 of this book and it would have still felt the same. The majority of the book was just dragging it out. By the time the one major part happens, you're flipping pages without reading it just so you can see what happens. The end of the book was the best part. The rest of it was stuff that didn't particularly matter, or could have simply been shortened.
October 26, 2011
I am finishing the end of this book, but I think so far it has been fantastic. It is a thriller that keeps me wondering what's going to happen. I didn't think it was smart of the main character, Louis, to bury his son in the Micmac grounds to bring him back to life. I predict that something awful will happen to the family now that the son will be coming back from the dead. I am scared for them! D: I can't wait to read the end of the book and find out what happens.
September 23, 2014
This was actually just Pet Semetary. Not quite sure why I couldn't find something that had just that book, but whatever. At any rate, out of every Stephen King novel I've read, Semetary struck me the hardest. Maybe it's because I'm a parent, but I almost couldn't finish the book. That isn't to say it was a bad book. Far from it. It was simply so brutal that I was aghast at what was occurring. Kudos to King, the master of horror.
October 21, 2014
WOW All this in one book. Thank you Stephen King. Carrie kicked off YA in a massive way by using adult themes with teen characters. Brave and original full of mind-numbing imagery and what religious fervour can do to a family.
Pet Semetary is a true horror classic opening a grieving wound and gouging out handfuls of gore. Creepy, so Halloween and there's a cat too.
Nightshift is chock full of awesome shorties, macabre, amusing, scary, perfect for this Halloween season.
Pet Semetary is a true horror classic opening a grieving wound and gouging out handfuls of gore. Creepy, so Halloween and there's a cat too.
Nightshift is chock full of awesome shorties, macabre, amusing, scary, perfect for this Halloween season.
August 14, 2007
This book is very dark and twisted; just the sort of story that I like. It wasn't as scary as I had anticipated, which was nice, as I tend to read at night. It is an interesting look into human nature, and how many times, people will try to get what they want, even if they know it is a bad idea.
August 14, 2009
I first read Pet Sematary in 6th grade and convinced my teacher to let me do a book report on it. She thought I was crazy. Ever since I have loved any book by Stephen King. I even was able to write my junior theme on King's works and his very unique point of view. Loved it and almost all of his books!!!
October 3, 2021
Well, shoot - it's been a long time since I've read any Stephen King, and I find that his skill is actually my undoing. That is, I connect so well with the characters that it is depressing when they go through the horrific circumstances. (uh-huh - not "if," because we are, after all, talking about Stephen King!)
August 2, 2011
One of my favorite books by the king. This one will keep you up at night, and if you've never seen the movie, read the book first! The book is 100x more scary, and detailed. Sometimes I think i still hear a twisted voice saying "Ozz the gweat and tewwible..." ughh, so freaky!
December 29, 2011
A classic, no one scares like Stephen King and this is one of his best works. The cold, middle-of-the-night sweat of loss or just the fear of dying, this book will ruffle something in you at some point...if you're human that is.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews