YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

I'm excite to read this! :)

I'm still up to it. :)

This book would get my vote for the scariest ever written. :-D

I'm on part 2. How do you like it?

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Date Changed. Restarting April 24th 2016. Happy Reading ☺

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Not sure who's reading this, but I'm in.

I am!

I will be as well.

Chapters 1-6. Daylight reading (horror does spook me out a little) and things are just being set up.

Chapters 7-12. I'm sure I'll regret this, but the setting up is not too horrific at the moment. After that first day at work I'm guessing things are about to get a lot worse.

Chapters 13-22. Doctor Creed seems to be haunted by the events around him. Wish I knew what the deal is with the neighbour.

Chapters 23-29. Into more familiar King territory. Sometimes the things we imagine are worse than what's physically there.

Chapters 30-42. Not sure if the rest of you have started yet. Got totally hooked on this and can't put it down. Have a really bad feeling about where this is going though.

Chapters 43-58. Not even in my worst nightmares could I conjure up something so vile!

Finished...I am a wreck! Unnerving, horrific and deeply unsettling. What does it say about me that I really enjoyed it?

Great book! One of my favorites!

Chapter 25: (view spoiler)[So Church is reanimated now? So creepy! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 35: (view spoiler)[What foreshadowing! Gage is going to die in four months? Why are you killing us like this, Stephen King? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 44: (view spoiler)[What is Louis going to do with Gage once he brings him back? He didn't exactly think this through. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[That ending! He brought back Rachel? Wow, how messed up. Loved this! (hide spoiler)]

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Date changed. Restarting July 6th 2019. Happy Reading ☺

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Chapters 1-10

(view spoiler)[Very excited to finally read this. I know that this is the book that Stephen King considers his scariest because it hits close to home for him and is based on true experiences, so I'm delighted to be scared and disgusted!

I have to agree with Rachel, I think the idea of a Pet Sematary tended to by children is morbid and horrific. Also, Ellie was too young to go up to it and now she's terrified her cat will be killed and she'll have to bury him up there. Lots and lots of hints that the cat is about to bite it.

Surprisingly I've never seen either of the films and my only knowledge of this story is the parody that was done on a TreeHouse of Horror episode of the Simpsons so most of this is new to me. I've got a vague idea of what will happen based on the trailer for the new movie but we'll see how correct my guesses are..

(hide spoiler)]

Just got this book :) So excited to dive into this! Are you enjoying it so far?

Yeah, it's so creepy, even though nothing scary has happened yet haha!

Ashleigh wrote: "Yeah, it's so creepy, even though nothing scary has happened yet haha!"

haha that's the best! now i'm super excited - but gotta finish the book i'm on first!

Chapters 11-22

(view spoiler)[I've got chills from reading that last chapter. Church is dead and they buried him in the Micmac burying ng ground. Why not bury him in the pet sematary? The whole scene of Louis and Jud travelling to the other sematary had me on edge. I've got a vague idea of what that place is and why they took the cat there but the whole scene was creepy and tense.

(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 23-35 (End of Part One)

(view spoiler)[So much death in this book. But what was I thinking would be in a book called Pet Sematary haha!

So I made the mistake of listening to part of this on audiobook before I went to bed last night and it terrified the hell out of me. Just the whole deal with the cat. The cat's creepy af. I don't like it. Don't trust it. Get rid of the bloody cat!

Also, it was really sad that Norma died. We didn't get to know her really as a character but she was a lovely sweet old grandma type character and her death was sad and moving. I noticed that her death helped Rachel open up about her sister's death and I agree with Louis, fuck her parents. Who leaves a young kid in charge of her dying sister to go party with their friends? Well done on fucking your living kid up!!!

(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 36-50 (Part Two)

(view spoiler)[Ahh poor Gage. I had a feeling one of the kids would die, but the way poor Gage died. Horrific. Just awful.

The funeral scene made me hate Rachel's parents even more. And then when Irwin called Louis to apologise, I felt a little like it's too little too late, bud.

Louis has had plenty of opportunities to stop what he's doing and move on with his life. Obviously the grief is pretty bad and he feels like the only way forward is to bring Gage back, but we all know it's not gonna help and it'll be worse when he eventually has to put the kid down again!!

(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 51-57 (End of Part Two)

(view spoiler)[And he's done it.. Let's see how this plays out then! (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 58-62 (Part 3) - Finished!

(view spoiler)[Wow. That last part was just creepy as FUCK! The concept of a small toddler murdering adults, one of them his own mother, with a scalpel, is just pure horror!

I loved the epilogue that left it open about whether Rachel came back okay or not. She seemed okay and 'normal' with her last line, but who knows really??

I really enjoyed this book and loved the constant tension. I had chills reading this for the most part, even if there isn't a lot of 'horror' to speak of. It's knowing where the book is leading us to and knowing how badly things could and will go.

Can't wait to watch the movies, at last and be even more terrified!! (hide spoiler)]

Okay. I have my work from home day today so that means lots of reading!! And audio books!! I will definitely be knocking this one off today 😊

Yayyy! Can't wait to discuss this one with you, Alaina!

Ashleigh wrote: "Yayyy! Can't wait to discuss this one with you, Alaina!"

Same! I was so freaked out about the audit yesterday because my time slot kept getting pushed back so I was a terrible reader yesterday xD

20%: (view spoiler)[holy cannoli this is good so far. Ellie crying about her cat was so sad but I’m intrigued to see why the dad keeps getting those weird feelings in the house or anywhere really. (hide spoiler)]

45%: (view spoiler)[but are they ever going to figure out that church is dead..? (hide spoiler)]
62%: (view spoiler)[so sad that gage died 😩 (hide spoiler)]
100%: (view spoiler)[holy crap this book was so freaking good and eerie. Now I have to see the movie because hot damn. So many things happened. What is life. (hide spoiler)]

Alaina wrote: "45%: [spoilers removed]
62%: [spoilers removed]
100%: [spoilers removed]"

100% - (view spoiler)[that was exactly my feelings after I finished the book. I loved the last line in the book, but I need more, and I need answers haha! (hide spoiler)]

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Date changed. Restarting Nov 15th 2020. Happy Reading ☺

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Hi, do you mind if I join in on the buddy read as well?

Devika wrote: "Hi, do you mind if I join in on the buddy read as well?"

The more the better. I'm glad you can join us :)

Is it ok if I joined

Natalie wrote: "Is it ok if I joined"

Of course, Natalie :)

Gonna start on this one now!!

Ch 9: (view spoiler)[ch 9: eh, i'm not really into Rachel's outburst and anger at Louis and Jud for letting their daughter Ellie go near the pet cemetary, and how she doesn't want to let her daughter go back near that cemetary again. it just seemed really over the top? and also i happen to agree strongly with Louis's decision not to lie to his daughter about the imminence and certainty of death, and Rachel seems like the opposite of that, like she's more keen on shielding her children from these things because it upsets them, but imo these are things that they need to confront and deal with anyway in life. that was some crazy fight between Louis and Rachel about death. and about how Rachel kept insisting there was "nothing natural about death"... i disagree with her point but i'm also thinking that she has some unresolved issues with death, probably due to the death of her... sister, i think? (hide spoiler)]

Ch 10: (view spoiler)[i like this reflection on how Jud and Norma grew up in a time (1920s) when death was just a part of life, cos they didn't have a lot of medical technology, so you just saw it all around you. like how for most of human history, dead people just remained lying on the bed that they died on until they were carried off to be buried. and people would gather around that to see the dead body, kiss them goodbye etc. and this was way before embalming became common too. ppl were very familiar with how humans looked like after they died, the changes that happened and all that. but now we all die in hospital beds, and are immediately shuttered off into a coffin that's usually closed so that the living don't have to go too near to the dead, and embalming so that we don't look too non-human for living. eh. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 17: (view spoiler)[The whole thing with Victor Pascow was brutal and that nightmare...? was just wow, hair-raising. It's not the sort of nightmare-inducing kind of terror, but just... the kind that makes you shiver. I'm really enjoying this book so far. It's got the right mix of reflective stuff that makes you think about difficult human topics like death and the way we deal with it, but also the thrilling sequences that make you shiver in your seat (like I did). (hide spoiler)]

Ch 43: (view spoiler)[The past few chapters have been SO SO SO difficult to read, but it was also so good. The horror is not in anything jump-scarey or exactly supernatural, like the way Pascow had visited Louis in his dream (or non-dream?) - but in the horror of actual trauma that's described in raw, brutal clarity. Oh my god. I was on the verge of tears for the past few chapters and I had to put the book down a little while when Louis had his fight with his father in law and knocked over Gage's coffin. Cries... And now I'm screaming NO NO NO NO NO at the book when Louis is putting his plan into motion in resurrecting Gage. JUST NO. I feel like Ellie's prophetic dream with Louis dying in a burning house might really come to pass... that he might end up like Billy Baterman. (hide spoiler)]

It's been over two hours since I finished this book (after a certain point, I just had to binge it because I needed to know things) and I'm still reeling from it.

Wow. Just wow. This was one of the most uncomfortable reads I've had in a very, very, VERY long time but it was also so, so good. Stephen King just made me feel so many things throughout the course of this book and it never felt cheap or meaningless or gimmicky.

My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Am sorry i have not started this yet will start it on Friday

I'm so sorry for delaying starting this book again. I've been ill this week and haven't managed to get any reading done. I'm hoping to start this in the next few days now I'm starting to feel a little better.

First quarter (up to chapter twenty) - (view spoiler)[I was immediately immersed inside this story. I also loved that the family's cat was called Winston Churchill. I am reading King in publication order and so Cujo was my last read. King litters his books with little references to his other ones and I get such a strange set of pleasure from spotting them. A rabies-infected dog (Cujo) was mentioned in chapter four!

Nothing sinister transpired until chapter seven and even then it was only a feeling. Things got dark pretty after it, though! Even the concept of a pet sematary was grim to me and the family's journey there made me shiver, even before anything actually supernatural occurred.

I wondered why it was spelt 'sematary' and not 'cemetary' and thought this was an interesting find from Google:

"King's spelling of cemetery as sematary is intentional—it is a use of realism, which is the practice in writing to accurately represent real life." (hide spoiler)]

Mandy wrote: "Ch 9: [spoilers removed]

Ch 10: [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I completely agree with you. I think teaching children about death helps to prevent some of the trauma about loosing someone. It was interesting to see two parents with such differing opinions concerning it. I'd rather see death normalised for Ellie as she seemed understandably upset by the thought of her cat dying. It was inevitably going to happen at some point. (hide spoiler)]