Pet Sematary Reviews

‘Other books were scary; Pet Sematary was true horror.’

1. Guardian

Which of Stephen King’s books is the scariest? It is a question that has been fiercely debated for years, but few could disagree that Pet Sematary is one of the strongest contenders. King himself hid the book away when it was finished, finding it ‘so startling, and so gruesome’ that he was half afraid of it himself. Like Churchill the cat however, Pet Sematary was to get a second chance at life when King’s wife Tabitha convinced him it was too good not to find its way into the hands of readers. Uniquely terrifying and terrifically entertaining, Pet Sematary disinters the darkest of taboos. What if you could bring someone back from the dead? And what if it cost their soul – or yours? For the 40th anniversary of a horror masterpiece, artist Edward Kinsella has provided 11 illustrations filled with dread and an eerie endpaper design featuring a spiral of epitaphs taken from the Pet Sematary itself. The binding design is blocked with an image of Church the cat looming out of the dark, and in an appropriate final touch, chapter headings are set in ‘Kingthings Trypewriter’, the same font that made an appearance in Folio’s bestselling edition of The Shining.  Winner of the Gold Cube Award from The Art Directors Club of New York. Also winner of the Gold Award from the 3x3 International Illustration Awards 2023.