Which book have you read more than any other?
*SPOILER ALERT: THIS POST REVEALS THE MAIN PREMISE OF STEPHEN KING’S PET SEMATARY.*
Horror fiction doesn’t usually lend itself well to repeated reading – not for me, anyway. However, I may well end up reading Pet Sematary again because I binge-read it (?) in two days, and we’re out in the wilderness with no bookshops around.
I brought this book to Scotland with me, and I am surprised at just how much it reminds me of Louis Catorze. Obviously Catorze was the first thought in my mind when I saw the evil-looking black cat on the front cover. However, the main character is called Louis, and his neighbour Jud once lived in a place in New Jersey called Bayonne.
On a non-Catorzian note, the biggest surprise of all was discovering that “sematary” is, in fact, NOT the way that Americans spell “cemetery”. The book title is deliberately misspelled to replicate a sign hand-painted by a child. I’m very glad to know this, because I have seen more online debates than you would believe about American versus British spelling, and I have been very tempted to wade in with, “Well, at least we don’t spell “cemetery” as “sematary”! Who DOES that?”
(Nobody, it seems. Well, apart from Stephen King and the fictional kid who painted that sign.)
Anyway, the story is about a patch of unholy ground in the town of Ludlow, where family pets are buried and miraculously come to life again. However, they don’t come back exactly as they were during life. There’s always something weird, a little off, whether that be a different way of walking or something decidedly worse.
Winston Churchill, aka Church, the main character’s cat, comes back from the dead having lost the ability to purr, but with a new-found love of hunting. Despite Louis and his neighbour being the only ones to know that the cat died and was reanimated, everyone can still feel that something is wrong with Church.
Suddenly it all makes sense. Someone buried their sweet little black cat and is waiting for them to come back. Meanwhile, somehow, the slightly-off zombie changeling found its way to us and, eleven years later, he’s still here.
At least we’re not having to deal with him at the moment. Our poor chat-sitteur, however, has reported that, in the mornings, he stands on her chest and screams. Oh dear.
For more Catorzian capers, please visit http://louiscatorze.com
louiscatorze.com 
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