Pet Sematary: An iconic chiller from the No. 1 bestseller

Pet Sematary by Stephen King: Still Properly Grim at 99p

Why a story about a cat and a graveyard still lands

The setup is almost disarmingly ordinary. A young family moves to rural Maine, the road outside is lethally busy with lorries, and there's an old pet cemetery in the woods behind the house that the local kids have kept going for generations. That's it. No haunted castle, no ancient curse announced in the first chapter. King lets the dread creep in through the mundane, and that's precisely why it works.

The central idea is a question rather than a monster: what would you do if you could undo a death? Most horror asks you to fear something outside yourself. This asks you to fear what you might be capable of when grief gets hold of you. I'd say that's why it's outlasted so many of its contemporaries.

The pacing is slow, and it's meant to be

If you're used to modern thrillers that start with a body in chapter one, the opening stretch might feel leisurely. King spends real time on the family, their routines, their small worries. I think that patience pays off enormously, because by the time things turn, you care about these people and the damage lands properly. Readers who bounce off King usually cite exactly this, and it's a fair complaint. It's a slow burn, and if you want relentless action you may find the first third a bit of a wade.

It's bleak, and doesn't apologise for it

Worth flagging clearly: this is not a cosy spooky read. It deals directly with the death of a child, grief, and the kind of decisions people make when they're not thinking straight. King himself has said, in various interviews over the years, that it frightened him enough to put the manuscript in a drawer for a while. Whether or not you take that as marketing, you can feel it in the writing. There's a bleakness here that doesn't let up for a tidy ending, and I'd argue that's a feature, not a flaw, but it will not suit everyone.

If you're going through a bereavement yourself, or you're particularly sensitive to stories involving harm to children, I'd give it a miss for now. That isn't me being precious. It's a book that pushes on a bruise, deliberately.

The price makes it a no-risk punt

At £0.99, the maths is simple. You're paying less than a bag of crisps for a book that's been in print for over four decades and has been adapted for the screen more than once. Even if you end up finding it too slow or too grim, you've lost next to nothing. I can't tell you the exact edition or format from the listing details, so it's worth checking the product page before you buy, particularly if you want a specific version. But as a gamble goes, this is about as safe as they come.

The Amazon rating isn't available in the data I have, so I won't pretend to quote one. But the book's reputation is hard to ignore. It turns up constantly on lists of the best horror novels ever written, and it has done for years.

Where it creaks a little

It's not flawless. Some of the dialogue has a slightly dated feel, and a couple of the supporting characters exist mainly to deliver exposition. King also leans on a particular kind of folksy Maine voice that can tip into caricature. None of it ruins the book, but if you're a stickler for polished prose, you'll notice. The sheer momentum of the final act carries you past most of it, though.

Should you read it before or after the films?

Before, in my view. The book's power comes from its slow reveal of what's actually going on in those woods, and the adaptations, whatever their merits, can't replicate the interior dread of King's narration. Go in fresh if you can. Then watch whichever film takes your fancy and see how they compare.