Our cat's name is Dave. When I went to sleep after the first day reading Pet Sematary, Dave wanted under the covers on my side of the bed instead of in the middle or on my wife's side. This was a first.

Dave likes to push his face up under books, scratching himself on the edges, hoping he'll get his head scratched. He was much more forceful while I read this book. When I watched the movie, he seemed agitated, disturbed. Dave's odd behavior while I read ths book struck me as interesting.

Just one of those weird things that sometimes happen.

There's plenty of interesting stuff in the book. The relationship Louis Creed develops with Jud Crandall versus the relationship Louis has with his father-in-law could fill an entire paper.

One could also fill a paper discussing King's literary relationship with God and how it is revealed through the characters. (I won't get more into that, because I'm thinking of developing that idea into my own scholarly paper, encompassing more of King's work than just Pet Sematary.)

I think what stands out to me right now is King's use of horror conventions and making them his own. Ancient Indian burial ground? Check. Demonic child? Check? Creepy woods? Ghosts? Traumatic childhood memories? Check, check, check. Don't forget grave digging and returns from the dead.

And what of the real monster in the book? The one we sort of see toward the end, but s never really clear? The Wendigo, whose touch turns men into cannibals... That sounds like a whole different story to me. Maybe it was. Perhaps King had a Wendigo story and it was absorbed into the story of the Creed family and the tragedy that befalls them. It is a tragedy and King could have developed it in a number of ways.

I like Pet Sematary quite a lot. But I'm glad I'm done with it. So's Dave.

I put away 374 pages for this book. Running total is now 6,108. Up next Cycle of the Werewolf.