Audio Review
Renowned for its superior productions, BBC radio may have outdone itself by adapting Stephen King's Pet Sematary to audio. A clamorous cacophony of talking, whining, whistling, and howling, Pet Sematary is a quick, entertaining earful for those who don't have other auditory distractions to contend with, such as a car full of talking whining, whistling, howling children. However, the melodramatic prose marries well with the acting; such is the case when one reader--whose voice bears an uncanny resemblance to Kramer's from Seinfeld--tells another about the effects of the Pet Sematary: "Heroin makes junkies feel good when they put it in their arms, but all the time it's poisoning their mind and body--this place can be like that and don't you ever forget it!" (Running time: three hours, two cassettes)


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From Library Journal
In this BBC dramatization of King's (Wizard and Glass, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/98) 1983 best seller, Dr. Louis Creed moves his ideal family from congested, urban Chicago to the rural simplicity of Ludlow, ME. His property sits near a long-established pet burial ground and a mysterious Indian burial ground from which the dead can be raised. The program effectively draws us into the characters' world: marriage and family, then shock, grief and madness as we explore the nature and mystery of death. Presenting a multivoiced dramatization rather than a reading of the novel, the actors work together, with added music and sound effects, to create King's macabre world. Recommended.?Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
This BBC dramatization of Stephen King's novel is an update of W. W. Jacobs's far superior short story "The Monkey's Paw." In rural Maine, new residents discover a hidden Indian cemetery where buried pets return zombie-like from the dead. When the family's young son dies, the grief-stricken father decides to use the cemetery's magical properties to get his son back. The adaptation is faithful, production values full and meticulous, the suspenseful direction excellent. However, the aural mis-en-scene is hackneyed and the acting merely adequate; the colorless lead voices are whiny and unsympathetic. Y.R. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
Pittsburgh Press Unrelenting, convincing...awesome power...his best yet!


Book Description
"Sometimes dead is better...." When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son -- and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly cat. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth -- more terrifying than death itself...and hideously more powerful.


About the Author
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Bag of Bones, the screenplay Storm of the Century, and The Green Mile. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

First published in 1983, Pet Sematary has since been regarded as one of Stephen King's most frightening and controversial novels. Daring to cross the boundaries of conventional fiction, King has woven a tale so fundamentally startling that he himself was hesitant for it to see the light of day upon its completion. A multilayered examination into the nature of untimely death, shattering loss, and utter desperation, Pet Sematary tears asunder the very fabric connecting our seemingly normal world and the afterlife...leaving readers with an awful truth too haunting to forget.

FROM THE CRITICS

Annie Gottlieb - New York Times

Like most of Mr. King novels, Pet Sematary loses credibility toward the end, as it gains in gore. . . Nor is Pet Sematary his best book as a piece of writing. . . . Reader, beware. This is a book for those who like to take their scare straight -- with a chaser of despair.

Library Journal

In this BBC dramatization of King's (Wizard and Glass, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/98) 1983 best seller, Dr. Louis Creed moves his ideal family from congested, urban Chicago to the rural simplicity of Ludlow, ME. His property sits near a long-established pet burial ground and a mysterious Indian burial ground from which the dead can be raised. The program effectively draws us into the characters' world: marriage and family, then shock, grief and madness as we explore the nature and mystery of death. Presenting a multivoiced dramatization rather than a reading of the novel, the actors work together, with added music and sound effects, to create King's macabre world. Recommended.--Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA

Pittsburgh Press