It is later explained that Rachel was traumatized by the early death of her sister, Zelda, from spinal meningitis - as her sister grew more deformed and mentally unstable from the disease, she began to lash out at her family, eventually dying in the back bedroom of their home. A heated argument erupts between Louis and Rachel the next day: Rachel disapproves of discussing death and she worries about how Ellie may be affected by what she saw at the cemetery. A well-tended path leads to a pet cemetery (the sign above it is misspelled 'Pet Sematary') where the children of the town bury their deceased animals, most of them pet dogs and cats killed by the trucks on the road. A few weeks after the Creeds move in, Jud takes the family on a walk in the woods behind their home. Since Louis's father died when he was three, his relationship with Jud takes on a father-son dimension. Their neighbor, an elderly man named Jud Crandall, warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house it is used by semi-trucks that come mostly from a nearby chemical plant that often pass by at high speeds. Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago, moves to Ludlow, Maine with his family: wife Rachel their two young children, Eileen ('Ellie') and Gage and Ellie's cat, Winston Church.

The book was released by Doubleday on 14 November 1983. Pet Sematary is the 17th book published by Stephen King it was his 14th novel, and the tenth novel under his own name. For the film see, Pet Sematary (film) or Pet Sematary (2019 film)

Pet Sematary by Stephen King