Watch out for the road. When the Creeds move to their new home on the outskirts of the town of Ludlow they’re warned of the dangers of letting their pet cat or two children near the road which runs between them and their nearest neighbour. A road that’s regularly used by huge transport lorries. But, the real danger might be lurking in the woods behind their property. The woods behind the local pet cemetery. 

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve already re-read this book since becoming a parent, but somehow it’s only on this re-read that I’ve been struck by how hard it goes on the deaths of the children and young people mentioned here. I may well have been influenced this time by the author’s foreword which talks about it being his own choice for scariest book he has written because it deals with a parent’s greatest fear, the death of a child. It certainly doesn’t allow any room to hide from that. 

 

While there are many moments of light. The main character Louis Creed finding a father figure in his elderly neighbour Jud is a key one. It’s very much a book about death. Louis’s wife has a deeply ingrained phobia of death from a traumatic childhood experience stemming from her sister’s terminal illness. Louis as a doctor is much more pragmatic and believes it’s important to realise that death can be a blessing, particularly for the very old or the very ill or injured. And the key message of the book is definitely that there are things worse than death. 

 

It is a very dark tale. Possibly one of King’s darkest, although there is lots of competition for that title and I may rediscover a darker one on this re-read through his back catalogue. But, it’s not a story to be approached lightly.