Book Review: "Revival" by Stephen King

One of the world's most beloved storytellers, Stephen King is probably on the list of every reader's favourite authors somewhere in the top 20. When I say 'I love atmospheric writing' I mean the sort of stuff that Stephen King does. Like a horror version of a Dickensian text, Stephen King builds the feeling of dread so perfectly that it pretty much does the job of digging into your soul and frightening the daylights out of it. When I was in my early teens, I scared the hell out of myself by reading Salem's Lot. Since then, I've probably read more than 20 Stephen King novels and I can honestly say, I am yet to read one which is even remotely bad. Revival is yet another brilliant work. I cannot believe I am only reading this now.

The story starts with a child named Jamie Morton who befriends a minister named Charles Jacobs who is really quite oddly charismatic. He almost reminded me of the character played by Hamish Linklater on Midnight Mass. Oddly charming but there's definitely something off about it. Charles fascinates everyone with his weird tricks with electricity. He also delivers this very powerful 'terrible sermon' as his wife and child die in a car accident. He denounces god, he stops believing, he riles everyone up. Ultimately, he is banished and ostracised from the town and its people. Stephen King is really setting us up to see something horrifying. The minister has changed, his whole attitude has become darker and yet, he has retained the charm and charisma, so what exactly are we waiting to see I wonder?

We are thrown forward into the future when poor Jamie is a struggling addict and Charles is a carnival performer. Charles manages to use his weird 'secret' electricity to cure Jamie's addiction problems but, with it comes some off side effects which include sleepwalking and hallucinations. I'm not going to lie, the addition of something that is so clearly inspired by one of my favourite movies: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It definitely made me smile and, if Stephen King is ever planning to write a remake of the movie, I will be very happy. I would however, be concerned about who would possibly play Cesare.

But that's not all. Once Jamie starts investigating how this is possible, he starts to uncover things that are terrifying beyond all words. First, there are thousands of people who have been 'cured' and yet live on the brink of madness. Then, there's the fact that the former minister has apparently returned to faith with his 'gift' of healing. And finally, there is a nightmarish vision of what awaits everyone in the afterlife, expelling all possibility of heaven and is something far worse than any hell that we could imagine. Stephen King unleashes something that is just bleak beyond everything, not just frightening in its reality but conceptually horrifying too. Something that isn't just a scare for the moment, but something that damns us all in horrors beyond anything we could think of. I'm really not overselling this. I was terrified at the very nature of the 'realisation'.

Obviously, faith healing through this kind of 'electrical' kind leads you down the Frankenstein path very quickly and so, when Stephen King thanks Mary Shelley at the beginning - we definitely know why. The dead come alive in this haunting terror. I'm honestly saying that when you get to the 'part' I'm talking about, it is pure nightmare fuel. The ending doesn't even close anything really. It's bleak. It's an understanding that a character wishes they never had. It's a situation where you can only ask one question: is it better to know or not know? Is ignorance truly bliss?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it definitely got me into the Halloween spirit. At the time of writing this it is mid-Autumn and if I could recommend you to read a book that will definitely keep you up at night then it would be this one. I initially avoided this one because it didn't seem like my thing. But boy was I wrong! That was a wild ride.