Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Publication Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Hardback
Pages: 405
In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs Jacobs; the women and girls – including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister – feel the same about Reverend Jacobs. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.
Then tragedy strikes the Jacobs family; the preacher curses God, mocking all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. In his mid-thirties, he is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate, he sees Jacobs again – a showman on stage, creating dazzling ‘portraits in lightning’ – and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings. Because for every cure there is a price…
This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
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Revival follows the life of Jamie Morton. It starts when he was still a 6 years old boy, playing with his toy soldiers. That was when he first met Reverend Jacobs, a new minister in Jamie’s local church. Reverend Jacobs had a beautiful wife and a young boy. He also had strong fascination with electricity which he often incorporated in his sermon/ Sunday school lessons. Reverend Jacob had a way around electricity that it could help him build a weird gadget to heal Jamie’s brother after he almost lost his voice. Then one day, a tragedy happened to Reverend Jacobs’ family. Grieving and angry at God for the tragedy, he stopped believing and banished from the town. The story doesn’t stop there. It actually spans over decades of Jamie Morton’s life. His life and Reverend Jacobs’ keep on crossing path that he learns what Reverend Jacob’s been up to with his obsession over electricity.
Honestly, I was skeptical when I started this book. I know Revival is not the longest book that King’s ever written. Still, the summary didn’t intrigue me much. To me it sounds like a 500 pages biography of a musician. There’s no big mystery being hinted there, only a promise that the ending will be dark and shocking. As it turns out, I enjoyed reading this book. In my opinion, Stephen King is a good storyteller. He manages to tell one’s life journey and it wouldn’t feel dragged at all. The pacing is perfect, not too slow or too fast. When the story almost bore me, the next page would pick up the pace and got me wondering what would happen next.
Apart from King’s talent in storytelling, what I love about his writing is his books rarely just a horror story. Although I haven’t read many of his books, the ones I read offer more than scary stories about monsters or the supernatural. It’s the same with Revival. This book is about faith and mortality with a supernatural twist. This book (or rather more specific, Reverend Jacobs) questions what happened after we die. This book tests the characters’ faith. The events in this book make the characters question whether God exists or not.
Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid for so-pardon the pun-so religiously, you discover the company that took your money does not, in fact, exist.
I don’t think those who loves gore and hardcore horror will like this book. The horror in this book is not in-your-face type of horror. It’s slow burn and will fill you with dread. Right when you think you’re safe suddenly the atmosphere turns and it’s unsettling. Though the promised shocking ending might feel mild to some, what scares me more is the idea presented. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book. It’s one of the favorite books I read this year. If you want to read horror but too afraid to start one, I recommend Revival for you. Don’t let the page count intimidates you, please just try jumping right in and let me know what you think of it.
‘What’s tough? Life. What’s Life? A magazine. How much does it cost? Fifteen cents. I only got a dime. That’s tough. What’s tough? Life.’ Around and around it went.
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