This is hands down the scariest book I’ve ever read … with a haunted house and vampires at their deadliest … no friendly vampiric teenagers here … these vampires kill their earthly relatives and friends … seduce almost, with their promise of a life stealing kiss ..

This story is told through multiple points of view … there’s Ben Mears, a successful novelist who is returning to ‘Salem’s Lot to write a novel that hopefully will exorcise his personal demons … there’s Matt Burke, an English teacher at the local high school … Susan Norton, a strong-willed, independent woman and Ben’s love interest … Mark Petrie, a new kid in town with the intelligence and street smarts to overturn the school bully …. And many others … sometimes it got kind of hard to remember some of the names of the characters (like there’s a Mark, Matt, and Mike that confused me in the beginning) but King portrays the characters with so many fascinating flaws and quirks that this issue becomes unimportant the further you get into the story …

Then there are the mysterious Kurt Barlow and Mr. Straker, antique dealers who just bought the haunted Marsten House on the hill and plan to open an antique store in town … the number of deaths grow exponentially after their arrival … however, the corpses disappear from the cemetery and mortuary, and Matt, Ben, and Susan must convince the town the corpses are actually undead vampires …

And God, are these vampires terrifying! They can float and fly … their eyes can hypnotize victims … their lust for blood is insatiable … and they hunt their parents, their children, their friends … i usually read before bedtime - not a good idea with this book! … because every little scratch in the window creeped me the eff out as I imagined a vampire floating in fog outside my window, waiting, beckoning…

But perhaps the most memorable character and the most tragic victim in this book is ‘Salem’s Lot itself … King describes in the beginning how it has become a ghost town, how so many of the residents simply disappeared … but once Ben arrives in town, which is two years before the initial description of the town, King populated the town with his signature quirky characters and the town lives and breathes with both comical and tragic moments, as the vampires literally suck the life out of the town … I not only missed the characters that were killed, but I missed the idea of a small town where windows and doors were never locked, where neighbors gossiped about each other but also cared about their well-being …

***There is a trigger alert in this book, however … there are horrific descriptions of child abuse, so graphic that it brought tears to my eyes … ***

For a wicked scare, I would highly recommend this book!

Horror is a hard genre to write. A novel of that genre doesn't have the striking imagery of horror comics, or the endless toolbox of tricks a horror film can pull on its viewers to get their heart rate up. And yet, Stephen King knows something a lot of other authors don't, because his books never fail to make me feel uneasy. With 'Salem's Lot he takes his inspiration from Bram Stoker's vampire classic, Dracula, and manages to make his take on a vampire tale feel fresh and contemporary without sacrificing the eeriness or darkness of the familiar story.

King's writing style fits the setting particularly well. As someone who has criticized his obsession with details before, I have to say that I loved every word of this novel, which also feels very Gothic. The atmosphere he creates, and the autumnal setting play into the mood here, and every little detail helps create a unique reading experience. Anyone who is at least somewhat familiar with Stephen King's work already knows he is a master of character development (which is brilliant here as well), but there is a special character in 'Salem's Lot that comes to life through the pages: it's the town. Whatever the author is talking about, whatever the characters are experiencing—the town is always there, like some mysterious, bewitching entity that I just couldn't get enough of.

n  "Being in the town is prosaic, sensuous, alcoholic. And in the dark, the town is yours and you are the town’s and together you sleep like the dead, like the very stones in your north field. There is no life here but the slow death of days, and so when the evil falls on the town, its coming seems almost preordained, sweet and morphic. It is almost as though the town knows the evil was coming and the shape it would take."n

And then there are the vampires—dark, ruthless, and dangerous. Not the kind of glamorous, romantic, brooding vampires who are so often found in film, TV series, and young adult literature these days. King is not here to feed your romantic fantasies—he's here to fuel your nightmares. And yes, I did dream of the Marsten House a few times while reading this (which isn't an effect an lot of books have on me), and it was an unsettling experience, to say the least.

So, let's summarize: a small New England town, an old mansion, compelling characters, and vampires, all wrapped in an addictively eerie atmosphere, crafted masterfully by Stephen King. Can there be a more perfect novel to read during autumn? 'Salem's Lot is the way vampire novels should be.

n  “The town knew about darkness. It knew about the darkness that comes on the land when rotation hides the land from the sun, and about the darkness of the human soul.”n

This was my fifth or sixth read of this novel, a novel that comfortable sits as my third or fourth favourite Stephen King read. I think that’s because within Salem’s Lot horrifying, gruesome pages is some of King’s most beautiful writing. The entire thing can be read and reread again to simply enjoy his words, especially when King is describing the changing seasons he takes on a Ray Bradbury-like quality.

With the success of Carrie King had the opportunity to show readers the full of extent of what he was capable of as a writer. Carrie is set in a fictional town of Chamberlain and while we learn a little about the town and it’s people it is nothing much in comparison with the in-depth experience of reading Salem’s Lot. Stephen King really creates an entire community in this book, utilising his skills as short story writer to flesh out that community by providing tiny stories about several of its inhabitants.

We get the story of a aged, crabby milkman, the man in charge of the town dump, a woman who runs the local boarding house, the town drunk or a couple having an affair to name a few. The thing is all these characters feature in the story in some significant way to show the horror as it progresses to take over the town. I found I enjoyed every moment spent in these characters lives, especially those of Eve and Weasel, an elderly on and off again couple.

The horror in this book comes in the form of Barlow and Straker, outsiders that move into Salem’s Lot’s most notorious residence the Marston House. Barlow is a vampire and Straker is his familiar. As they arrive so does the novels protagonist Ben Mears, a writer whose never had a home but for the few years he spent in this town as a boy. Ben gets a lot of criticism as a character for being too noble and thus boring but I never found that with him. I enjoyed every moment spent in his practical head as he meets his love interest Susan Norton and the rest of the cast.

While this is Stephen King’s first time round at developing a lived in community so is it his first attempt at building an team of characters intent on stopping a villain. You can see in these pages how King would go on the create such lengthy books such as The Stand, which also features a huge cast of characters. Whoever those that feature in that book never feel as filled out or as enjoyable to read as those in this book. Matt Burke, a single elderly school teacher, stands out as the novels Van Helsing character and a personal favourite. Another is Jimmy Cody, the towns local saw bones, whose end is heart wrenching even after reading this book so many times. There’s also Father Callahan, who meets a fate worse than death, and Mark Petrie, probably the most resourceful of King’s child characters.

Barlow begins to infect the population of Salem’s Lot given the book a real sense of dread with each night that passes as the reader becomes aware that more people will have been converted into his soulless followers, especially in the books latter half. The vampires in this book are clearly inspired by those in Dracula. They’re abilities are more traditional than any modern incarnation yet unlike those that feature in Bram Stroker’s book were vampirism is a way for characters to fully unleash the pent up emotions and desires that were not allowed to as humans due to the social rules of the books time period such as young woman embracing their sexuality. The vampires in King’s book are a more perverse version. There is no liberation from social constraints once bitten. Instead King’s vampires are ruthless, soulless leeches. Combining this with King’s fantastic ability to create characters that the readers recognise and root for even if those characters are framed in the 1970s makes Salem’s Lot not just one of the best books in his catalogue but also the best book on vampires to ever be written.

FULL REVIEW UP
4 bloody and bite worthy stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

'Salem's Lot was a nice venture into the mind of Stephen King in regard to vampires! I’ve read so many vampire stories over the years that I went into this one hopeful and looking for something different.

Did I get a different type of vampire tale? Not really but I got something similar to the classic Dracula and I was all about that!

Stephen King really got the culture and characteristics of vampires down.
You can tell he liked Dracula because 'Salem's Lot has the feel of that classic.

✔️ The blood thirsty and vicious monster causing death and destruction wherever he goes.
✔️ The band of fighters coming together to try and destroy the monster.
✔️ The undead slowly taking over the whole town.
✔️ The feeling of dread for the last remaining characters who have not been changed.

It's all there and it worked well in this vampire vision by Stephen King. I loved the main characters of Ben Mears, Matt Burke and my personal favorite, Mark Petrie. I loved this kid!! What a little badass.
Side note: Read more books regarding Harry Houdini. hahaha!

Why didn’t this get a higher rating for me?
Well, I didn’t need ALL the information of the whole town and every living person living there. It was too much detail for me. If this had been cleaned up a bit, I feel the story would have been seamless from the introduction of Ben Mears, Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow to the tense ending with the undead.

Recommended to all Stephen King fans, vampire lovers and fans of horror!

Зашеметяваща, завладяваща, смразяваща, забележителна, изключителна, затрогваща и още и още неща могат да бъдат казани за тази книга и ще са все на място.

Невероятно силно останах впечатлен, невероятно много ми хареса всичко в „Сейлъм'с Лот“. Историята е поднесена крайно завладяващо и е наистина страховита на множество места – препоръчвам по възможност да се чете късно нощем, тогава въздействието й може да бъде усетено най-силно.

При все че това е втората книга на Стивън Кинг всичко в нея е изградено абсолютно перфектно – жива атмосфера, изпълнена с най-различни усещания, пълнокръвни и ярки персонажи, макар и темата за вампирите да е многократно предъвквана, то тук е поднесена с пълен успех смайващо увлекателно и стряскащо, а напрежението в сюжета успява да се задържи от първата до последната глава.

Харесвам страхотно много и комбинацията, на която Кинг залага и в тази книга <мъж + момче, събрани и свързани от събитията, настъпили около тях> (това го има и в „Институтът“ и е едно от нещата, които допринесоха, за да харесвам толкова силно онази книга, а и тази също).

Повече от отлично произведение.

"Estar en el pueblo es visceral, sensual, alcohólico. Y en la oscuridad, el pueblo es de uno y uno es del pueblo y el sueño de ambos es como el de los muertos, como el de las piedras. Aquí no hay otra vida que la lenta muerte de los días, de modo que cuando el mal se abate sobre el pueblo, su llegada parece casi preordenada, dulce e hipnótica. Es casi como si el pueblo supiera que el mal se aproxima, y qué forma tomará(...)
Al pueblo no le importa la obra del diablo más de lo que le importa la obra de Dios, ni la del hombre. Sabía de oscuridades. Y con la oscuridad le bastaba"


"Para los niños ha llegado el momento de acostarse. Es hora de que los bebés sean arropados en sus cunitas, mientras los padres sonríen ante las protestas con que piden que los dejen levantados un rato más, que les dejen la luz encendida. Bondadosamente, abren las puertas de los roperos para que vean que no hay nada escondido allí dentro.
En torno de todos ellos, la bestialidad de la noche alza el vuelo con sus alas tenebrosas. Ha llegado la hora de los vampiros"


Quiza no sea el libro mas original, pero Es evidente el amor y la clase con la que se le rinde tributo a la obra de Stoker, tambien a Shirley Jackson y a Matheson .
Creo que las mayores fortalezas del libro radican en la forma en la que esta estructurado.
Con personajes que cumplen y trasmiten lo que se pretende. Pero sobre todo la forma en la que el pueblo, con la casa Marsten como faro, actúan como entidad. y que a su vez son canalizadores de otras fuerzas, inclusive al margen de lo evidente(antagonista/s), siempre hay algo mas ejerciendo sus influencias.
La habilidad de King a su máxima expresión para amalgamar lo fantástico con lo costumbrista. Hacer sentir sus historias cercanas, reales(si cabe el adjetivo) dentro del contexto. En cierta forma nos hace sentir que esta pasando a la vuelta de la esquina, transitamos lugares "conocidos " y nos inmergimos gracias a su narrativa. Dando lugar a lo truculento y a lo poético
Esta cuestión de gente "común", que bastante tiene con cargar con sus propias miserias pero aun así, hay algo, quizá peor, que acecha desde las sombras. y en este caso, si uno cuenta con suerte, será suficientemente educado para pedir que lo dejes entrar.


Me encantaría ponerle los clavos al féretro y cerrar la reseña acá, pero tengo que decir que el tramo final es innecesariamente pedregoso en algunos aspectos y apresurado en otros, según mi parecer.


*Noté que están bastante presentes los resabios de la Guerra de Vietnam de manera explicita e implícita.
el libro se editó en 1975. Año en el que finalizaba dicha Guerra(llamada por los vietnamitas como:"Guerra de Resistencia contra Estados Unidos")

Vampires are my personal bogeyman



I remember seeing "Salem's Lot" the movie, with David Soul as Ben Mears, when I was fifteen years old, and I truly believed in the existence of vampires for at least a week after watching that movie. (...and maybe, I never stopped believing...)

Sometime in my early twenties, I picked up a copy of Salem's Lot and read it for the first time. So it's been a while, close to thirty years between reads.

Some people may say that this book begins as a slow burn, but I didn't find it that way. From the moment that a clearly haunted Ben Mears comes to the Lot and tells of his childhood encounter with a ghost, it was on for me.

Stephen King's vampires are truly horrific, easily characterised as demonically possessed, blood drinking ghosts with the power to mesmerise their victims - never, ever, look into their eyes.

Like some other stories by Stephen King that I have read, hell is other people, and the people of Salem's Lot provide a full panorama view of themselves falling prey to their own natures as much as they fall prey to the curse of vampires sweeping their town.

On a technical note, I was completely surprised by the authors use of a deus ex machina about half way through the novel. One of his main characters is in a right pickle, and Stephen King provides him with a genius level ability to solve the problem, without any foreshadowing that I could see. It blew me right out of immersion in the narrative.

If the overall narrative was not so damn good, this would drop the rating by a star, however, I can't bring myself to not give this book, which has impacted me on multiple levels anything less than five stars.

A recommended read for anyone who would enjoy a genuinely scary, spooky, creep you out and possibly give you nightmares story.

В завръщането към места от детството при всички положения има специфичен чар, а и понякога на човек само това му остава... След като неговата съпруга е загинала в тежка катастрофа, писателят Бен Миърс решава да се премести в Сейлъм'с Лот, където е прекарал 4 години като дете. В началото той мисли да наеме легендарния и страховит Марстънов дом, където да напише следващия си роман, но се оказва, че сградата има тайнствен нов собственик. Бен се настанява в единствения пансион в градчето, а скоро среща красивата Сюзън и се влюбва в нея. Атмосферата в Лот е завладяваща, но и доста мрачна... Повечето жители са затънали в ежедневните си предразсъдъци, интриги, домашно насилие и други социални трагедии...обаче, по едно време започват да изчезват хора и да се случват свръхестествени зловещи събития. Междувременно Бен се е запознавал и със страхотни личности, като учителят Мат Бърк, отец Дон Калахан �� други, заедно с които трябва да се борят със злото...

„Сейлъм'с Лот“ е много повече от класическа вампирска история! Тази ранна книга на Кинг несъмнено е повлияна от „Дракула“, но авторът е създал изключително силен роман, който не се ограничава само в хорър жанра.





„Но когато есента пристигне и безцеремонно изрита вятърничавото лято, както неизменно се случва някъде след средата на септември, тя се задържа край тебе като стар, отдавна несрещан приятел. Настанява се наоколо, както приятелят би седнал в любимото ти кресло, за да запали бавно лулата и да изпълни следобеда с разказ къде е бил и какво е правил, откакто не сте се виждали.“


„Но Калахан не беше нито млад свещеник, нито стар; озоваваше се в ролята на традиционалист, който вече не може да вярва дори в основата на първоучението. Искаше да поведе дивизия от армията на… на кого? На Бога, на доброто, на правдата, различни названия на едно и също нещо — в битката срещу ЗЛОТО. Искаше комюникета и военни колони, а не да зъзне пред супермаркетите и да раздава позиви за бойкот на салатата или стачка срещу гроздето. Искаше да види ЗЛОТО без измамните му одежди, с открито и пределно ясно лице. Искаше да се вкопчи в него гърди срещу гърди, като Мохамед Али против Джо Фрейзър, „Селтикс“ срещу „Никс“, Яков срещу ангела. Искаше схватката да е чиста, без да му се пречка политиката, която възсядаше всяко обществено движение като уродлив сиамски близнак.“


„Това са тайните на градчето и по-късно някои ще станат известни, други завинаги ще потънат в небитието. Градчето ги крие с безизразно лице като опитен картоиграч.
Не го интересуват ни Божиите, ни човешките, ни сатанинските дела. То познава мрака. И мракът му стига.“

My second time reading this; the first would have been as a teenager, although I can't recall exactly when. I liked it better this time around. I think as the years have gone by I have a generally better appreciation for various things King does in his books.

As a teen I was really just looking for a thrilling and scary story. As an adult, and someone who has read many of King's books and stories over the years, I now see connections and his attempts to let characters grow in a way I did not fully appreciate before.

In 'Salem's Lot, the main character returns to the place of his childhood, which holds not only good memories, but also the most terrifying traumatic experience of his life. There is an idea in his head that he can revisit the place of his trauma, and in facing it, somehow banish it forever.

Unfortunately things don't quite work out that way.

What unfolds is a vampire story as good as any. Vampire tales ebb and flow in popularity, but they never quite leave the cultural psyche. King reminds us of the horror in vampires, the violence and death, as opposed to the smooth sensuality that we so often see. The story delivers despair with only small amounts of hopefulness, hinged entirely on the strength of will of a few characters.

Overall, 'Salem's Lot remains an oldie but a goody, with much to recommend a visit, or a revisit if you haven't been for a few years or decades.

'Salem's Lot, Stephen King

'Salem's Lot is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. Ben Mears, a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, has returned after 25 years to try to write his next novel.

He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate with ambitions of leaving town. Ben has returned to "the Lot" to write a book about the long-abandoned Marsten House, where he had a bad experience as a child when he saw a hanging ghost.

He learns that the house (the former home of Depression-era hit-man Hubert "Hubie" Marsten) has been purchased by Kurt Barlow, ostensibly an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot to open an antique furniture store. Barlow is supposedly on an extended buying trip; only his business partner, Richard Straker, is seen in public.

The truth, however, is that Barlow is an ancient vampire and Straker is his human familiar. The duo's arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his 12-year-old brother, Danny, who becomes the town's first vampire turned by Barlow.

Barlow also turns town dump custodian Dud Rogers and telephone repairman Corey Bryant. Danny turns other locals into vampires, including the graveyard digger, Mike Ryerson; a newborn baby, Randy McDougall; a man named Jack Griffen; and Danny's mother, Marjorie. Danny fails to turn his classmate Mark Petrie, who resists him by holding a plastic cross in Danny's face. To fight the spread of the new vampires, Ben and Susan are joined by Matt and his doctor, Jimmy Cody, along with Mark and the local priest, Father Callahan. Susan is captured by Barlow, who turns her. She is eventually staked through the heart by Ben. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز هشتم ماه ۀوریل سال2020میلادی

عنوان: سیلمز (اورشلیم) لات؛ نویسنده: استیون (استفان) کینگ؛ مترجم سودابه تصاعدیان؛ ویراستار محسن نیکو؛ تهران، آذرباد، سال1399؛ در580ص؛ شابک9786227314076؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م

کتاب «سیلمز لات» رمانی ترسناک، از نویسنده ی «آمریکایی»، «استفان کینگ» است، که در سال1975میلادی نگاشته شده، این کتاب دومین رمان منتشر شده از «استیون (استفان) کینگ» است؛ در این داستان، نویسنده ای به نام «بن میرس (میرز)» به شهر «سیلمز لات»، جایی که از پنج سالگی تا نه سالگی در آنجا زندگی میکرده، باز میگردد، اما درمییابد که ساکنان آنجا، در حال بدل شدن به خون آشام هستند؛ «بن میرس (میرز)»، پس از بیست و پنج سال بازگشته، و میخواهد رمان دیگر خویش را بنگارد، او با دبیر دبیرستان «مت بورک» دوست، و یک دلدادگی عاشقانه ی پرشور را با «سوزان نورتون» در آستین خویش دارد، «سوزان نورتون» جوان دانش آموخته ی دانشگاه است و آرزو دارد «سیلمز لوت» را پشت سر اندازد، او میخواهد به «نیویورک» برود، «بن میرس (میرز)» برای نگاشتن کتابی درباره ی «خانه ی مارستن»، که مدتهاست متروک شده به شهر «سیلمز لات» بازگشته، جایی که در کودکانگی تجربه بدی را در آن خانه از سر بگذرانده، و در آنجا شبحی را دیده بود، «میرس (میرز)» درباره ی مالک کنونی و پیشین خانه پژوهش میکند، و چیزهایی درمییابد که ماجراهای دیگر را در پی دارد

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 15/06/1400هجری خورشیدی، 19/01/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Full review now posted!

If you’re looking for vampires with some bite, look no further.

There are few monsters as enduring as the vampire. For well over a thousand years, mankind has told itself stories of preternatural beings who look like us, and perhaps even used to be us, but who now live by draining the life from us. Sometimes, these are just campfire stories, meant to give us a chill and a thrill before we drown them out with reality. But other times, we can’t help but believe our own stories.

In the past few decades, vampires have taken a big hit in pop culture. Yes, they’re still popular, perhaps even more popular than they’ve ever been before, but they’ve lost some of their power. Vampires were once terrifying entities, wielding their seductive beauty as a cobra does, to hypnotize and ensnare their victims. But in recent years, we as a society have defanged vampires, so to speak. We have rendered them harmless by giving them consciences and glittery skin, and making them into a metaphor for fighting the temptations of the flesh.

That is not at all what you get when you visit ‘salem’s Lot.

This sleepy little community in Maine is Everytown, USA. There’s nothing really to do, and kids tend to leave as soon as humanly possible in search of a bigger life. This leaves the elderly, children, and people who weren’t able to escape and had to settle for keeping the town running. It’s a town that could fall off of the map with very few people ever noticing, and that’s exactly what happens. The building horror of what decimated the town, and how quickly and easily most of the townspeople gave into that destruction, is where King really shines.

In one corner, we have a terrifyingly magnetic mastermind of a vampire, his disturbing and well-spoken henchman, and the townspeople that quickly succumb to their new master’s advances. Some of these newly turned are children, which made them all the more disturbing. No one can write children quite like King, be they brave and compelling or terrifying enough to make a person decide against reproduction. Child and adult alike march to the beat set out for them by their new master, who is everything a vampire should be. He, and his newly turned children, are everything vampires should be; they’re beautiful, but their beauty is a disturbing and deadly. They are mankind’s reproduction of a Venus Fly Trap, using their unearthly beauty to entice their prey into their hungry, tooth-lined maws.

In the other corner, we have a motley crew of renegade townsfolk, rebelling against the force attacking their town and doing their best to save ‘salem’s Lot from utter annihilation. An author from out of town, the girl he hits it off with, an English teacher from a local high school, a doctor, a priest, and a child stand alone against an incomprehensible evil. Where the story goes from there is something you’ll have to read to find out.

There is one other central player in the story: the Marsten House. This house, the site of the town’s most disturbing history and allegedly haunted to boot, is what drew Ben, our writer, back to ‘salem’s Lot. It is a menacing presence hovering over the town, seemingly evil in spite of its inanimate state, which makes it the perfect abode for a monster. King did a great job of making the house itself super disturbing.

In recent years, I’ve grown to love reading horror novels during the month of October; they just get me excited for the changing seasons and cooler weather and Halloween. This book was just exactly what I was hoping it would be, atmospheric and scary in a purely intellectual way that didn’t hinder my sleep. King did a great job reclaiming vampires for the horror genre. Keep in mind that this book was originally published in 1975, long before we as a modern society decided that vampires should be lusted after instead of feared, but it was still refreshing to read a novel that gave the bloodsuckers back their throne of fear. If you’re in the mood for a good Halloween read, I heartily recommend this book. And if you’re just looking for a way to see vampires in all of their terrifying glory, I think you just found it.

This was a buddy read with my wonderful friend Caleb!

Original review can be found at Booknest.

I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The overall mood of the story is an eerie one. It was my first Stephen King attempt and I'll be reading others of his for sure. The storytelling, the imagery, and the overall sense of creepiness kept me locked in the story. The interest of the story had me breeze through this pretty quickly. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good horror story!