Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Two Stars for the King. In October, no less. For a vampire book. I anxiously await comments such as these . . . . .

n  n

The story here is about a man named Ben who lived in a place called Jerusalem’s Lot (located about 20 miles north of Portland) back when he was just a kid. An experience with a place known to the locals as the Marsten House has always stuck with Ben and now as an adult (and as an author), he returns thinking there might be a story there. What he could never expect is his return to the Lot coinciding with another new arrival in town which would eventually result in nearly the entire population becoming . . . . .

n  n

Sounds great, right? Yeah, well when I was a teenager I thought it was. I think I’ve officially learned my lesson as far as re-reading Uncle Stevie goes. I’m not so sure I would be a fan of a lot of these books now that I’m an adult. This one definitely missed the mark. I knew things weren’t going great almost immediately since the first 150 pages were dedicated to introducing a billion one-dimensional characters simply for the point of being able to recognize the future victims . . . . TWO HUNDRED PAGES LATER. (My recollection is I enjoyed this set-up in Needful Things, but I’ll be damned if I voluntarily wrongread that one again just to make sure!) And even when it looked like he might be picking up the pace . . . .

n  n

All the action was either fade-to-black or completely done off-page. Talk about a snoozefest. Boring vampires. That just shouldn’t happen.

This also didn’t stand the test of time well. It was soooooooooooooooooooo campy. And not in an intentional way like . . . . .

n  n

Like, at one point this was (even to me) considered to be primo writing. But now?????

n  “Ben?”

“Yes.”

“Make love to me? Do you want to?”

“Yes,” he said. “I want that.”

“Here on the grass,” she said.

“Yes.”

She was looking up at him, her eyes wide in the dark. She said, “Make it be good.”

“I’ll try.”n

So. Awkward.

I was going to go ahead and give this 3 Stars, but I read the version that contains all the pages that found their way to the cutting room floor rather than the book and that is where all the effing interesting stuff was apparently left so I’m giving this 2. Bottom line . . . .

n  n

Save your trolling. I’ll most likely just tell you to go F*&^ your own mother and then block your dumbass so you can’t come at me twice. For anyone else who may be skeered to post your honest opinions, here’s my advice to you . . . .

n  n

'Salem's Lot is my favorite Stephen King novel . Granted I haven't read every book he's put out . I read it the first time in the late 70's or early 80's . Ouch that was a long time ago . Overall I've reread it 4 or 5 times so it's a guilty pleasure of mine . I feel another reread coming on .

Actual rating is 4.5 stars.

This is one of Stephen King's earliest novels. In this one, an author returns home to a small town in Maine as he is trying to face his demons. Little does he know that he is going to face actual demons as a vampire (not the sparkly type) sets roots in this town at the same time.

I was urged to read this book by a Goodreads friend (Gianfranco) as he said this is a terrific book and he was surprised that I never read it. He was right and thank you Gianfranco for recommending it. This isn't just your basic monster book where it attacks everything in sight. This is a look into small town America and everyone being a neighbor but also at the same time hiding secrets behind closed doors. I have always thought King is at his best when he has a subtle message behind a story and this book is an example of him excelling at that. The highlight of this book is the atmosphere and pervasiveness of the dire situation that the townspeople find themselves in. It is palpable and pops out from the book that the reader can feel it. I also loved that this was a good old fashioned vampire novel that is influenced by Dracula.

The only reason that I could not give this a full five stars is that I could tell it was an early novel and the writing wasn't completely refined and honed. It did not affect my enjoyment of the story. But I believe if King wrote this novel today after years of honing his craft this would easily be a five star book.

I loved the easy-to-read style of this King novel, as opposed to some of his later works. It was self-contained and not of a larger, interdimensional scope. The characters were engaging and the story progressed in a way that you could figure from the start. A fun read for any fans of the genre!

October 2022 -
You know a book is great when it’s accidentally become an annual reread. I always love coming back to this one in October. I snuck in a reread of Carrie last month, and this is such a huge step forward for just King’s second book. I guess I have to reread The Shining soon and just keep rolling through early King books in order. This wasn’t part of the plan, but everything is eventual.



October 2021 - Spooky Season Reread.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.
It’s always nice to revisit old school Stephen King.
Like Ben Mears, it was great to come back to the Lot and see some old friends, make some new ones, check out the old Marsten House.
Until the second half of the book when playtime is over and all hell breaks loose.
My old review is below. Still a solid four stars for me.

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Hey.
I’m not a vampire fan, okay?
I mean, I am cool with scary books, and I read scary books, but vampires...
They’re just not really my thing.
If I had to power rank my favorite types of horror novels, and I can’t imagine a time where I would have to do that, except now, obviously...
Vampires would be near the bottom of the list.
Vampires would be one or two spots above werewolves.
Werewolves are stupid, and so are books about them.
Werewolves, give me a break.
Now, I am a Stephen King fan.
Not all the time, but his early stuff especially. This is his second book.
And in his second book Stephen King wrote a story about vampires.
Thank God he didn’t write a story about werewolves for his second book. If he did that, he would probably not even be a thing today. He would have probably had to stop being a writer and get a job doing something else. Selling insurance or Lyft or something.
Anyway, I’m not giving this story four stars because of the vampires.
I’m giving this book four stars because he managed to take something I’m not really crazy about, namely vampires, and built a pretty fantastic story.
He best parts of Salem’s Lot have very little to do with vampires anyway.
After writing Carrie, King added a lot more pages to his next book, and he really takes his time with this one.
There are whole chapters called The Lot, and they are about the town and the people in it, and those are some of the best chapters in the book.
King creates this amazing world set into a small town with characters who inhabit it and have meaning and importance. Even the minor characters get their moments to shine and breathe a little bit.
King spends pages just talking about the Lot and how it came to be, how it’s changed, what kind of people live there and why...
... and vampires.
The terror builds slowly. You know what’s happening. You know where the story is going. But in the end it goes there and then way, way past what you think, and...
... oh man.
I think in every King review I write I say this. I say something along the lines of King being a better writer than a horror writer. He’s at his best when he isn’t trying to scare you.
I always say that, and I still agree with myself.
However...
In this book he excels at both. He takes the time to build up the horror and suspense in the first half, and the second half really pays off.
Even with vampires.
Hopefully, you’ve read this before. If not, read it in October. Or now. Or whenever. Don’t read it even. You should read it, but not reading it is your choice. It’s not the right choice, but it’s yours. You get to make it.
However, and this is my last “however” and the last thing I’m going to write...
However... oops...
If you don’t read this, and you read a book about werewolves, and I can make an exception for Book 5 of the Dark Tower series. It has wolves in the title, so it’s fine. That’s the only exception.
If you do that, we can’t be friends. I’m sorry. We can be friends. It’s fine. We shouldn’t be, but let’s be friends anyway. Choices are great, aren’t they?
Good night guys.

When I first picked up this book at a used book store, I was surprised at how many pages it was. But then it was a Stephen King book, after all. As I began to read, many of those pages went by and the story seemed to be moving at a crawl. I was thinking this will be a three-star read at best. Just a redo of the classic "Dracula".
Then I began to fall under its spell. The pace picked up and the writing was amazing. Then I was in a trance seeing nothing but a five-star book ahead. Count Stephen had made me a believer.
A modern day Dracula story.

I hate vampires. I hate them and I hate books about them. I hate the way they're romanticized and sexualized and just generally presented in modern fiction. That's why I loved this book. King doesn't shy away from the fact that vampires are creatures of horror and he presents them as such. They are vile, violent, and everywhere, and that's the way I like them.

The characters pitted against them, particularly the priest, are compelling and almost too human to face the vampires. And, in the end, they don't actually triumph. They escape but that's about it. It's tragic and horrible and the perfect vampire book.

n  I now have a YouTube channel that I run with my brother, called 'The Brothers Gwynne'. Check it out - The Brothers Gwynnen

“Turn off your television - in fact why don’t you turn off all the lights except the one by your favourite chair? - and we’ll talk about vampires in the dim. I think I can make you believe in them, because while I was working on this book, I believed in them myself.”

Salem’s Lot is a genuinely scary read that kept me up at night after reading.

This is my first read of a Stephen King book. And I learnt why he is one of the bestselling authors of all time. I would argue that making a reader feel genuine fear is one of the hardest things to accomplish. Yet King does this with consistent ease.

“Talk did no good with bullies. Hurting was the only language that the bullies of the world seemed to understand, and he supposed that was why the world always had such a hard time getting along.”

One of the incredible parts of this story is how King does not only establish and build on his core characters, but he manages to form almost an entire town of people, with their own unique personalities that are subtly implemented in just a few sentences. This really brought the story to life and is the only book I have read that has succeeded in this.

The prose of Stephen King is wonderfully accessible to all. It is smooth, inviting and subtly yet effectively relays all the information and tension that King desired. The natural progression of the hurting manages to form so much fear and tension in the reader. It is simply put, masterful.

“For the small children, bedtime is come. Time for the babies to be packed into their beds and cribs by parents who smile at their cries to be let up a little longer, to leave the light on. The indulgently open closet doors to show there is nothing in there.
And all around them, the bestiality of the night rises on tenebrous wings. The vampires time has come.”

As well as brilliantly forming a wide cast, the core group were brilliant. Susan, Ben, Matt, Mark (brilliant), Father Callahan and Jimmy. Together they were so great, with their interactions and dialogue so true to their characters. They each had their own flaws, and you loved them in their moments of strength and bravery.

The singular weakness I can think of this story his that while the ending was good, I personally did not think it was on par with the rest of this wonderfully told story.

Overall, Salem’s Lot has made certain that I will be reading plenty more of King, probably starting with his short story collection, Different Seasons, which has The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption within. This is not a story for the fainthearted. A brilliant story of vampires and the terrors of the night.

5/5 STARS

Full review now on BookNest...BookNest - 'Salem's Lot

“At three in the morning the blood runs slow and thick, and slumber is heavy. The soul either sleeps in blessed ignorance of such an hour or gazes about itself in utter despair. There is no middle ground.”

Once again, I am left speechless by King. I am without speech. I think that when a period of times passes by wherein you haven’t read much classic King, you kinda forget what he is capable of. Rereading The Shining and ‘Salem’s Lot these past two months has really reinforced for me why King is the goddamn Master.

No one writes a small town like King. The way he carefully crafts and builds a town and all its residents is incredible, and ‘Salem’s Lot is one of his best. To learn about and to become part of this small town, only to watch it disintegrate and fall victim to a dominant evil force, is one of the most addictive reading experiences! It’s a slow burner, but it really needs to be in order for King to gradually increase the dread and terror.

October is the optimal time to read ‘Salem’s Lot, as it means you’ll pretty much be reading it in real time. The descriptions of autumn are some of my favourite pieces of King’s writing. He just nails it. He honestly just nails this entire book in my opinion.

Prior to my reread I often thought of Ben and Susan in a negative light, like “oh Salem’s Lot is awesome, shame about some of the characters..” but this time around, I appreciate them more. Susan may be quite one-dimensional but I really admired the way she stood up to her mother at times. As for Ben, he isn’t the most exciting either, but he doesn’t shy away when the horrors unfold, he’s pretty badass.

And Mark Petrie!! Still one of my favourite King child characters. He goes through so much, some of his sections really bring me the feels. And shout-out to Father Callahan, as well! And Jimmy... and Matt... the whole crew basically!

I also had forgotten how chilling this book could be. Matt hearing someone upstairs... the childish giggle... the visitor at the window... the knives... I loved how spooked I felt at times!

Truly a favourite King of mine. 5 stars.

Reread October 2023. Just as brilliant.

The last time I read Salem's Lot was sometime in the 1980s, but some things haven't changed. Then, as now, amidst all the elements of horror it is the mother hitting her baby that upsets me the most. The other thing that has remained the same is that when the character of Straker speaks I still hear the voice of the late great actor James Mason who played him in the 1979 TV movie.
All these years on & Salem's Lot is still a great combination of small town life & brooding horror that Stephen King writes so well. It's a surprisingly long novel for a young author to produce, but unlike some of King's later work not a word is wasted.
Salem's Lot has alreday been filmed twice, so it's with a little trepedation that I wait to see what the new film version will be like when it is released in 2023.

My favorite vampire story ever. I first read this 20 years ago, and I can still quote lines from it.

"You have been ill-used, Mr Bryant."
"I will see you sleep like the dead, teacher."
"The boy makes ten of you, false priest."

Fuck twilight. Seriously.

بزرگترین ترسم اینه که یه کتاب ترسناک پیدا نکنم که واقعا منو بترسونه
ولی این بعد از خون و شرابِ ویچر، بهترین تجربه‌ی خون‌آشامیم حساب میشه (کتاب، فیلم و گیم) و بعد از شاینینگ بهترین کتابی بود که از کینگ میخوندم
اگه دنبال داستان خون آشامی درست حسابی می‌گردید که اونارو توی ابهت اصلی و وحشیگری مخوفشون به تصویر میکشن و از این داستان‌ها که چندتا جوون و نوجوونِ خون آشام، انسان، خفاش، گرگ و.. درگیر یه هذلولی عشقی می‌شن بیزارید، این کتاب رو حتماً پیشنهاد میدم
فراموش نکنید که داستانای کینگ ایده‌ی خارق‌العاده ندارن، ولی روایت و شخصیت‌پردازیشون معمولاً عالیه و اینم داستان پرشخصیتیه. اول‌هاش اذیت میکنه، با این حال کم کم که جلو برید، عادت میکنید و زود دستتون میاد کی به کیه

یکی دوتا مینی سریال هم از این کتاب ساخته شده که چیز زیاد به درد بخوری نبودن
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اسپویل ظاهر ارباب خون آشام‌ها
خیلی ناراحت شدم بارلو توی کتاب این شکلی نبود :))




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ترجمه‌اشم خوبه. فقط روی اسامی خاص کمی آزاردهنده میشد و وسط خوندن یهو سکته میزدی