Relectura de lujo. Me ha gustado más que la primera vez que la leí.

Dice la sinopsis:
El escritor Ben Mears vuelve a Jerusalem’s Lot, el pueblo en el que pasó algunos de los mejores años de su infancia, para enfrentarse a los fantasmas de su pasado, que tienen que ver con la casa de los Marsten. Su propósito es escribir una nueva novela que le ayude a exorcizar los miedos infantiles, pero alguien más ha llegado al mismo tiempo a Salem’s Lot, un ser perverso y siniestro.

Mis impresiones

King publicó este libro en 1975. Fue el segundo que puso a la venta. Esta edición, Salem’s Lot, Ilustrated Edition, 2005, incluye el original publicado en 1975, dos relatos con el telón de fondo de Salem’s Lot, "Una para el camino" y "Jerusalem's Lot", así como varias ilustraciones en blanco y negro y las escenas que en su día fueron eliminadas por la editorial. Muy interesante la nota del autor, un imperdible.

¿Y si un vampiro, al estilo del conde Drácula, recalase no en la Inglaterra victoriana, sino en el siglo XX en un pueblecito de Maine? Esa es la idea que Tabitha King sembró en la mente de su marido. El resultado, este libro.

Muy bien escrito, está dividido en tres partes. En la primera, King se toma su tiempo para presentarnos el pueblo de Salem's Lot y a los personajes. Unos habitantes con vidas corrientes en un pueblo como tantos otros de la costa de Nueva Inglaterra, con su casa de huéspedes, su biblioteca, su inmobiliaria, su restaurante, etc. Por tener, tiene hasta la inevitable casa encantada, la casa de los Marsten, solo que en esta ocasión, lo que allí habita es algo verdaderamente siniestro.
A la par de esta puesta en contexto, los hechos comienzan a sucederse. A partir de ahí la trama se agiliza. En mi caso, un no parar de leer.

Si la ambientación es buena, no lo es menos la documentación. King suele decir, que emplea cuatro horas del día en leer, horas que son impresdindibles si lo que se pretende es escribir. En su caso, desde luego, se nota el bagaje cultural que tiene y pone en juego.

No es un libro de terror que aterre (y valga la redundancia), al lector. No da miedo, entendido este en el sentido estricto de la palabra. Sin embargo, la atmósfera que crea es opresiva, genera tensión y tiene escenas bastante duras.

Los personajes muy bien construidos, tanto los protagonistas como los secundarios. Ben y Mark, los más destacables. Matt, el doctor Cody y el padre Callahan, no les van a la zaga.

El final adecuado. Los finales no son lo que mejor se le da a King, pero este no desmerece. No es un final en blanco y negro, quizá por ello me haya convencido más.

En conclusión. Una novela de los inicios de King bien construida y desarrollada. La prosa, la trama y los personajes impecables. Ya uno de sus clásicos. Recomendable.

A slow build vampire story, which missed the mark for me!

Author Ben Mears returns to Salem's Lot, where he spent some of his childhood, to write his next book, but discovers something evil residing there.

This was my least favourite Stephen King novel so far. It was about vampires, so why was it so boring and uninteresting?! At least they didn't sparkle though...

'Salem's Lot did have a few interesting characters, I liked Matt Burke and Mark Petrie, and Ben Mears was okay, but there were way too many other characters! At the start I got them all mixed up, as they were all so one dimensional and flat, and there were just too many of them thrown at me, one after the other! When things started to happen to the town's people, I just didn't care! Call me cold hearted, but I just wasn't invested in their characters.

Barlow and Straker were scary, but they weren't in it enough! Barlow especially!

The pace.. what pace? This was slower than a snail! The introduction was far too long and dull, it was about 200 pages, or so it seemed! Urgh there was just so much unnecessary information, and the author regularly went off on little random tangents, which irritated me, like get to the story damnit!

I did like the Marsten house, that was scary, and well described! I also liked the part with the removal men, that gave me chills!
I feel that King did describe the small town accurately, and it was easy to imagine what it was like there. The few action scenes included were well done, I liked the part at the boarding house. I also liked the scene in Mark Petrie's bedroom, with his visitor at the window.

However, I struggled with this one. The narration was slow and dull, and I had to up the speed of the audio for the first time ever!

To sum up, if you cant scare or interest me with a freaking vampire story, then the book hasn't really done it's job has it? It pains me to rate this low, and everyone else seems to love it, but this book was just not for me

Stephen King's take on vampires. I didn't enjoy this book as much as CARRIE.

THE HEROES:
- An author. Of course. Self-insertion much? Notably the only character who has good sex in the novel. (I'm not complaining about the self-insertion... but I want you to know I notice what you're doing, Mr. King.) Ben Mears

- A priest. Irish-American. A drunk. Fed up with the suffering, abuse, rape, and hate he sees every day. When can he fight the Big Evil? Human evil is boring, apparently. This character elicited no small amount of anger from me. (See THE CHURCH) Father Callahan.

- A doctor. Jimmy Cody.

- A little boy, blessed by God with special powers to stand strong and face off against evil. Classic Stephen King. He's also surprisingly smart, confident, able to kick ass, unflinching, pragmatic, practical and quick-thinking. Mark Petrie.

- A mild-mannered bachelor English teacher. Smart and well-read, the Van Helsing of the group. Matt Burke.

THE HEROINE(?):
Perhaps, reader, you're asking, "Well, Carmen, where are the females?" There's only one female who could be put into the "heroine" group... or even the "main character" group, and that's Susan Norton. I have conflicted feelings about Susan and her actions.

Things I liked about Susan:
- She's a reader.

- She tells Ben what she needs and wants sexually.

- She stands up for Ben. Her mother hates Ben and wants her to date and marry some local boy. Susan, who still lives at home, really puts her foot down and tells her mother where to get off. She also makes plans to move out - even though she'll be struggling financially. A strong, powerful, human scene in which both Susan and Mrs. Norton act and are portrayed as human characters with both good and bad in them. Excellent writing on King's part. I think he does some amazing work on challenging mother-daughter relationships (e.g. Carrie).

Things I didn't like about Susan (and other people in relation to Susan...Ben, I'm looking at you....)
- Ben tells her at one point, "Eat your ice cream." AND SHE JUST DOES IT. Can't stand this sort of "submission to a guy I like" thing, especially and over all with food and drink. I know this fits in with the times (early 1970s) but if a man gave me orders ever in regards to what or when or where I was choosing to eat or NOT to eat, he would find himself in some very hot water. I know this statement by him was innocuous - with no malice on his part - kind of like when men tell me to "Smile, you'll look prettier!" But that also fills me with rage. Again, 1975, so I'm going to try and overlook this...just this once. (If it came from a villain or someone with any kind of evil characteristics, I wouldn't even mention this. It's only because Ben is the White Knight of the book that I feel it needs to be addressed.)

- Susan does something very stupid and (I feel) very out of character when she  decides to go hunt down the big, evil, ancient powerful vampire all by herself armed only with a broken fence slat.  Dumb, really dumb and out of character. But she's not the only one...

CHARACTERS DO STUPID THINGS FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO GIVE KING A WAY TO KILL THEM OFF:
-  Susan decides to go face Straker and Barlow by herself, armed with a flimsy piece of wood. People die as a result.

-  Father Callahan and Mark go to speak to Mark's parents without the others. People die as a result.

-  Ben stays and makes stakes while Jimmy and Mark check out the neighborhood. Right after Matt warned them not to split up. People die as a result.

-  When Jimmy figures out where Barlow is staying, instead of going back to tell the others and get them to go en masse, he decides to take Mark, age 12, and go take care of it himself with no other support or backup and WITHOUT telling anyone this crucial information. People die as a result.

I want to stress that these are rational, thinking, practical characters at all other times throughout the book. They just are overcome with a 'case of the dumb' every time King decides someone needs to die. It's very frustrating and very out-of-character. It goes like this: The group of heroes meets and discusses the situation intelligently, looking at it from all angles. Matt tells them not to split up. AS SOON AS they drive away from where Matt is staying, they decide to split up. Someone dies. They go to Matt's and tell him someone's dead. They discuss the situation intelligently and make smart plans. Matt warns them not to split up. They leave. They decide to split up. Someone dies... Wash rinse repeat. It's annoying. (This only happens in the last third of the book...the first 66% is more build-up and less fighting.)

THE CHURCH:
- This book is heavily Catholic. By the end, everyone who's still alive is wearing crucifixes and carrying holy water, whether they are Catholic or not. Even praying the Hail Mary or the Our Father appears to be an effective way to hurt vampires.

- The scenes where the heroes fight vampires using crosses, holy water, and prayer are AWESOME. Very well-written, very exciting. This is great writing by King. You can vividly see everything in your mind while reading. I especially enjoyed the glowing touch King gives holy objects. When calling on the power of the Lord, the cross you're holding or the holy water you've washed in starts to glow so brightly that you have to squint. This is a great visual touch that I think added a LOT to the book and to the final fight scenes. Wonderful idea by King and a powerful one.

- There is the pervasive idea that somehow the Church has become weaker because it now addresses issues that its parishioners deal with. I STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH THIS. The book is a callback to the ancient role of the Church as protector against things like vampires, witches, and demons. Modern problems (what King calls "evil with a lower case e") such as rape, child abuse, incest, suicide, and murder are seen as mundane. Father Callahan, the local priest is "bored" with the idea of facing and fighting this kind of evil. He longs for the day he can showdown "real" evil - and his wish is granted in the form of bloodsucking fiends who are working for Satan. This evil which garners so much scorn in this book IS real evil. And it's human evil. Since the Church is supposed to help humanity, I hardly think that it is "weakening" the Church to address these problems, or somehow getting off track with it's "real" purpose of fighting Satan, or something. BULLSHIT. I can see why King chose to include this tiny thread, after all, the Big Evil is what is the enemy in this particular time and place. But I don't appreciate the trivialization of human evil, and especially have rage towards any priest who thinks it's boring or a waste of his time.

VIEW OF SMALL TOWNS AS WRETCHED HIVES OF SCUM AND VILLAINY:
- Multiple times King describes small towns as festering cesspools with no redeeming values, which everyone should move away from at the earliest opportunity. I take umbrage at this idea. Good people live in small towns. Good people live in cities. Crimes happen in small towns. Crime happens in cities. Both small towns AND cities have their benefits and disadvantages, and I have NO idea what is going on with all the small-town hate King slathers on this novel like orange marmalade. I found it irrational and a bit disturbing.

- There's a whole chapter about how living in a small town, marrying your high school sweetheart, farming, and having kids is akin to death or slavery. This is very bleak and not at all true. I can see that this is not the path for EVERYBODY, but it's a perfectly valid way to live your life and certainly not the soul-destroying agony King thinks it is.

COWARD:
A certain character, who is smart and practical  Parkins, the Sheriff,  leaves town because he knows it's dead and he doesn't want to die. Ben promptly rips him a new one, calling him a coward and a gutless piece of shit. I completely disagreed with King here. Obviously the heroes are brave and stalwart by staying and vowing to fight the vampires and rid the town of evil, but I completely respect and sympathize for anyone smart enough to hightail it out of there. I felt like this was really judgmental and harsh. I admired the character AND his decision at the end to flee - it made a lot of sense to me and didn't make him any "less of a man" in my eyes.

GOOD AND EVIL:
Again, for people who haven't read King or think King writes about grimy cesspools without hope - that's not true (in this book). There are good men and women in this story. There is a powerful Evil and a lot of despair, death, blood, abuse etc. etc. but there is also good to combat it. I really like that King provides us with hope and also characters who are not disgusting (because, let's face it, the majority of the plethora of people in this book are awful people). Even though King writes here that Satan is a very real and powerful enemy, there's also the unwavering and unshakeable truth that God exists and that God is helping humans to fight Satan. Take that as you will.

VAMPIRE BITING AS SEX:
- Again, even in this "super-realistic, ugly, real" representation of vampires, I am still confronted with "and when he bit me it felt so good" and "when she bit me I had an erection" etc. etc. etc. That's okay - King does a good job with the rest of it, and I can see he was going more ancient legends meet Dracula with it, so I can forgive his (all in all, very slight) fetishizing of sucking blood. But I'd prefer for it to be absent, and for an author to do away with it for once.

SIDE CHARACTERS:
- There are so many side characters and tiny, tiny subplots or threads that occasionally I would have to flip backward in the book to figure out who the heck King was referencing. And then there were side characters and side plots that I really wanted more of, but King never ended up fleshing them out, and I was disappointed. It's a VERY busy book.

SLUT:
I am slightly concerned and bothered with the glimmer of "that-16-year-old-girl-is-a-slut-because-she-has-big-boobs-and-I-want-to-fuck-her" that runs through this novel. Ruthie (as far as I can see) never does anything to indicate she's sexually promiscuous, but men call her "slut" and hate her simply because she's gorgeous and they want to fuck her. Women hate her and call her "slut" because she's gorgeous and they know men want to fuck her. Unfair to Ruthie, who is a small, small, part of this book - we never see her thoughts or see any part of her world, we only look at her through other's eyes. I would throw a fit if I thought King was slut-shaming (or, more accurately , labeling-a-woman-who's-most-likely-a-virgin-as-a-slut) if I thought he, Stephen King, really believed that - but I don't. Instead, I think he's showing us how people judge others on appearances, and that's okay. So, it's fine - he gets a pass from me on this one. Although I think he could have addressed it and/or handled it better.

SPOILER:
The Staking of Susan. I found this a bit weird. Matt asks Ben if he's had sex with Susan. When Ben admits he has, Matt tells him that HE'S the one who has to stake Susan - no one else apparently - because he's taking the place of her husband. This didn't make ANY sense within the lore of the book - the rest of heroes stake vampires regardless of if they're related or not. I'm 99% sure anyone can stake any vampire for any reason with the same result. There was just this kind of creepy patriarchy vibe regarding Susan's corpse, though. And I have no idea why - the 'male relative must stake the vampire' thread is never mentioned again. Also, it really, really upset Ben to have to stake the woman he loved. Why couldn't one of the other men do it? WHY? Unnecessary. It felt like King was just trying to create drama without having any consistent lore to back it up.

...
Tl;dr - Even though King didn't write a perfect book here, he wrote a dang good one. He's an excellent author - there are chapters in here (maybe 6 or 7 out of more than 100) that I know I could read over and over again just to admire how they sparkle in the light.

Of the two King books I've read on GR so far, Carrie is better than 'Salem's Lot, in my opinion. I plan to rank all of them as I read them, so stay tuned!

One of my all-time favorite takes on vampires! Still spectacular after all of these years.

Stephen King captures a unique side of the darkness of humanity, where the vampire is the least of what is dark in the Lot.

It is impossible to tear away from the gripping tale of the community of Jerusalem's Lot.

King's take on horror remains timeless.

Still in my top five favorite King novels of all time.

5 Stars.

Reading Vlog: https://youtu.be/EHrhvU0DB80

This is his SECOND BOOK?!?!?! HOW IN GOD'S NAME?!??!

⭐️3.5

I read Carrie and gave it 5 stars. This only got a 3 because I had a perfectly fine time reading it. But after a week had passed and I looked back on it, nothing stood out in my memory. I can't think of anything to highlight or find disappointing. It is a good book. Just not great. And not nearly as memorable as I anticipated it being.

I don’t know what all I had to say about this book. Numerous people are losing their review. I just wanted to say UPDATE: $1.99 on kindle US today 6/17/21


The movie creeped me out as a kid!

Mel

Stephen King se toma su tiempo para presentarnos escenarios y personajes, nada nuevo en él. Hace años que había empezado esta novela en concreto, la segunda en ser publicada por King, y la había dejado aparcada.
Craso error.
No debía ser el momento porque me ha parecido desde el inicio una lectura aterradora por todo lo que se va intuyendo y nos va mostrando luego muy poco a poco. Tarda en hacer presencia todo el misterio que rodea a ese pueblo fantasma, Salem's Lot, pero créanme cuando les digo que vale muchísimo la pena ser pacientes.

Bean Mears, decide volver al pueblo donde vivió parte de su infancia con su tía para exorcizar viejos demonios que lo asolan desde que hizo una apuesta con su grupo de amigos. Solo había que entrar en la imponente casa de los Marsten que como si de un faro se tratara posa su mirada sobre el pueblo, y llevarse un objeto con él como prueba de su valentía, parece fácil, ¿no?.
Desde entonces, terribles pesadillas lo asolan cada noche y volver al pueblo no parece haber sido la mejor de las decisiones.
Allí conocerá a Susan y a otro buen puñado de habitantes que lo ayudarán en la búsqueda del mal que parece habitar la casa desde tiempos lejanos.
Conoceremos su pasado y su presente. Y es que parece ser un imán para el mal que extiende sus raíces sin parar como la mala hierba.

Seremos testigos de como progresivamente el pueblo se irá sumiendo en la más profunda oscuridad.
King nos va relatando como se va instaurando el caos en cada casa, cada familia. ¿Qué son esos chirridos que se oyen tras los cristales? ¿Dónde está la gente? Extrañas desapariciones y siniestros ruidos acechan al caer la noche.

I watched a Stephen King interview recently and he was talking about when he first fell in love with reading and he said if had to choose between love and books he would really have to sit and think about that choice and in all the SK books I have read so far his love of books and reading is always evident. There are always books, there are always references to books, there are always quotes from books and this alone is what I adore SK for. He is a fellow bookworm, or maybe book dragon is more appropriate for him.

The Haunting of Hill House, Frankenstein, Dracula, they all feature and I love how Dracula especially was incorporated into this book.

I went into Salems Lot completely blind so imagine how excited i was to meet vampires! I had no idea that SK had a vampire novel and without a doubt these guys are my favourite vamps so far!

Totally loved this, i connected with all these characters (and I'm overjoyed to now realise that some of these guys feature more of the SK multi-verse), I adored the way myth, legend, books and comics all ground together to create an amazing plot that totally freaked me out and I loved the whole small town syndrome, it felt very visual to me.

Awesome book, SK as always providing the best in both character development and plot lines for a read that I personally adored even if I will be sleeping with the lights on for the next week!

5 blood soaked stars.

Just a picturesque little town not far down the road from Portland, Maine by way of Route 12. With a big house on the hill, overlooking it's lot. Salem's Lot, oddly named after a pig named Jerusalem who'd escaped his pen and went wild, many, many years before. The name stuck, and so did the people. Until now. Suddenly a town deserted now. Ghost town is what people say. But, it happens from time-to-time. People up and leave a place without explanation. Places like that Momson, Vermont during the summer of '23 where 312 souls just blew away with the wind. That is a bit different from the little over 1300 of Salem's Lot though. Some have been found living elsewhere, like ol' Parkins Gillespie, the former constable no less. ”I just decided to leave”, he could be quoted as saying, and saying no more. Where are some of the other long-time standing residents though? Father Donald Callahan? Eva Miller? Or how about the guy who stayed a spell in Eva's boardinghouse that last summer? One Ben Mears.

Granted I'm not saying much about the plot here, or just how and why this little town lay deserted. Ixnay on the vampiresay! (a little not so secretive pig-latin there.) You can be a King fan or not. A horror fan or not, but still most everyone knows what this book is about. The old legends remain safe here in the story, but told in a believable yarn in which pretty much only Stephen King can do. He removes a few of the stale stereotypes, which is good, and adds in some character significance. The writing doesn't match that of The Stand or IT. That came later. But the scare-vibe is there, and the many intricacies that make reading one of his stories so good.

King's undeniable talent is on full display in Salem's lot if not his creativity and originality. based in a small 1970's new England town a setting King is very familiar with and filled with characters with different spectral aspects of himself. This allows his personal experiences to add convicting weight to his considerable descriptive powers. which culminates into a very immersive and believable world where vampires are real and taking over.

unfortunately 1970's New England is not nostalgic to me at all. And I did not like most of the character in the book. so that aspect missed the mark for this reader. Salem's Lot just came off as hopelessly dated. I remember one of my favorite shows in high school was THAT 70's SHOW and my dad hated it. telling me and my brother that the 70's were nothing like that to him. I know this is off topic. but I use it to defend King, (not that he needs defending from a butcher from Georgia) my father would agree with this interpretation of 1970 small town America and feel nostalgic. my not feeling it is not a knock on King but a warning to other Gen Xers and millennials alike.

as I said the characters are believable and all in all well developed some are cliché but I do think they serve their purpose. the vampire aspect is also well done with Barlow embodying the classic European vampire. to me he was scary. i will admit Barlow is cliché to modern readers. king delivers the chills no the less.

Salem's lot is a 4 star read except for one major flaw AND HERE IS THE SPOILER SO STOP IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT YET:  in the version I read he tells you in the beginning about a man and a boy who are not related trying to escape a traumatic experience. and than catalogs news paper articles about the town and you find out in a few cases who survived. this added a little intrigue but for the most part ruined the suspense because I figured out large portions of the ending>. to defend king (who again does not need defending) one last time Salem's lot may be Cliché but he succeeds in his second book his goal to make a 1970 Dracula in America. well done!

n  n
From the 1979 movie version of Salem’s Lot

”It would be years before I would hear Alfred Bester’s axiom ‘the book is the boss,’ but I didn’t need to; I learned it for myself writing the novel that eventually became Salem’s Lot. Of course, the writer can impose control; it’s just a really shitty idea. Writing controlled fiction is called ‘plotting.’ Buckling your seatbelt and letting the story take over, however...that is called ‘storytelling.’ Storytelling is as natural as breathing; plotting is the literary version of artificial respiration.”

This nugget of wisdom is shared by Stephen King in the introduction to the 2005 illustrated edition of Salem’s Lot. I have to say that I completely agree with this philosophy. I have talked to many would-be writers who are so bogged down in getting the outline of their story completely figured out that they never actually get to the writing part of the process. I like having a few concepts in my head before I start whacking away at that mesmerizing whiteness of the blank page, but if I have it all figured out,...then why write it? The fun part is discovering the nuances of the maze before I find the exit.

Stephen King grew up in a small town in New England, and it seems like he has been waging war on small towns every since. n  ”There’s little good in sedentary small towns. Mostly indifference spiced with an occasional vapid evil--or worse, a conscious one. I believe Thomas Wolfe wrote about seven pounds of literature about that.”n I, too, grew up in a small town and fully intend, in the scope of my writing, to eviscerate some of the more heinous aspects of small town “values.”

I love Paul Bettany’s line from the movie Knight’s Tale. n  Chaucer: “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.”n I always like to say that my career is littered with the corpses of my enemies.(Hyperbole) Just a word of warning for those still breathing: I will reveal you for the bloody bastards/bitches you are in my fiction. If you think it isn’t you...it probably is. #evillaughwahaha

Jerusalem’s Lot is that typical small town that King loves to destroy on a regular basis, and this time his weapon is...vampires. The Marsten House, the scene of unspeakable tragedies, has been left empty for many years. It is a grand mansion falling into ruin by the very evilness that seems to fester in the walls and the rafters clear down to the bedrock. Ben Mears has come back to town to write about the place and intends to actually stay on the premises, but learns on his arrival that the house has been sold. Who would really want to stay there anyway? n  ”The house smelled. You wouldn’t believe how it smelled. Mildew and upholstery rot and a kind of rancid smell like butter that had gone over. And living things--rats or woodchucks or whatever else that had been nesting in the walls or hibernating in the cellar. A yellow, wet smell.”n

The Marsten House is the perfect place for a vampire named Barlow and his assistant R. T. Straker to take up residence. The first clue should have been the initials; remember Dracula’s assistant...R. M. Renfield. The one word name as well...Barlow…. What does he think—he is Prince?

Yes, he does, and much, much more. He is, ultimately, a God fashioning people in his own image.

As Barlow picks off the residents of Jerusalem's Lot one by one and turns them into an army of hungry vampires, a small band of misfits start to fight back. After all, who else, but the freaks and oddballs would believe that there really are vampires?n  ”An old teacher half-cracked with books, a writer obsessed with his childhood nightmares, a little boy who has taken a postgraduate course in vampire lore from the films and the modern penny-dreadfuls.”n

Barlow has certainly had better men and women than these who have tried to destroy him. He has become overconfident and underestimates the courage and resolve of this disenfranchised band of eccentrics he is dealing with. Check out this condescending speech he lays on Ben Mears:

n  ”Look and see me, puny man. Look upon Barlow, who has passed the centuries as you have passed hours before a fireplace with a book. Look and see the great creature of the night whom you would slay with your miserable little stick. Look upon me, scribbler. I have written in human lives, and blood has been my ink. Look upon me and despair!”n

No one is more shocked than Stephen King that his idea for a vampire hoard destroying one of his loathed small towns turns into an inspiring, uplifting novel of the weak fighting back against the most powerful. It is a slow burn of a plot. King uses the early pages of the novel to let us get to know these people before we see them tested beyond normal human endurance. Fortunately, his working title of Second Coming was vetoed for the published title by his wife Tabitha who, rightly so, decided it would be a better title for a sex manual. It is a nice ode to the classic vampire myth and manages to add some original stake splattering moments to the genre. Salem’s Lot has become a classic of fanged literature. King proves his storytelling chops.

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4.5 stars

I feel like there has been a lot of debate over Stephen King's last few books about what genre he might be considered anymore. Mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, general fiction, etc. etc. etc. - you just don't hear Stephen King = horror all that much anymore. Well, if you want to get back to the roots, Salem's Lot is pure, raw, old school Stephen King horror at its finest!

I am doing a re-read of most of Stephen King's books chronologically and Salem's Lot was the next after Carrie. I read it originally sometime back in the 90s. I am so glad I did because, honestly, I don't remember any of it!

Salem's Lot is a vampire story influenced by vampire fiction, like Stoker's Dracula, as well as vampire horror flicks. The influence of both these mediums is very evident, while at the same time King crafts a new, unique, and terrifying vampire story of his own. If you are a fan of the original, raw, pure evil vampire (not ones that sparkle), you need to make sure and read this book!

Those of you out there who have heard about King, haven't read him before, and are wondering where to start, this would be a great place to do so! I think many would agree that this is up there with King's horror fiction at its best.