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!

This was Stephen King's second published novel - the very haunting Salem's Lot sees his second venture into getting underneath the reality of a small town. What very quickly became a King trademark, sees him set the scene of an idyllic American town on the surface with something a lot darker going on underneath seemingly emanating from an isolated mansion and the people therein. The story is seen through the eyes of people new in town. No hanging about for King after his debut novel looked at the supernatural, this second published novel goes for the jugular... literally! :). 8 out of 12.

2016 read; 2006 read; 2003 read

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.

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.

Vampires.

Years after I first read it, I can truthfully say that this is still on a short list of scariest books I have ever read.

King at his best.

An American re-telling of Dracula, King stays close to the vampire myth but with some of his own storytelling thrown in and some subtle changes that make for an original novel. I cannot help but think that Barlow helped to usher in a new generation of vampire literature, of which we have now been inundated for the past few years.

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.

I just finished my second read-through of 'Salem's Lot. I swear it was better than the first time. Considering this was one of Stephen King's earliest novels, it tells a lot about great things to come from this prolific author. We get introduced to well developed characters. We see his writing from a child's perspective, one of the things that draw me to his writing. We get a sense of his gift for world building. 'Salem's Lot is not only the setting, it's essentially another character in the book. We'll see more of this in his later writing with Castle Rock starring in Needful Things and several other books and short stories.

The interconnectivity of Stephen King's books and stories is another aspect I love about his writing. Reading 'Salem's Lot makes me long to crack open the Dark Tower series again. As young Jake tells Roland, "there are other worlds than these." And they all intertwine throughout Stephen King's writing.

I'm so glad I gave this book a second read. We're reading through King's novels chronologically in the HORROR or HEAVEN Group. Next up is Rage. I'm leaving 5 stars for my re-read of Salem's Lot because it reminded me of everything I love about Stephen King's writing.

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.

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

1.24.19-I just finished my third read of SALEM'S LOT, this time via audiobook. The narrator, Ron McClarty worked well for me and I found this tale as satisfying as it ever was.

11.1.2014-Original review.

I just finished a re-read of this book with the Horror Aficionados group here at Goodreads. I'm so glad that I participated!


Remember little Danny Glick?

I first read this book in junior high or high school. It's been about 30 years since then, unfortunately. I've read The Stand and IT a couple of times each, but I never did pick this one up again. Finally, that has been rectified and what a payoff!


I forgot how well this story wrapped its arms around the reader and refused to let them go. We meander through the town, meeting its residents and learning about their daily lives. (I think Stephen King excels at this, mostly because you can tell he knows what he's talking about.) We focus our attentions on a few different characters-some strong, some weak-but they're all human with characteristics, (both good and bad, )that we recognize.

Quote: "The town cares for devil's work no more than it cares for God's or man's. It knew darkness. And darkness was enough."

I feel that's all I need to say. I have nothing new to bring to a review of a book that has thousands of reviews already. If you haven't read this tale, you should.

“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.

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.