I knew absolutely about
Salem's Lot before I started it. The only thing I was told was that it was one of the scariest books the people had ever read. While I do not know about that, it was definitely a very interesting book that kept my interests piqued, for the most part.
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
Ben Mears, an author, has returned to what he considers his hometown, Jerusalem's Lot. But the Lot is not the peaceful, sweet town of his childhood. Just as he arrives, two brothers go missing while they are on their way to their friend, Mark's, house While the oldest son, Danny, is found but later hospitalized, the youngest son, Ralphie, is never found. Ben, the outsider, looks good for it. But there are two other new people in town, and they are even more mysterious than Ben: Richard Throckett Straker and Kurt Barlow. Barlow has yet to be seen, but Straker has opened up an antique store in town, and for a town as small as Salem's Lot, it is almost an unnecessary store. When more people in the town begin to go missing and start acting strange, Ben and his new girlfriend, town local Susan Norton, begin to look into the occurrences. They are joined in their efforts by Matt Burke, a high school English teacher, Dr. James Cody, one of the towns physicians, Father Donald Callahan, a local priest, and Mark Petrie, the boy Danny and Ralphie were going to visit that unfortunate night. The gang tries to gather as much information as possible about the people who have gone missing or died, and about Straker and Barlow. Could it be possible that one or both of them have some supernatural powers? And why are people that have been confirmed dead being found walking around town late at night? There are no such things as vampires, right?
Like I said in the beginning, I had no clue what this was about, so I did not know that there were any vampires involved. Had I known that, I might not have read it. I do not usually pick vampire books after the whole Twilight fade a few years ago, and Vampire Diaries also. I am just a little overloaded on vampires from all of that. That being said, if anyone can do vampires, it is Stephen King. Granted, Salem's Lot was written in 1991, a few decades before either of those came out. Maybe if the writers of those series had followed a plot similar to King, I would not be avoid vampire books like the plague. The vampires in Kings world follow most of the common characteristics: they cannot go out into the sunlight, they cannot enter a house without permission, they are extremely strong. Only Barlow is a vampire. Straker is his human accomplice. While it does not fully explain things like Straker's immense strength, I assume it has something to do with him drinking Barlow's blood. King does a wonderful job building up the mystery with Straker and Barlow and what they are.
I also really enjoyed the characters of the townsfolk. They all had very real personalities, and I could easily imagine them in my mind and their interactions with each other. I could envision the town of Jerusalem's Lot, both before and after the town's demise.
One thing that I did not particularly care for were the chapters from "The Lots" POV. Some sections were from different townspeople, but the parts that really seemed to bog down the story for me were where it was just describing the towns atmosphere. Each time one of those chapters came up, I strongly considered giving up the book all together. The chapters from the characters points of view were impossible to put down; I would read page after page after page, not being able to put the book down for even a second. And the it would say "The Lot" and my interest in the book would just *poof*!
This is the last of my King novels, for now at least. It is probably closer to the bottom of the list, but definitely not at the very bottom, that honor goes to Dreamcatcher. When it comes to vampire books I have read, I would definitely rate it number two (the All Souls trilogy is number one). I am glad that I have taken this time to read these King novels. I have always regarded him as an amazing author, now more than ever!
Rating: 5/10
Author:
Stephen King
Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy
Dates Read: August 2-13, 2018
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