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Small-Town Feel Is The Genius Of This Novel

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Unlike most hard-core Stephen King fans, I have been reading his books in no particular order...just whichever one I can get my hands on next. Thus, I happened to read the entire Dark Tower series penned by King before I happened onto this novel. In that series, I learned more about Father Callahan, who was first introduced in this book. By reading things so disjointed, I figured that "Salem's Lot" was just a book about vampires who had to be expelled from a small town. Once I dove into this text, however, I realized that the true genius of this novel has nothing to do with the vampires themselves, but more so how King sets up their appearance. The biggest thing that surprised me about this book was that actual vampires do not appear until the last 100 or so pages of the novel. They are hinted at many times earlier, but never fully exposed/explained. However, at least to me, that is where King makes this story so scary. Pretty much the entire first half of the book is devoted to trying to capture the small-town feel of Jerusalem's Lot but examining its citizens, their relationships, and the day-to-day events of the little town. Thus, when the great evil is unearthed towards the end of the novel, it makes it all the scarier that the evil is coming from such an out-of-the-way place, a type of place usually reserved for a slow, uncomplicated life. That, not the vampires, is the most interesting theme of the novel. Of course, in typical King fashion, the characters are also very well-written and interesting, thus easy to root for (or against, in some cases) as they fight to extinguish the evil in small-town America. So, although "Salem's Lot" was first published way back in 1975, it is still a thrilling read even today, as small-towns still exist all over America...small towns where he feel safe and never think anything can hurt is. In King's universe, that is not so, which is what makes this book so frightful.

Vampires at their truest form

Customer Rating:

With the amount of vampire media currently flooding the market, I found it refreshing to pick up Salem's Lot. It is not a perfect book, as it's one of King's earliest, (his second? I believe) but it still packed a punch. The writing style is interesting and like many things about this book, faintly reminiscent of Dracula. I found it an easy read and one of the things I like about King's style is his frank way of writing. It is slow in some places and moves quicker in others, but overall I felt gripped from the opening scene and couldn't put the book down. There were plenty of parts that got my heart racing, sitting up in my seat and hoping the creaking on the stairs was just one of the cats. It describes small town life as it is and it's interesting to read as death spreads along all the intertwined threads of a small town. One of the most frightening things about this book is that it could conceivably happen. There are plenty of small towns in the country, and if a vampire were to inhabit one of them, I don't know that anyone would notice for a long time. A lot of the ideas in this book are ones that repeat themselves often in King's writing, like the precocious young boy, the writer protagonist, the haunted house, and of course, the Maine setting. (Write what you know, right?) There are a lot of similarities to Dracula, and King never makes a point to disguise that fact. I would recommend reading that before reading Salem's Lot, so that you don't miss the "inside jokes." At some points I wish he had been more original in his ideas, but all the same I found it to be an excellent book with all the creepiness one should expect, both supernatural and mundane. Evil in all its forms is presented in this book, from child abuse, alcoholism, adultery, and vampires in their truest, most wicked form. These are vampires as they should be: evil at its truest form. (No glittering, sparkling, or dazzling.) As for the "Illustrated edition," It is worth noting that there are not a lot of illustrations actually in the book. I enjoyed this copy because of all the extras, the two short stories, an introduction, an afterword, and deleted scenes, but anyone buying the book for the pictures should just get the paperback.

Salems Lot	Customer Rating:
I really enjoyed this book. It was a great book from beginning to end. Another one of Stephen Kings books that I could not put down. From the beginning it got me interested enough so that I needed to read as much as I could at each sitting.

Excellent Vampire Tale

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Ben Mears spent part of his youth in the small Maine town of Salem's Lot and has returned for the purpose of writing a book and laying some ghosts to rest. But instead of confronting childhood fears and conquering them, he faces something a lot more solid and dangerous in the form of vampires. Ben can scarcely believe what is happening, and telling the authorities would be more likely to land him in an asylum than it would be to get any real help. So Mr. Mears and a small group of acquaintances do their best to handle the problem themselves. Salem's Lot is Stephen King's second book and one of the things that I found impressive is how much he had grown in his ability to tell a story after publishing Carrie (not that Carrie was bad by any means). He does a good job of populating the town, giving the various characters distinct personalities, and investing the reader in what happens to them. Some people have complained that the pace is too slow, but if you're a regular King reader then you know that he always spends more time fleshing out characters than a typical horror novel would offer. The tension definitely ratchets up in the second half of the book and is mostly sustained until the end. The one thing I would change in this novel is that there are probably a few too many passages speculating on the nature of evil and other philosophical questions. While it's interesting up to a point, there was one section in the last third of the book when it really interrupted the buildup to the climax without adding much at all. This certainly didn't ruin the book for me, but a bit of judicious editing would not have hurt it either. Salem's Lot is an easy novel to recommend. The characters are interesting, the story grabbed me, and it was an enjoyable read all the way around. If you're looking for non-stop suspense and thrills you may be disappointed but that would be true of most of King's books. For everyone else, it will be one of the more enjoyable vampire novels you're likely to read.

Stands the test of time

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In King's 1999 prologue to the Signet edition of the book he remarks that the book is "dated." I agree with that. When you read it, you can tell that is was written in the early 1970s. However, I found that is what made this book so special. It is a timeless story of a small New England town under siege with the townspeople living their daily lives afraid of the boogey man, be it the Vietnam War, new residents, etc. This book is scary, well paced, and a beautiful adaptation of Dracula in the 20th century.