‘The town kept its secrets, and the Marsten House brooded over it like a ruined king.’ Stephen King is a master of weaving together the narrative of a community with the aesthetics of horror. It’s part of what makes him so truly frightening: his horrors lurk in everyday realities, and often the community at large is just as threatening as the monsters that infiltrate in secret. ‘We’d all be scared if we knew what was swept under the carpet of each other’s minds,’ King writes in *Salem's Lot*, a...

“And all around them, the bestiality of the night rises on tenebrous wings. The vampire’s time has come.”Spook-tacular, Fang-tastic, and 4 'bloodthirsty' stars for a book by an author that needs no introduction. This time, Stephen King delivers a vampire-ology story about a town under siege from a growing number of vampires in Jerusalem's Lot.Chilling, haunting, and horrifyingly fang-tastic – once it got going!!! And a perfect first addition to my spooky month reading list. The PlotWith the imag...

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...

I'm feeling so nostalgic, looking back to a better time when fantasy creatures were actual monsters and not sparkling, soft, freaking emo snobs. Somehow, the Lovecraftian, subtle, rising horror aspect that Stephen King was so strong with at the beginning of his career diminished over the years. There wasn't much of it left in the newer books I’ve read. Characterization, descriptions, action scenes, suspense—everything's great as usual in the new works, but this special meta-cosmic, existential h...

Like so many of Stephen King's books, I loved this even more on a reread. This story will always hold a special place in my heart, but more than that, I'm seriously considering proclaiming it my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME!!! 🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤 *Salem's Lot* was the first King novel I ever read. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say it shaped who I am as a Reader. The year was 1987, I was 9 years old, and I have never looked back. Surprisingly, this is one of the few early King books tha...

A novel about a creepy town and deadly vampires. *Salem's Lot* should've been a 5-star read for me, but I was a bit disappointed.I swear I *wanted* to love *Salem's Lot* by Stephen King, but it was just an okay read. An okay read from the King himself. I'm 100% sure the problem is me, not the book.My main issue with *Salem's Lot* is that it took almost 350 pages to get really interesting. The character and plot introductions felt about 150 pages too long. Aside from that, the only character I tr...

Well, this is just annoying on two levels. I just wrote a whole review and lost it, and then there's the *other* issue.What other issue, you ask?Oh, the one where my 14-year-old self, with all its infinite wisdom and experience, remembered *Salem's Lot* as a boring tale lacking truly epic blood and guts from what should be a vampire story in a small town. If that 14-year-old had gotten his way, 80% of Stephen King's *Salem's Lot* would have been cut for being too character-driven, too focused on...

4.5 starsLately, there's been a lot of debate about what genre Stephen King's recent books fall into. Mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, general fiction – you name it. You just don't hear "Stephen King = horror" as much anymore. Well, if you're craving a return to his roots, *Salem's Lot* is pure, raw, old-school Stephen King horror at its absolute finest!I'm re-reading most of Stephen King's books in chronological order, and *Salem's Lot* was next after *Carrie*. I originally read it sometime in the '90...

2023 reread:And so I reread it again — thank you, Fiona, for a wonderful buddy read! — and this time it’s like I was transported back to being young and discovering Salem's Lot for the first time. I loved it again.This time I was really taken by King’s ability to paint the setting. His prose is excellent, and the way he brings the small town with all its secrets to life is almost unparalleled. He just has this way with words, zeroing right on to the defining qualities of people and places. Even ...

Vampires.Years after I first read it, I can honestly say that Stephen King's *Salem's Lot* is still on my short list of the scariest books I've ever read.King at his absolute best. Essentially, *Salem's Lot* is an American retelling of Bram Stoker's *Dracula*. King sticks close to the classic vampire mythos but adds his own storytelling magic and some subtle tweaks that make it feel totally original. I really think Kurt Barlow helped usher in a whole new wave of vampire literature, which, let's ...