‘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 every day 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, and ...

“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, and this time delivers a vampire-ology story about a town under siege from a growing number of vampires in Jeru-salem’s Lot.Chilling, haunting and horrifyingly fang-tastic – once it got going!!! and my first addition to my spooky month reading list. The PlotWith the image of Marsten House...

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 am so nostalgically looking back to a better time when certain fantasy creatures were still true monsters and not twinkling, soft, freaking feeling emo snobs. Somehow the Lovecraftian, subtle, rising horror aspect King was so strong at the beginning of his career diminished over the years and there was not much of it left in the newer books I´ve read. Characterization, descriptions, action scenes, suspense, everything great as usual in the new works, but this special meta cosmic existential ho...

As with many King's, I loved this even more upon reread.This story will always hold a special place in my heart, but more than that, I'm 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 turned back. Surprisingly, this is one of the few early-Kings that up until now, I had only read once. I'm ...

4.5 starsI 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 or...

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 this book 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 a ...

A novel about a creepy town and deadly vampires. This should've received 5 stars from me, but I was a bit disappointed with this novel.I swear I wanted to love this novel, but it was an okay read for me. An okay read from the King. I'm 100% sure that something is wrong with me, and not the novel.My main problem with the novel would be the fact that it took almost 350 pages for it to become really interesting. The character and plot introduction felt 150 pages longer than it should've been. Aside...

Well this is annoying times two. I just wrote a review and lost it, and then there's the *other* issue.What other issue?Oh, the one where my 14 year old self of infinite wisdom and experience remembered a boring tale lacking truly epic blood and guts from what should be a vampire tale in a small town. If that 14 year old could have had his way, then 80% of the novel would have been excised for being too-character driven, too-focused on hundreds of characters only set up to be knocked down in gru...

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.