Review: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Goodreads rating: 4.25/5

My rating: 4/5

Synopsis: To the inhabitants of 'Salem's Lot, 3 new men had arrived at their town. What some of them don't know is that one of the 3 men, Ben Mears, spent some of his childhood living there with his aunt. He had discovered an evil in that town that he could not forget and returned with hopes to cast out his devils and write a new book. The other two men open up an antique store and move into the town's haunted house. Why anyone would choose to live there is a mystery to the townspeople. With the town's new residents come strange events: a child's disappearance, a dog's mutilation and too many unexplained deaths. Something is taking over the small town and only a handful of people, including Ben Mears, are able to stop it.

Back in 2017 when I used to sell secondhand books, I had sold a copy of this book. Later on, I had regretted it when I found it so difficult to find another copy. It took me about a year to find the copy that I finally got. I was eager to get my hands on it because I heard that it was one of the scarier stories by Stephen King. I also decided to read SK's book in chronological order with a friend and since I had already read Carrie, 'Salem's Lot was next in line. I had no idea though that it involved vampires. I grew up reading Christopher Pike books and have imagined having vampire friends so I've always been fond of them, sometimes wishing they were real. With the story being set in the 1970s, this was SK's take on Bram Stoker's Dracula so it was closer to that than it was to the modern day vampire stories such as Vampire Diaries or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have to disagree with the majority about this being one of the scarier stories by SK. I honestly found 'IT' and 'The Shining' more terrifying. This also was not my favorite vampire story, though it was not bad at all.

The pace of the story is quite slow as SK took his time creating a whole town whilst slowly building the suspense. Although I'm impressed with SK's capabilities to create a whole town and give each character their unique personalities, I found it overwhelming. At times, I would get confused about who was who. Ben Mears happened to have a wife who passed away in an accident and I didn't see what the use was in him having such a past relationship, especially since he has a love interest in the story. I also felt emotionally detached to the characters since there were so many of them with not enough lines to actually care about them. A few of the main characters I did love were Matt Burke and Mark Petrie. Matt Burke was a school teacher who gets close to Ben while Mark Petrie is a brave little tween who sticks with Ben till the end, fighting against the evil that had taken over 'Salem's Lot. Mark's courage and intellect was admirable and Matt's openness and wisdom kept making me imagine him as Raphael Sbarge who played Jiminy Cricket in Once Upon a Time for some reason.

About the vampires, I was a little confused about them. The one that's behind the growth in vampire population is awfully smart whilst the new ones are portrayed as dumb, I didn't get why. But I did like that this wasn't like most vampire stories that's mostly erotica. This did have a hint of sensuality, how could it not when the act of sucking someone's blood is sensual. I was pleased that the vampires were more of the cheesy, old school kind.

I happened to get myself the illustrated edition of the book that comes with two extra stories, a new introduction by SK himself and 50 pages of deleted scenes. I guess that was my reward for my long ass book hunt. I enjoyed the two extra stories. The first one, called, "One for the road", was kind of a preview of what happened with 'Salem's Lot after a few years. Although it was predictable, it was an enjoyable read. I loved the second short story called "Jerusalem's Lot", it began in 1850 and was in the format of letters and diary entries just like in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It was a lot more creepy than 'Salem's Lot and caused my eyes to widen at some scenarios, it was the perfect short story in my opinion. I guess you could say SK provided the reader with a before and after Ben Mears in 'Salem's Lot story. I honestly couldn't be bothered to read the deleted scenes, I figured that they didn't make the cut for a reason. I personally enjoyed the introduction and afterword, it felt a little more personal as SK spoke a little about his mother in the afterword. As someone who hopes to write my own book one day, I like how SK said, "Of course, the writer can impose control; it's just a really shitty idea. Writing controlled fiction is called 'plotting.' Buckling your seat-belt and letting the story take over, however... that is called 'storytelling.' Storytelling is as natural as breathing; plotting is the literary version of artificial respiration." It felt like great advise to any aspiring writer and also gave an insight into how he writes. If you haven't read this book and want to, I definitely recommend you get the illustrated edition like I did.

There's been two series adaptation of this story, by the way. I watched the 2004 version in which Rob Lowe acts as Ben Mears. It was a 2 episode show that someone had merged and uploaded online, turning it into a 3 hour movie. I do not recommend anyone watch that. The story line was somewhat intact but it was a cheap production and some of the actors' performance repulsed me.

Like I said above, this story is not my favourite vampire or horror story but it was still good and I would still definitely recommend it. It's also inspired me to re-read Dracula which I'll hopefully do soon.