Something strange is
going on in Jerusalem's Lot ... but no one dares to talk about it. By
day, 'Salem's Lot is a typical modest New England town; but when the sun
goes down, evil roams the earth. The devilishly sweet insistent
laughter of a child can be heard echoing through the fields, and the
presence of silent looming spirits can be felt lurking right outside
your window. Stephen King brings his gruesome imagination to life in
this tale of spine tingling horror.
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“The town kept its secrets, and the Marsten House brooded over it like a ruined king...”
I was always excited to read this one, so usually this means it's not as good as I planned. Wrong here!
This
was a great vampire book. I didn't
know until I was reading it that it was King's second. I can tell as I
like his early writing a lot; to me he got too long winded later on.
Here he takes his time to build the story and you get to know and care
about the characters well, there is a lot of ominous foreshadowing and
build-up that will clash together later, and everything unwinds at a
enough slower pace to get under your skin more effectively. In short the
story was filled with plot and only the relevant details about the
characters that we, the reader, need to see and know.
Apparently King was a big fan of Dracula the book growing up, and also reread it as an adult, and at first meant for this to be a sequel of sorts before it started taking on a life of it's own. This is a traditional vampire tale all the way, no romance and sparkling here. Beyond just a take on the lore, though, it is about the hidden secrets of a small town and the private lives they lead that the rest of the townsfolk either don't know about or choose to ignore. Familial violence, past affairs, festering alcoholism and dashed dreams. Most have hidden faces, not just the vampires.
The most unsettling thing about the book was the abusive mother! Punching her baby in the face was hard to stomach. I know King was trying to showcase realistic characters in the town. It's hard to imagine people like this, but we know they exist in abundance (sadly.) King is not known for shying away from children's deaths and violence with his works - we see many children die in IT, Cujo, here, Pet Semetery with the infamous Gage, etc. He's also not a stranger to child abuse in his works (IT, Carrie, and others)
'Salem's Lot probably had one of the saddest funeral scenes I've seen or imagined. Absolutely heartbreaking. I literally sobbed. I couldn't imagine burying my son so young, and the father's reaction, while understandable considering the profound grief, was tragic and terrible to behold.
Characterization
rocked. As with most of King's stuff you never knew who was safe and
who would survive. Mark was an admirable child with strong willpower and
realistic strength. Father Callahan was an interesting priest to follow
around. I remember becoming even more interested in searching for this
book when reading the Dark Tower series and meeting the Fathers
character for the first time there. Susan was a good heroine, down to
earth and sensible but also fun and charismatic. Her parents even were
interesting to read about, minor paper people that they were. The main
hero, Ben Mears, is a likeable sort as well, an author without a large
ego who only creates mediocre sales, driven back to the town from a
childhood memory.The villain was delicious. Besides being an evil sort
that befits a true vampire story, he also had an old-world charm, strong
intellect, and suave manner.
If
you're in the mood for a weighty vampire tale that dishes it out big
time but not in a cheesy manner, this is your book. The ending leaves it
to where you cannot imagine if they won or not, it can depend on
perspective. It's an open-ended theme that stays with you as much as
this piece of fiction will. Unforgettable chilling scenes, well-rounded
characterization, small-town commentary in abundance, King didn't
disappoint with this one.
Book Quotes:
“The town has a sense, not of history, but of time, and the telephone poles seem to know this. If you lay your hand against one, you can feel the vibration from the wires deep within the wood, as if souls had been imprisoned in there and were struggling to get out.”
“I think it's relatively easy for people to accept something like telepathy or precognition or teleplasm because their willingness to believe doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't keep them awake nights. But the idea that the evil that men do lives after them is unsettling.”
“The essential and defining characteristic of childhood is not the effortless merging of dream and reality, but only alienation. There are no words for childhood's dark turns and exhalations. A wise child recognizes it and submits to the necessary consequences. A child who counts the cost is a child no longer.”
Cover Gallery:
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Trailer:
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