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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 very young King understood the darkness of people and small isolated places. Because there’s not too much of a supernatural push is even required to unleash the inner monsters of people; the inner low level of nastiness in the ordinary folks can only be outweighed by the inner decency of the others.

“The Lot� chapters are what those looking for “a great American novel� need to read.

4.5 stars.

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2022 reread through older eyes:

In my teens and early 20s I inhaled King’s books. He was THE writer, to the point when I actually disappointed my university literature professor who would have liked if I had preferred Dostoyevsky instead. And as I got older, King’s books mostly held up, and some even gained extra appreciation (ahem, Needful Things, you got better as you got older).

‘Salem’s Lot is a very young King, apparently started when he was 25, and it shows. It’s still good though, and is full of all that I like in King’s stories as even back then he was first and foremost a gifted storyteller: the creepy vibe of small towns and their inhabitants, and nastiness that lives inside regular people even before any actual “big� evil comes into their lives. And if there’s a hint of immaturity there � well, duh, the guy wasn’t born 75.

I was still fascinated by his signature meanderings that tell stories within stories, and the gradual ratcheting up of tension that’s better than any pay-off there can be.

3.5-4 stars on reread which I’m rounding up because, well, whaddya want from Constant Reader of Uncle Stevie’s yarns here?

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Review from circa 2014 based on a few feverish reads of this book back in my teens:

There was a time once when vampires were ruthless predators and not the misunderstood brooding and essentially harmless creatures. Ahhhh, good old scary times...



Vampire stories have been around for a long time - after all, people love a good scare, and what is more terrifying than a monster showing up at night and sucking the life essence out of you? But leave it to Stephen King to turn the terror up a notch, add a whole new layer to it. How? Simply - using the winning formula that he continues to employ in the vast majority of his work.

In addition to showing us the monsters of the night, he also brings into the picture the monsters and the darkness that are already with us, that live in the deep dark recesses of everyone's soul.

""The town knew about darkness."
"The town has its secrets, and keeps them well."
"The town cares for devil's work no more than it cares for God's or man's. It knew darkness. And darkness was enough."

The eponymous 'Salem's Lot is a small town in Maine, and it is not a stranger to secrets and darkness. It's quaint and pastoral on the surface, but once you look deeper you are bound to discover what lurks behind its respectable surface. And trust me, that's the discoveries that you can easily go without for the darkness of the human soul as presented by Stephen King beats everything that any monster or boogeyman can ever send your way. The small town of 'Salem's Lot can boast your usual lies, bullying, corruption, and prejudice - and spices it up with well-hidden child abuse, violence, and murders. Not so quaint, is it?

It is this portrayal of everyday people's secrets, of the towns being almost like living breathing organisms that is one of the big reasons why I am a huge fan of Stephen King's works.



From the very first pages of the novel we know that some terrible fate made 'Salem's Lot a ghost town with apparently only a couple of survivors. It doesn't take the reader long to realize, as we go back in time to see how the events unfolded, that the mysterious menacing Marsten House welcomed new evil that tends to lurk at night, floating past your (hopefully, tightly shut) windows.

The story itself is rather straightforward, steadily moving along to its almost-conclusion that we have glimpsed in the first few pages, and we watch with bated breath as our bunch of good guys - Ben, Mark, Susan, Matt - are trying to take on the supernatural horror. Oh, and did I forget Father Callahan? (view spoiler)[A high-five from the Dark Tower universe, Father! (hide spoiler)]

King is excellent with the plotting and the pacing (since this was only his second novel, he was still a stranger to writing larger-than-life brick-sized tomes). The story never lags, the suspense and sense of foreboding are rampant, and there are quite a few truly nailbiting situations. Nothing distracts the reader from the vampire story unfolding on the background of small-town horrors. There are no heavy-handed lessons to be learned, no deep morals to take out of the story - all we get is a thrilling and quite scary ride that may make you (a) sleep with a light on, and (b) be very careful about who you invite into your home.

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