Ever since I discovered the connection between Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot and his Dark Tower series, I’ve always been intrigued by King’s second novel. But I never got around to buying the book until BookBub ran a featured deal this fall. I snapped it up and dove into ‘Salem’s Lot just in time for Halloween. Halfway into the first act, all I could say was, “Wow.”
‘Salem’s Lot is Stephen King’s reimagination of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, set in a small 1970’s New England town called Jerusalem’s (‘Salem’s) Lot. The book begins much like Stoker’s classic tale, with a lawyer arranging the purchase of the town’s most notorious mansion by a mysterious man named Starker and his unseen partner, Barlow. When the lawyer’s lackeys are tasked with delivering a large crate – one big enough to hold a coffin – to the mansion, the stage is set. From there, I could not stop turning the pages.
In short time, a people start dying – and turning into vampires. Vampirism becomes eerily similar to The Stand’s Captain Trip’s, like a virus spreading from one person to the other until it threatens the existence of the entire town. In this sense, the novel could be an early prequel to Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, where vampirism has infected nearly everyone on the planet.
It’s worth noting that King’s vampires are unholy creatures. They’re the type of evil and terrifying monsters Bram Stoker envisioned more than a hundred years ago. In today’s world of sparkly vampires and vampire boyfriends, I found it refreshing to read a story about vampires modeled after the frightening creatures from European legends.
But the characters are the best part of ‘Salem’s Lot, all ordinary people forced to deal with the supernatural. There is novelist Ben Mears, who has returned to his childhood home; Susan Norton, a young college grad who quickly becomes Ben’s love interest; Matt Burke, a school teacher who reminded me a bit of Glen Bateman from The Stand; and Mark Petrie, a nerdy kid whose knowledge of vampire movies proves quite valuable in the end. Several of these characters, I suspect, were a veiled homage to Jonathan and Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, and others in Stoker’s famous story.
Like The Stand, there are a host of other colorful characters who inhabit ‘Salem’s Lot and whose lives are affected by the arrival of Straker and Barlow. And, given that this is a Stephen King novel, you know that very few will make it out alive. Suffice it to say, there are no happily-ever-after endings to most of his stories.
The book is an utterly suspenseful read, and I tore through all 668 pages. King apparently considers ‘Salem’s Lot his favorite novel. I might beg to differ, given my love for The Stand and The Gunslinger series, particularly Wizard and Glass. But whether or not it’s King’s best, ‘Salem’s Lot is one hell of a book by one of the most talented novelists of our time. I’m glad I finally read it.
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