Stephen King: Salem’s Lot

Hi everyone

I finished Salem’s Lot! This is my first Stephen King novel of the year but it certainly won’t be the last.
The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel.
The book has 653 pages and I got it from Bol.
You can find all my reviews of Stephen King’s books here.

“ Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.
A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.
All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.”

For the last three days, I couldn’t read this book at night.
It’s honestly that good. We live in a new house now and every time I heard a sound I couldn’t place I thought about this book.

The writing is easy, to-the-point and really tension building. The suspense rises slowly, subtly and it doesn’t let you go. It’s brilliantly done and it’s very hypnotic.
The characters are compelling, tragic and realistic. They’re not the hero-type of character but they have real emotions and they are afraid of what’s happening.
I liked how big it is. The whole town is involved, there are a lot of characters and the scope in general is rather big.

I could only find two faults.
In my opinion, telling the same story but a bit shorter would have made it even better. Not that it’s boring, certainly not; it’s just a bit slow.
And there should be a bigger role for at least one woman in the novel. But more women would be better.

4 STARS

Happy reading.
Helena