'Salem's Lot

[IUSMPhD]

I'm re-reading 'Salem's Lot. I don't normally re-read books ever, but I've been re-reading Stephen King books lately because I have nothing else to read, and most of the SK books I read way back in Jr. High about 20 years ago, so I don't remember them well.

Anyway, I feel like 'Salem's Lot is overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, but I wouldn't list it in my top 5, and yet I see it raved about as one of his best ever. I remember when I read it the first time, I didn't get into it that much, and now I'm seeing why. It seems to drag, and it just seems so cliche. Is that because vampire books and movies have saturated the horror scene? I personally don't care for the new school erotic vampire books/movies, so maybe I'm just not a vampire person.

Lately, I've re-read the Dead Zone (which I think is #1 on my personal list), Firestarter, Needful Things, and Cujo, and I like them all more than 'Salem's Lot.

Anybody else feel this way? Is there something wrong with me? Should I seek professional help?

[davidbo32]

I also read Salems Lot a long time ago, while I was in the Norwegian army in 1991-92, so I don't remember it so well. But I remember I absolutely loved it at the time. I think maybe if I re-read it I would feel the same way as you do, so I don't think I will :smile2:.
I haven't re-read many S.K books except Dead Zone (which I agree is one of his best), The Dark Half and Needful things.

[crazycrashink]

I enjoyed Salem's Lot, but I see where you are coming from. It definitely isn't my top 5 either. The head vampire's henchman (Stryker) :eek2: was super creepy though!

[bopropadop]

Short answer. Yes, seek professional help.

LOL!

To each his own. I'm one of those who enjoyed Salem's Lot. I particularly enjoy vampire tales so it was a good match for me. It's not my favorite but it's in my top 5. I agree with you about Dead Zone. Great novel IMO.

[ConstantSam]

When I read 'Salem's Lot I had the same feelings that it was a bit overrated. A good book, sure, but not one of King's best. I thought the pace started to slack a bit once they began hunting down the vampires---a time when the pace should have accelerated. Still, I have to give this book credit for one of the most frightening King scenes---the graveyard part with the dead boy's burial. Creepy stuff.

[Ubasti]

I liked 'Salem's Lot. It was my first King book.

I do see your point and I have to agree that it could be a more difficult to get in to with all of the vampire hype that's going around lately.

[Bluey Lunger]

I've read it several times. I also index stories when I re-read. I only re-read stories I've enjoyed the first time through. But I noticed whilst indexing the Lot that a bunch of characters (or just names) are introduced in the opening 40 pages or so. Maybe there are 40 of them. And to make a comparison, the same number of characters are introduced in The Dark Half. We know that the two stories were written a number of years apart, but I liked The Dark Half more than the Lot.

You could populate a good-sized town with all of the characters in an SK story and by story I mean the doorstops as well as the shorts. Okay, maybe not so much the shorts, but you catch my drift. I liked the writing more in The Dark Half. But in each, a number of characters are trotted out onto the stage, they interact w/each other, they talk like real people, they react to strange situations like real people would react.

And while playing trivia (a social group here on the brd) a number of questions about 'Salem's Lot have come up and while looking for answers, I've been amazed at some of the other things about the Lot that I didn't realize on initial reads. Dunno if I can articulate what they are, believing, as I do, that everything SK has written is good--they're stories and they're full of a kind of poetry that I get off on, images, ideas, and arse-kicking action, and the whole world of SK seems connected like one big web and some of those same ideas. images, what have you, are repeated with different colors added to them.

[Cody44]

Hmm, I felt that it was better than the Shining, which in my opinion is somewhat overrated.

[Crimson Door]

I just recently finished salems lot again and i still think it's great i don't like all these new romantic twilight vapire things they don't even drink blood =(

[mae_west]

My friend from high school had the paperback (when it first came out in paperback- with the black cover and the drop of blood----oooooh, creepy!) and she did not like it and did not finish it. I thought it seemed like something I could read and turned out to be the first Stephen King book in a long, long line of books. It scared me, and I guess that is why I liked it. I have re-read it and it was just as enjoyable for me.

PS- I thought the David Soul version was great. Maybe that is just me!

[tillyn]

In truth, it's been a LOOOng time since i read Salem's Lot, i remember sleeping with the blanket up around my neck.(still do) I'm on my rereads so hopefully in the next 2mths i'll get to it. 2 ahead at the moment. I'll get back at ya on that one.

[terribilini]

salem's lot is my favorite sk book. i didn't say it was my favorite sk story, just my favorite book. i love the style and the atmospheric quality. the descriptions of summertime in maine were so good that i actually felt all hot and lazy. sk has definitely grown as a writer as he's grown in age but his early works are just cool. all his books are cool, but his early early stuff is coool. look at how old the bachman books are and that is by far his best writing. different seasons was also from his younger years if i'm correct and those stories are also pretty phenomenal. anything after the 70's is stephen king the storyteller but the early years are stephen king the writer with a capitol w. salem's lot is a perfect example of this and if you are indeed a constant reader i think that you should be able to appreciate salem's lot for it's writing, even if you don't like the story much.

[Teddy Duchamp]

Salems lot was the first King book I read back in the 70's.

The scene where Danny scratches the window gave me nightmares for weeks!

Strangely I re-read it just a couple of months ago, and I have to say I dont agree with you, I found it very very frightening - even now.

While I loved the televison series and thought it "did its best" - it didnt have half of the creepiness of the book.

I wouldnt say its his "best" work but it would be in my top 5!

But then it would be boring if we were all the same wouldnt it!:wink2:

[Masked Devil]

Great book, I gotta say! Not my favorite King book, but a solid entry!

[adrianmarley]

I re-read 'Salem's Lot a while back and noticed that it's a much more subversive novel than I first thought. The sections where King delves into the secret lives of the inhabitants made the townsfolk seem more scary than the actual vampires. King, it seems to me, is telling us that you never know what goes on behind closed doors. It's the same thing that David Lynch showed us in Blue Velvet but King was doing it a lot earlier.

[The Marsten House]

King's writing, especially of late, has been getting more and more literary.

'Salem's 'Lot seems a bit pedestrian comparatively. But it's one of the first ones I read and I love it. I do see where people are coming from, though.

A side story--
I met the actor who played Danny Glick (Brad Savage) at a wedding a few months after the TV miniseries aired. He was an usher. Seeing him in a dark suit and tie, just like on the show, was ubercreepy. I kept expecting him to float up to me, whispering in his raspy voice. Or to perhaps burst into flames as he was walking around the church!

[Spooky Chick]

I'm reading Salems Lot for the 1st time, after a very long list of other SK books inc Dark Tower. I can see where your coming from because you can kinda see that SK's writing is a little green around the edges and his world (ie dark tower world) has not fully formed in his mind yet. I wonder if he sat down to write that story now rather than back then, how different would it be?
Still a great book which I am very much enjoying reading :smile2:

[Laura666]

Salems lot was the first King book I read back in the 70's.

The scene where Danny scratches the window gave me nightmares for weeks!

Strangely I re-read it just a couple of months ago, and I have to say I dont agree with you, I found it very very frightening - even now.

While I loved the televison series and thought it "did its best" - it didnt have half of the creepiness of the book.

I wouldnt say its his "best" work but it would be in my top 5!

But then it would be boring if we were all the same wouldnt it!:wink2:



I agree..I was in grade school in the 70s and after I had read Carrie I read Salems Lot..It completely creeped me out! Now I am feeling like I might read it again!!

[kingsthebest]

It was a good book, but not one of my favorites.

[IUSMPhD]

I don't have any problem the statement that it's a great book, but it is one of his early ones, so he was a little green at writing. That's totally cool. Lot's of first books by really good authors are so-so at best. Robert McCammon let his first 4 (!) go out of print because he didn't think they were up to the standard of his later work. Thank God SK didn't do that!

I just see a lot of people listing it in their top 5 with some at #1, and I don't see it. I'd probably put it in my lower half, having read every novel he's written. I do agree with the point someone made about establishing a whole town's worth of characters. Needful things is a great example of that.

[Bluey Lunger]

has anyone said, or tried to say, why it isn't as good as a later work? maybe cause in some of the stuff that came later you get more than action/dialogue? you get a bit more of what the characters are thinking? must be other things one could say as to why it might be lower on the list for some people? but even in the bachman books you get a lot more of what the characters are struggling w/internally. in the lot, seems like there isn't much internal struggle, maybe w/the exception of callahan. ben mears to a degree maybe. :dunno:

[Teddy Duchamp]

I actually think this is "horses for courses" in that some people actually LIKE his earlier work better than the later stuff.

Me for one.

I do like Duma Key (and yes Ive read everything he has written bar the last six DT books)........I wasnt grabbed by Liseys Story at all though, for me it was like a couple of others Ive read where I am "grabbed straight away" by the story but three quarters of the way through I have lost the plot a bit and when I get to the end am left with just a little bit of disappointment (sorry if that offends).

So I suppose what I mean is that no one is "right" and no one is "wrong" in their opinions of Salems Lot, we just have different preferences in our reading habits - and thank gawd for it, otherwise we would all be a lot of clones!

xxxxxx

[worddance]

I wouldn't say Salem's Lot is SK's best work. He was still a very young writer when he wrote it with lots to learn.

But I think the whole concept of bringing the vampire legend into a quiet American town was pretty original at the time. And the book has a lot to say about small town life and the banality of evil.

Besides it's just a good scary read. It's a classic.

Mary

[kingricefan]

'Salem's Lot was the first SK book I read and it scared the crap out of me! It was way back when the paperback had the original all black cover, girl's face embossed on it with one small RED drop of blood at the corner of her mouth. Lots of creepy moments contained between the covers in that one! It will always hold a special place in my heart. Not THE best SK novel, but, to me, certainly one of his best as it gives us a glimpse (sometimes unflinchingly!!) of what small town America was like during the 1970's. He showed us that some monsters are human (Hubie Marsten for one, God I wish SK had written a book about ol' Hubie!!). The book has lots of great characters in it. I grew up in a small town outside of Butler, Pennsylvania (where From A Buick 8 takes place) and I KNEW those people! Every small town had 'em! From the creepy garbage dump caretaker to the phone operator who listened in on calls. Years from now the Lot will be a book that people will read when they want to see what small town life in America was like (and hopefully have the crap scared out of 'em while doing so!).

[lloyd068]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the slightly expanded edition of Salem's Lot was ever released in Mass Market paperback, or is it only available in trade? I'd like to read it, but I've grown tired of hardcovers and prefer to read MMPB now.

Thank you.

[jchanic]

As far as I know, the "Illustrated Salem's Lot" was only issued in hardcover. You have to remember that the extra material is in a separate section of the book and not included in the text itself. It also contains the two stories, "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road".

John

[dawnde]

[QUOTE=kingricefan;292448]'Salem's Lot was the first SK book I read and it scared the crap out of me! It was way back when the paperback had the original all black cover, girl's face embossed on it with one small RED drop of blood at the corner of her mouth. Lots of creepy moments contained between the covers in that one! It will always hold a special place in my heart. Not THE best SK novel, but, to me, certainly one of his best as it gives us a glimpse (sometimes unflinchingly!!) of what small town America was like during the 1970's. He showed us that some monsters are human (Hubie Marsten for one, God I wish SK had written a book about ol' Hubie!!). The book has lots of great characters in it. I grew up in a small town outside of Butler, Pennsylvania (where From A Buick 8 takes place) and I KNEW those people! Every small town had 'em! From the creepy garbage dump caretaker to the phone operator who listened in on calls. Years from now the Lot will be a book that people will read when they want to see what small town life in America was like (and hopefully have the crap scared out of 'em while doing so!). No ****!!! A book about Ol Hubie hmmm THAT would be interesting, maybe the fly on the wall could get his next idea from you!

[michal]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the slightly expanded edition of Salem's Lot was ever released in Mass Market paperback, or is it only available in trade? I'd like to read it, but I've grown tired of hardcovers and prefer to read MMPB now.

Thank you.

I have it in soft cover - so I guess the answer has to be yes.

[jchanic]

I stand corrected.

John

[Manxkitti]

It's been so long since I've read this book. I need to re-read it, since I don't remember much of it.

[DancingCorpse]

I don't really think of novels as overrated or underrated i just read them without anything in mind, obviously you can't help but notice if a particular thing is rated highly but it's more enjoyable if you try to enjoy them on their own merits rather than be swayed.

I think Salem's Lot is definitely very high on the list of King books imo, if you take into account that it's only his second novel, it's all the more impressive. The quality of writing is very good in places, King is very fluid throughout the book i think. There is excellent use of description of the town and describing how the vampires are starting to take over. The Marsten House really does take on an identity all on it's own through his clever positioning and descriptions of it through the story. I love how he relates this idea to Shirley Jackson's fantastic novel. All the little subplots weave together effectively into the thread of the main and it's a decent plot, a good and fresh take on the vampire legend.

There are plenty of good scenes, innovative and dynamic scenes and the characters are likeable enough. However, I don't think any of them except maybe Barlow do much for me, he has created far better. Callahan i didn't really care for at all in this, i feel he came into play very late. Mark is a good young protagonist and Ben is fine, i think his history is interesting and fits in well.

Susan, i'm afraid i really did not connect with at all, so didn't feel too much for her, i felt more for the effect on her father (who i would have liked to have been involved more) and Ben. The romance was okay, some nice scenes but again, i think King was developing his writing, there's little wrong with it. I really liked the two delivery guys who take the coffin to the house, i think they were pretty amusing.

I would have liked a more thrilling finale because the build up was there, when i think back actually there's a scene that's been lurking at the back of my mind. When they are down in the basement and having to destroy the creatures, that is very frightening. Gives me the creeps come to think of it, and how Barlow set that trap up.

The most important thing for me, is when - randomly - a thought comes to me and it's from a novel i've read in the past and it just appears out of thin air from time to time, that shows that for some reason something has stuck in my mind. I can always recall the burying of Danny Glick(?) i think it is, that whole scene with the grave digger is very freaky and well done, it shows a big turning point for the book.

I really liked the ending of the novel too, left open somewhat for us to interpret. The line about 'They say fire purifies. That should count for something.' is a great line. Anyway i need to go to sleep soon, enough about the Lot for now :)