Salem's Lot by Stephen King.
Reading Level: Adult
Genre(s): Horror
Pages: 631 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 1975
My Rating: 5/5
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the town of Jersualem's Lot, Cumberland County, Maine - Called "The Lot" by the locals, has returned following the death of his wife. Ben also wants to write a book about "The Marsten House", an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a bad experience with it as a child. He starts to learn a lot of secrets about the house and comes to find out that it's going to be inhabited soon by vampire Kurt Barlow - who's being linked with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother, Danny. Over the course of the book, the town is slowly taken over by vampires, eventually leaving it a ghost town. Ben and a few others set out to stop the vampires before it's too late...
My Thoughts:Okay, I know that wasn't the best plot summary for the book; I wrote it myself with some help from Wikipedia. There's so many more details I'd like to add, but I don't want to give any spoilers.
Salem's Lot is Stephen King's second novel and my all time favorite. I've read many King books but I must say that Salem's Lot is his best, in my opinion. If you like vampires, the
real kind, then this book is for you. Yes, it's scary - Stephen King is amazing with detail. When he describes the look of the vampires and the scenarios in which they're in, you can't help but feel like you're there as well.
One thing I didn't like was how slow the story starts out; it takes about 200 pages to really speed up and intensify. I read this book about a year ago so it might be sooner than 200 pages or more, I'm not too sure. I am positive though that it does take a while to get into. Keep reading though, you won't regret it. Once the story picks up you won't be able to put the book down. I know I couldn't.
Also, when reading this book don't expect vampires like the ones from Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I love Twilight; but let's face it - those vampires aren't what real vampires should be. Stephen King, however, has got the whole vampire thing down. The Salem's Lot vampires are scary, seductive, beautiful, etc.. Everything vampires should be.
There are quite a few graphic scenes in this book so I don't suggest reading it if you have a weak stomach, get scared easily, or are young.
This is my first ever book review so I'm sorry if it's kind of sucky.
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