Salem's Lot (Unabridged‪)‬

Well worth the download.

This was my first Stephen King novel, read for a book club.

I rather enjoyed this for the atmosphere. I grew up in a small town (Ontario, not Maine) and I feel King really nailed the insular nature and small town dramas playing out in such communities. Which made the creeping sense of something not being right and slowly overtaking the town more intriguing. I wasn’t exactly scared (although admittedly vampires are not the horror creature I’m the easiest mark for), but I was engaged and some scenes did have me on edge, especially at night. I’d compare it to a video game like Resident Evil, reading letters or listening to audio logs giving snippets of people succumbing to the macabre. It feels like the end of the world as far as the town is concerned.

The narrator helps nail this, good at describing the sheer horror at what’s unfolding and having a strong range for all the characters. I could have done without the very ethnically Jewish voice he gave the mortician who appears later in the book. Made the character feel way more offensive than King’s text would lead one to believe.

I also could have lived without chapter 14 being four hours long. While this is partially on King himself for not knowing when to just end that particular chapter, one of my friends who is also listening to this novel noted her version splits this chapter up, so the editors of this audiobook share some of the blame here.

Overall, while this book has a lot of flaws in terms of character, plot, the mythological/religious logic of the text, some very unfortunate use of slang, etc, it makes up for it in atmosphere and the way the setting is described.

Considering I have spent $35 on an 8 hour audiobook, $20 for this audiobook is not entirely unreasonable in my opinion.

The narrator has a nice voice to listen to.