'Salem's Lot

Stephen King makes you want to write. His writing is so accessible and relatable and sounds like the actual thoughts running through a character’s head. This superpower he’s got to make you empathize is something he uses to put you in the shoes of a billion different people, even if they don’t matter to the story or their opinions don’t line up with yours. Take the novel itself; small town America is killed slowly in the night by the evils of man, and even with faith, and even with love, and even with preparation, you’ll still have to face the loss and pain of it all washing away. I’ve never lived in a small town, but that pain of loss is not lost on me. I mourn for Salem’s Lot because of the loss of my childhood or the loss of my hometown innocence. Take the school bus driver in Salem’s Lot; he’s a cranky old man in a small town trying desperately to use his only contact with the new generation to take out his frustrations of the world changing around him. King doesn’t ever say that, but shows it with metaphor and the bus driver’s personal experience with seeing teens pissing on flags and with his harsh actions towards those kids. It makes him three-dimensional to the reader. King writes like it’s a game of poker and he’s only showing four of the five cards in his hand, and you know he’s probably got a straight. King writes like the world feels like it could turn around on you and show you something new, but you wouldn’t be surprised at the sight of the back of its head.

In fact, when the world does turn around and it shows that it’s got vampires, it feels very real and compelling. You aren’t taken out of the realness of it all, and everything still holds some kind of logic to it. In fact, when you see vampires and you see how characters react and you see the magic system associated with Stephen King’s world, you follow the logic all the way down to the cellar. Nothing hits you unexpectedly, but everything hits you compellingly.
This is his second novel he wrote, the first being Carrie, and you can tell he slowed down with this one. He was fast with Carrie, and the pace was breakneck and pulpy. Salem’s Lot shows Stephen King going in a different direction, towards the slow-burn story that seems less like a car crash and more like a slow slip of a motorcycle on a puddle of water that smacks into the side of a truck. It’s going to be brutal, and you can see it coming, but there’s nothing you can do but watch. More compelling, more suspenseful, and you can tell that he’s the man that will grow into the writer of The Stand.

This is not your daughter's vampire novel.

As I type this on my iPhone I will keep it brief. Great book- pacing is a little slow for some at the beginning, but what he does is paint a great picture of a small Maine town getting over run by vampires. 5 stars from a fellow Manie-iac!!