'Salem's Lot by Stephen King: A Review

I suppose it's natural in being a fan of various types of vampire fiction that I turn to one of the masters of horror, Stephen King, to get stuck into how he writes of these pesky monsters that chomp on their victims throats and drain them of their life giving blood. 'Salem's Lot has been evading me at the library for months, popping in every now and again to see if it's there and not ordering it in because I do quite enjoy the thrill of the chase (and it costs money, I am cheap). So I made squeaking noise when it finally appeared on the shelf, looking inconspicuous and like it had been there all along.

'Salem's Lot is a small town in New England, a town abandoned and one firmly set as a place of evil and myth. King begins his tale at it's end as two of the survivors of the 'Lot have hit the road and are trying to come to terms with the horrible past behind them. We are then yanked back in time to learn about the terrible tragedy that befell the town, one which evokes whispers and suspicions from the surrounding towns and folk. Ben, a novelist has returned to 'Salem's Lot to write, instead he falls in love, causes a stir and becomes an unlikely vampire hunter. It all starts to go horribly wrong when someone buys the long abandoned and supposedly cursed Marsten House set atop the hill overlooking the 'Lot. With the arrival of it's occupants comes chaos, blood and many, many sacrifices.

First of all, I did love this. I do enjoy a good story that speaks of nasty, hissing grotesque vampires whose only desire is blood. King is one hell of a visual author and these creatures conjure up terrifying images as you read of their vile exploits. The thing that hit me the most was the parasitic spread of the vampires, a small town disappearing into the grip of a harrowing, unstoppable death. He hid them everywhere, in cupboards, food stores, cellars, under buildings and in any hole the nasty things could fit into. By the novel's grisly conclusion the vampires were literally everywhere in town.

As for the writing style, this is something that King is celebrated for. He has an exceptional attention to detail and in 'Salem's Lot he brings a whole town to life, you feel as though you have, at the very least, brushed past every occupant of the town and could give directions to anyone visiting. It wasn't only his thoroughness that grabbed me, this novel has a timeless quality to it in spite of the dates given. It would still work effortlessly if you said it was set in 2012, an impressive skill in light of his descriptive writing.

There was one thing that disappointed me, I never felt particularly engaged with the protagonists. King goes into so much detail about so many places and people that the focus which needed to be applied to the lead characters was lost in this jumble of small town folk. I must say this does improve as you hit the end of the novel, but only because most of the town have become the blood sucking undead. I did wince when one of the main characters fell down a pit onto a booby trap of knife blades, that affected me massively. So there are moments when you feel an affinity with these people, just not enough of them.

This is much more clever than your average vampire novel, and offers far more than constant action and gore. I can really see why Stephen King has a massive fan base and I know there are other novels by him that I would like to read. I just think 'Salem's Lot could have been a shorter novel, I was starting to struggle by the end and could tell that the novel would not have lost it's intensity if you were to cut out a few chunks.