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Summary: You're simply the best... better than all the rest...
Review: Stephen King's second book... starring the small Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot and the pervasive evil that comes to inhabit it. The town knows horror, of course. Years before, a man named Hubie Marsten (prisoner to psychosexual disorders he can't control) committed a murder, and now his house stands empty, seeming to watch over the town. The Marsten House becomes the symbol of evil, a central place from which terror and death resonate.Introduced to the town are three strangers: Ben Mears, a writer who lived there as a child, Mark Petrie, a kid obsessed with monsters and horror movies, and Mr. Barlow, a mysterious figure who opens up a shop in town (a precursor to Leland Gaunt in Needful Things?). Though Barlow doesn't make an appearance in the novel until more than halfway through, his assistant, Mr. Straker, takes care of his business while Barlow takes care of the town's business. Following the arrival of these strangers, a young boy is found dead. The scene at the funeral in which the boy's father throws himself at the coffin screaming for his son to wake up is perhaps King's most gut-wrenching. Then, when darkness falls on the town, the boy emerges from his coffin and his father's wish becomes prophecy - though not the way he would have wished. Death invades the town. Worse than death, Salem's Lot is gripped by the ravages of the undead. By the time Ben Mears, Mark Petrie and their friends discover the truth, the town is almost beyond hope. Their only chance is to destroy Barlow, burn the town, and escape. The novel begins and ends with Ben and Mark leaving to once again visit the Lot, as they have discovered the vampire threat hasn't vanished. Salem's Lot ends with a cliffhanger that will probably never be balanced. What we have, though, is one of King's most intense and scary books. After the steady buildup, the moments of terror come in one-two knockout style, and King's mastery of vampire myths and legends is first class, especially the way he infuses them into modern-day society. The fact that the major villain stays behind the scenes for the first half of the novel only adds to the excitement and anxiety. Salem's Lot is not just a vampire novel. It is a novel of pure and unbridled fear, a truly scary book. It is about small towns and the nature of evil. It is about love found, love lost, and the persistance of hope. And, well, it has those vampires...
Rating:
Summary: WILL SUCK YOU IN COMPLETELY
Review: Saloms Lot is with out a doubt one of the best books i have read to date! i was totally sucked in and could not put the book down for hardly anything! this is the first novel i had read of Kings at the time, i figured i would start close to the begining becouse i couldnt make my mind up on where to start with his many titles! i would highly recamend this book to ANYONE looking for a great king book or great book period! probibly not a book one would wanna read late at nite alone, at least not without drawing the shades closed (funny i should mention windows, and shades)! it is a VERY captivating story of if vampires where in our current society! not to mention the towns people are nearly more chilling than the vampires themselves! takes a good look at the people in the community and shows the skelotens in thier closet could have some of THEM, seen as beasts! great overall story and easy to fallow, very hard to put down! definately reccomended
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Summary: Highly Recommended...A Crash Course on Vampirism
Review: Stephen King is brilliant. And this is one of his classics. It is a frightening adventure in the backwoods of Maine. It is a crash course on the vampire legend. It is an essay on the nature of evil. It keeps you guessing and doesn't have a typical "...and they lived happily ever after..." ending. The characters and setting are richly developed. Stephen King is a master at descriptive writing. This is an incredible mystery that shows what would happen if a powerful vampire decided to take up residence in a small town. And Father Callahan goes on to meet up with the gunslinger Roland and his Ka-tet, in part 5 of The Dark Tower series, after he leaves 'Salems Lot. I loved this book!
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Summary: And I thought The Shining was Scary...
Review: I'm on a Stephen King binge right now: I started with The Green Mile, then Bag of Bones, The Shining, 'Salem's Lot & right now The Dead Zone. 'Salem's Lot is the scariest by far. 'Salem's Lot is bizarre and frightening in that a whole town full of people & their secrets became "undead" in pretty short period of time, and to the outside world it doesn't seem to really matter. The big daddy vampire comes to town and has his way. Barlow, the king ghoul, is the creepiest guy you've never seen - much, much & I must repeat MUCH more horrifying than the campy bald vamp in the movie. Straker, Barlow's human henchman, is cool and smooth, yet he makes your skin crawl. Ben Mears is the believeable hero: honest and trustworthy guy with a semi-checkered past. His relationship with Susan is quick & passionate, so it's hard to digest her fate when it comes. All the characters are solid & the book is not campy even once, which I think could be easy to do in the sometimes overdone vampire genre. I also really liked the prologue & the epilogue. It's interesting to get an "update" on the survivors. Excellent vampire story from the 1st page to the last.
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Summary: Do NOT read this book when it's dark!
Review: "Salem's Lot" is a truly chilling and scary read. It seems that vampires don't just belong in Victorian castles, wearing cheesy capes and tuxedos. They manage to invade and haunt a small Maine town with its share of nosy residents. One of the biggest challenges in this book is getting the cynical townspeople to suspend their disbelief and own up to their presence of evil.
The story follows Ben, a writer who returns to his old town (Jerusalem's Lot) to write a new novel. He begins to notice strange things happening, and it starts with two young boys disappearing. A mysterious businessman opens an antique furniture shop in an old house, a house where scary things took place. Soon, nearly the whole town turns to bloodsuckers. Is the new visitor responsible? You'll see.
The only beef I have with this book is that some dialogue tends to get a little cheesy in parts. But I won't hold it against Stephen King because this was one of his first novels and he was still getting his feet wet.
This novel is a good enough read to give you nightmares and it is one of Stephen King's best. Do yourself a favor: don't read some of it and then come back two months later and read more. Read it consistently so that you don't have to go back to the beginning and repiece things together. It's a long book, but stick with it.
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Summary: Amazing!
Review: I honestly was a little unsure of weither or not I was going to really like this book. I had seen the movie years ago, and honestly was not a fan. But the book is a very diffrent tale all together. I absolutely loved it! Everything about it. The pace was fast, the mood was perfect, and everything seemed to be tense. For a 600+ page book there is very little filler, and all the plot lines come to a nice little conclusion at some point or another. I definitely recomend this book to any fan of vampire novels (which I'm not actually) or horror novels in general. A very fresh take on an old, worn out style.
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Summary: Vampires are cool
Review: Yet again, Stephen King puts readers threw a blood chilling, superior novel with Salem's Lot. With vampires, grotesque descriptions, and all around good writing this book is not for the weak stomach. Salem's Lot not only is a scary, horrifying novel, the novel is very well written and has a great plot. Salem's Lot is definitely one of Stephen King's must read works. In Jerusalem's Lot, there is an unpronounced horror lurking over the town. The Marsten House is the key to this horror after there was a gruesome murder and suicide that occurred within the house. The book's has three main characters in Ben Mears, Mark Petrie, and Mr. Barlow. When Mr. Barlow opens his shop a child is found dead. This is when the story really gets into its grove. After that, the plot thickens and the story becomes very interesting. With vampires emerging form the dead, Jerusalem's Lot becomes infested with the living dead. It is now up to Ben and Mark to save the day.
This book is good for any type of reader. The story first off has very believable characters. Some stories you cannot connect with the characters but in Salem's Lot many people can connect with Ben. Also, this story is believable. Salem's lot is just one of those little towns in the middle of nowhere that have a hidden past to it.
Stephen King wrote this novel for anybody. It is not hard to read, and the plot is amazing. From begging to end, you will be on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next. Not bringing in the main vampire till the middle of the novel is pure genius. This gives readers an idea to wait for anxiously throughout the begging of the novel. The best part of Salem's lot is the very descriptive horror throughout the whole novel. This book definitely ranks in the top 10 scariest novels ever. The first blood chilling description is of the story of the Marsten house. The reader can imagine a vivid image of the discusting, rancid body's that where discovered in the house. This image is only one of the many great parts throughout this whole novel. I would recommend Salem's Lot to any reader. For the beginning readers this is a great novel because it is easy to read and has fantastic horror and gruesome descriptions. For the advanced readers, Salem's Lot has a very well written plot, great character developments, and the story is very believable. If you are looking for a good scare, awesome killings, and like vampires this book is definitely for you.
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Summary: Awesome Vampire Book
Review: Stephen King is an excellent author who has written many books in his time. 'Salem's Lot was the first book I have read of his and I found it to be an excellent book. He mixes everyday situations with pure fantasy. This book puts a new light on vampires and differs from the Hollywood version of Dracula. I would most certainly suggest this book to others its just one of those books that you want to just keep reading and reading with no end. BUY THE BOOK IT IS EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN AND WILL KEEP YOU BACK FOR MORE!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable but...
Review: it just wasnt anything really new. After reading I Am Legend, i spotted many things that King stole from that book, and King was an admitted fan of Matheson's. Hmm. I still give it 3 stars though because of the scene with one particular female in one particular house. That was a creepy chapter or two...
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Summary: The Emporer of Ice Cream...
Review: Whenever I want to regain my love of reading or writing, I turn to an old Stephen King book. This is his second published (after Carrie). Here, we find King's writing style to be young, energetic, and a bit rough around the edges. (I have just finished reading On Writing and he would agree that there are a bit too many adverbs.) As always, King creates characters and a story that pull the reader along at breakneck pace towards the conclusion. 'Salem's Lot is one of the few truly great vampire novels ever written. Stephen King calls it a "literary homage." It is a deliberate fusion of the novels Dracula and Peyton Place. This book is written for those who know their way around vampire stories. When King visits all the set-pieces of vampire fiction - the stakings, the vampiric girlfriends, the Renfield-like familiar - he is doing so deliberately, giving us his modern take on them. The vampire king, Kurt Barlow, is much like Count Dracula - and like Dracula is effective because he spends most of his time off-stage. If elements of this book seem dated to modern readers, I don't think that is necessarily fair. This was written in the mid-seventies - before vampires became the heavy-hitters of modern horror fiction. There was no Vampire Lestat back then - and no Buffy either. If King was writing this today, I think he'd skip the obligatory scene where the Van Helsing character says, "Those marks on the neck! This is the work of a VAMPIRE." "A vampire, but that can't be!" Vampires are so much a part of our daily lives I don't think it would even surprise us anymore to meet one. King keeps the pot boiling however (as he always does) with verisimilitude, strong-characterization, and his natural story-telling ability. (By the way, there are two companion short stories to this novel King has published elsewhere - Jerusalem's Lot, and On the Road.)
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