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Summary: the scariest book i've ever read...
Review: Of all his novels, including The Shining, etc. this novel was the one that kept me sleeping with the light on and getting goosebumps even months after i'd finished the book. Another great reading by the master of fear.
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Summary: I like chicken.
Review: I thought that Salem's Lot was an awesome book. I'd read it again and again if i had the chance. My favorite part is when they go into the house and find out he's not there. It's so cool! My favorite character is Mark because he's only 9 or 10 years old and he's smarter then most people in the town. If you like vampires and weird stuff then this book you'll love!
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Summary: EXCELLLENT!
Review: No author is better than Stephen King. He's definitely outdone himself this time in Salem's Lot. This book is the best I've read in a long time. Although this writing is the conventional horror, I was still scared. I enjoyed the book a lot, especially the main character. I like the main character because he has a lot of good qualities, and he's a really decent person. Ben Mears has a lot of talent, and he is very determined in everything he does. He has come a long way in writing and is very good at what he writes. He's young and has already published a few books. That's more than I can say for most of the characters in the book. He's also very determined to save this town, which he grew up in, by trying to kill the vampires. Ben could just up and leave and never look back, but he's too decent to do that. That's another great quality I love about Ben. I like how he takes pride in killing these monstrous creatures. I also love the detail King uses to write in his stories, like how Ben would take a wooden stake and plunge it deep within the heart of the vampire and how dark, evil blood came gushing out of the wound. I also like how he could feel the presence of the evil spirit just disappear into thin air. This kind of writing makes the book better and more interesting to read. Ben actually has the nerve to go back and write about the situations that had happened a long time ago. This is another way Ben shows that he's determined. Ben Mears is nothing like my least favorite character in this horror novel. This character is the head vampire of the story, the one that started this whole calamity. I hate how he has no problem killing a kid or turning a child into a vampire. I hate how Straker sends other vampires to do this, except when Jimmy, who is helping Ben hunt down Straker, gets tricked and ends up getting killed. Instead of the other vampires hunting him down, Straker kills Jimmy himself. Like when Jimmy came into the house where Straker was, he ended up falling down the basement stairs right into Straker's plan. From then on the detail got even better. I love how these vampires know everything about people, like where they are and where they go, even what they're thinking. Well, come to find out that was not all Straker had planned for poor Jimmy. He also cut part of the railing off so Jimmy could not tell the stairs had been cut, and, of course, the light in the basement was broken. That just made the scene ten times worse. The best part was how Straker had taken the knives from the kitchen and laid them out under the stairs, so when Jimmy fell to his death he would not only break a few bones but also plunge into the knives and eventually bleed to death. This is still by far the most interesting way I've heard a vampire kill someone. Definitely, Salem's Lot is positively the best book I have read in a long time. I honestly do not think that anyone could possible be a more detailed and terrific writer ever known. Among being popular with the younger generation, he is also popular with the older generation as well. Anyone can enjoy one of his stories or one of the movies he has made life like. Stephen King is the best author, and I cannot wait to read another novel by him.
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Summary: I couldn't read it fast enough!
Review: I found my heart racing not only because of the current excitement, but also in anticipation of where the road would go. It was very gratifying to see a story that didn't have the "hey thanks for buying my book", happy ending. If the movie were half as good as the book, American horror cinema would really have something to hang its hat on.
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Summary: A great book for Stephen King's fans
Review: This is the first book I read by King. This is one of his best books I've ever read. It's scary at somepoints. This book is not too hard to understand. This book is better than Thinner and Carrie. You should read Disperation, It and The Tommyknockers. I gave this book five stars because I don't think I can find a better Vampire story this this.
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Summary: Vampires? Who Said Anything About Vampires?
Review: This is King's best book. I read it fifteen years ago, when I was the last student still living in my gothic dormitory at Yale. It scared the hell out of me. Too bad, but by now, almost everyone knows that 'Salem's Lot is a vampire novel. I consider that a spoiler. What was so frightening for me the first time through was not quite knowing what was wrong with this town. Much is made of the old vacant Marsten house, and I thought I was reading a haunted house story. It's not until well into the book that King makes any overt reference to vampires, and when he finally does, it is with a sense of both discovery and inevitability that the reader learns the true nature of what is afflicting the town. Why, of course it's vampires. What else could it be but but vampires? As for the book being a ripoff of Dracula--well, yes. In the same sense that the movies Blade or The Hunger rip off Dracula, or that the novel Mary Reilly is a ripoff of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They are retellings. The Dracula thing isn't much more than an imaginative launching point. As someone who's actually read Stoker's Dracula, I think it's an important Gothic novel and preFreudian allegory -- but not all that scary. Not nearly as frightening as 'Salem's Lot. King is at the top of his game here, and he portrays people who make sense, who belong in this story, and whose character is their destiny. For all his prolific output, I wish King would do a sequel. This remains his most elegant, most successful, taut and transporting novel.
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Summary: Does it matter what one has to say about King's work? Yes.
Review: In fact, the man, I was surprised to find, can really write. His prose doesn't have William Styron's polish or Kurt Vonnegut humor, but it ain't half bad. In fact, this book is quite good. But let's not confuse this with, say, "Madame Bovary." It's not the highest order of capital 'F' Fiction--but that isn't a bad thing necessarily. I mean, if everyone wrote like Flaubert, the world would be a boring place, right? There needs to be other voices, other stories and King seems capable enough to tell these kinds of stories. His stories are different than Styron's or Vonnegut's (needless to say) and should be judged in and of themselves, not against other, different writers with different aims. Having said that, does "'Salem's Lot" chill? Is it compulsively readable? Does King make interesting choices to stir up a been-there, done-that story? Does the reader get instant gratification for his/her efforts at reading this novel? Yes to all the above. The man obviously possesses talent, vision, knowledge, gusto--all of which are evdident here in his second published book. There's also a dash of O. Henry, EC Comics, Hammer horror films, pop pschoanalysis and Sherwood Anderson thrown in to boot. But, again, these aren't bad things. For what it is, it's terrific. (In fact, I think some of the "better" capital F fiction writers like Don Delillo could take a lesson or three from King in warming up their characters.) But remember one caveat: "It's good for what it is". It's a book about vampires, OK? Can you really care about vampires? I can't. But I can care about these characters and their situation to a degree more than I might if the story were told by a lesser writer than King because of the elemental human fear that he taps into seemingly at his leisure. What I would beg, nay, implore the rabid King fans (some of whom I've met and fear) to do is to read other things every now and then. There are other ways to tell stories and other stories to tell besides the ones King tells. (Well, duh, you say.) I only mention this because I've always been gun-shy about reading King because I didn't want to be thought of or associated with Stephen King fans whom I would categorize, from my experience, as being sheltered, overly dramatic, boring, TV-loving, Goth hounds. And they all seemed not a little cracked, like those sad sacks who camped out for the last "Star Wars" movie. Sure, it's all mostly harmless, but these people are living in a vaccum. I mean, chocolate ice cream is good, but do you want it every single meal? (Think about that first scene in the movie "Seven" before you answer that.) Stephen King's work is chocolate ice cream. Good for what it is, but don't expect to add much protein to your diet.
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Summary: Excellent read, slow start though
Review: Excellent story... unfortunately not entirely his own. King follows the same path as Bram Stoker's Dracula. The chain of events is almost identical. Fortunately, King puts his own style and twist into the novel with a few original ideas and characters that are much more identifiable than those of Stoker's. I was 11 when I first read this. I was so parnoid by the time I finished it(at 2am) that i pushed my desk in an attemot to block entry to my room. It scared me to death. I loved it! The chaces are that i am paranoid and demented but, by all means read this book.
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Summary: masterpiece of emense spine tingling proportions.
Review: one of kings finest masterpieces.It was the first king I had read and ceartanly not the last,he has grown to be my favorite author.this book makes the movie and all other vampire movies look like the muppets.bloody,gory,tense,exiting,can not put it down once you have started.a true must read.
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Summary: Makes you a believer...
Review: in vampires. I found myself looking over my shoulder the entire time I was reading this book. Well written, hard to put down, and horror at it's finest. Highly recommend.
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