Despite my love and respect for Stephen King, when I haven’t read him in awhile, I tend to underestimate his work.  This was exactly the case with ‘Salem’s Lot — King’s second novel, and one which I had studiously avoided since the early days of my King obsession. 

Why?  Vampires had never interested me.  Probably due to the fact that they did not even frighten me as a small girl.  It was an unpleasant concept, sure, but what was so scary about black-robed bloodsuckers, trawling the night for some busty maiden to bite?  I did not anticipate being scared shitless by ‘Salem’s Lot, or even scared at all.  I was dead wrong.

‘Salem’s Lot is a page-turner paced just slowly enough to draw readers along without ever giving them a full idea of the horrors simmering just below the surface, waiting to burst forth.  It is a tragedy in 600 pages, a study in slowly-fraying sanity, and the increasing desperation which comes when it seems the sun will never rise. 

Stephen King is a master of characterization, and this novel arguably displays him coming fully into his own in that respect.  He understands that for it to really pack a punch when some minor Jane or Judy bites the dust, we have to feel as though we knew the victim ourselves.  And so he introduces us to the residents of ‘Salem’s Lot, one at a time, allowing us to catch glimpses of their triumphs and their pain, and their small acts of evil.  Mid-book, a reader might’ve grown up in the town.  We sympathize completely with Ben Mears, haunted by his past but heartbreakingly optimistic for the future.  We fall a little bit in love with him when Susan Norton does, and we share her frustrationan and fury at her mother’s inability to understand her feelings.  We respect and admire Matt Burke’s casual solitude, his quiet dedication.  These characters come easily to us, almost as old friends.  We become first uncomfortable, then disconcerted, and eventually downright terrified as their fates become clear. 

Barlow, while not King’s scariest villain ever, certainly breaks the Top Ten list of creatures I would not want to meet in some deserted lot after sunset.  I found it interesting that he was not revealed as the main antagonist until very late in the book — we were watching Straker, and the growing legions of Undead townspeople.  We knew the unpictured Barlow was certainly playing some part in all of this, but never imagined (or at least, I never imagined) the full extent of his monstrous power. 

Toward the last quarter, the novel begins picking up speed, faster and faster until we are hurtling uncontrollably toward the white-hot, blood-spattered climax.  This is another of King’s great strengths: we are never sure what drastic twist is sneaking up on us, or when things are reaching the point of no return.  Things deteroriate at a deceptively slow pace, until suddenly the town is dead and the sole survivors are faced with an unimaginable task. 

I really liked ‘Salem’s Lot.  It is not as complex as some of his later novels, but it is a witty, dark, often quite scary foray into previously-unexplored territories of vampire ouevre.  It plants a certain seed of doubt in the reader’s mind: Could this happen here, where I live?  Could not the evil which sprung from both within and without the town of ‘Salem’s Lot comsume any other town?  I believe this is exactly the question King wants us to ask ourselves, and he would doubtless be thrilled to know that I will probably pull the covers up to my chin tonight. 

THE BOTTOM LINE: Fun, witty, highly readable for a 600+ page novel — but not for those with an aversion to blood!