‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in ‘Salem’s Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to ‘Salem’s Lot hoping to cast out his own devils… and found instead a new unspeakable horror.
A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.
All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of ‘Salem’s Lot.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #45: Author releases more than one book a year)
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge
The Reason
It was a buddy read with my online bookclub, and I’m also doing a personal challenge to read all of Stephen King’s books!
The Quotes
“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered.”
“Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.”
“At three in the morning the blood runs slow and thick, and slumber is heavy. The soul either sleeps in blessed ignorance of such an hour or gazes about itself in utter despair. There is no middle ground.”
“The town knew about darkness. It knew about the darkness that comes on the land when rotation hides the land from the sun, and about the darkness of the human soul”
The Narrator(s)
Ron McLarty. No notes, it was great!
My Thoughts
This is a reread and I had very fond memories of reading it the first time during a thunderstorm. I loved the vibes but I think I remembered the vibes more than I remember the details of the book, so I had a lot of fun rereading the book and being surprised and shocked all over again!
I’ve also watched the latest adaptation of the book but didn’t like it very much. It felt very rushed, and rereading the book, one of the things I appreciate about it is that it takes its time. The slow burn was just perfect; the feeling of dread and futility, the anticipation of what’s happening and what’s going to happen, the desperation of trying to do something about it. Oooh, shivers down my spine!
The characters are another wonderful thing about the book. They are all so compelling. Stephen King is so good at getting inside their heads and giving us glimpses of their lives and who they are. I also really love how he writes about “regular” people and show us that sometimes the real monsters are here amongst us.
I also feel like I appreciate SK the more I read, and reread, his books. I tend to miss a lot when I read but every reread helps me to see more details and there is so much to get from SK’s books. This one was such a great reread, and I love it even more now than I did the first time.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
