Salem's Lot is Filled With Vampires and Awesome Characters - Review
Ben Mears returns to his childhood home-town of Jerusalem’s Lot to confront an old fear and find out why exactly it’s been stuck in his head for years. But Ben stumbles onto more than he expected when people around town start disappearing or quickly becoming mysteriously and fatally ill. Ben, along with a few other characters from around town, come together to figure out what exactly is happening in ‘Salem’s Lot and if there is any way to stop it.
This is my fifth Stephen King novel, and I’ve got to say I’m getting the pretty clear idea that no one quite nails the American small town like King. He captures the good and the bad to give you towns that become like overarching characters in the story—everything the human characters say or do has a direct correlation and sometimes consequence to the town in which they live. Take Salem’s Lot—it seems like the epitome of a quaint New England town. Trees? Check. Antiques? Ayup. A friggin’ Lover’s Lake? Yep, one of those too. But for every piece of small-town charm there’s plenty of shady dealings going on between neighbors and behind backs.
Ben’s appearance comes quick on the heals of other mysterious strangers moving into the Marsten House (the abandoned mansion that serves as nightmare and triple-dog-dare-ya fuel for the local kids). Once Ben starts digging into the history of the Marsten House and wondering about its latest resident, not only does he draw the attention of the occupant but it’s also almost like Salem’s Lot itself must respond. And when it does, it doesn’t take it easy on Ben and his search for the town’s deepest secrets.
Ben isn’t the only one the town seems to respond to. Susan Norton is the resident small-town girl with big dreams. She seems like she’s content with her life in Salem’s Lot until Ben arrives—she’s got a somewhat serious boyfriend, lives with her parents, and holds down a small job making art for the local businesses. But once she meets Ben, it’s like Susan realizes there’s more out there, and that she doesn’t have to just dream about it. Nothing that she was satisfied with before quite cuts it anymore. Her mother sees Ben as a threat to Susan’s happiness—in her eyes, Susan had everything she needed before he came along, and a big city writer like him is just going to break her heart. Susan’s exposure to someone who’s thrived outside of Salem’s Lot as well as her disagreeing with her mother leads to big moves in Susan’s life. She decides to move out and get an apartment of her own, and she goes outside of Salem’s Lot to find a job. But, like Mrs. Norton, Salem’s Lot won’t let Susan go easily. I’ll try to keep this vague, but Susan’s fate was heartbreakingly ironic. She was able to escape the path everyone expected of her, but her escape became the thing that trapped her in a different sense.
I’ve really enjoyed every Stephen King book I’ve read, but Salem’s Lot was the first one I finished and immediately wanted to start reading again. Its characters easily found their way into my heart and honestly haven’t left yet even though I’m writing this about a month after I finished the book: Ben, the guy honest enough to admit that the things he was scared of as a child are the things that still truly scare him as an adult, and who wants to get the bottom of just exactly why that is (and who still holds on to the childish hope that he can finally conquer his fears). Mark, the geeky kid obsessed with monster movies and stories of all kinds, who uses everything everyone ever told him would amount to nothing or was useless to outsmart bullies and bad guys alike. And Susan, a young woman who fights against the past already seeped into her bones to hope for something new. And, I mean, any monster-fighting crew that ropes in the local English teacher will have my heart forever.
P.S. I read Cycle of the Werewolf not long after Salem’s Lot, and it struck me as just the thing Mark would have been pouring over under the covers with a flashlight. So, if Salem’s Lot left a small-town monster invasion with underdog heroes hole in your heart, grab Cycle of the Werewolf next.
Find my other Stephen King articles where I read Pet Sematary HERE and Bag of Bones HERE
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