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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
I wanted so much to love Salem's Lot. Vampires and creepy houses felt like a winner.
I was disappointed at how slow and drawn out it was. Too many characters had me super confused and none really felt like they came to life. The first 200 or so pages were just babble of descriptions and it went on too long for me.
I just felt really deflated and the ending really didn't redeem it for me either ☹️
I was disappointed at how slow and drawn out it was. Too many characters had me super confused and none really felt like they came to life. The first 200 or so pages were just babble of descriptions and it went on too long for me.
I just felt really deflated and the ending really didn't redeem it for me either ☹️
3.5 stars. It would be four if there was less sexism, predatory language/violence against girls/women. (I've read a lot of King, so it's nothing new, but it is disappointing.)
One of my coworkers saw I was reading this and said that King's simplest books tend to be his best. I tend to agree. His more complicated books can be difficult to enjoy.
As King's second book to be published, this is what supposedly labeled him as a horror writer forever despite the many other genres he's written.
One of my coworkers saw I was reading this and said that King's simplest books tend to be his best. I tend to agree. His more complicated books can be difficult to enjoy.
As King's second book to be published, this is what supposedly labeled him as a horror writer forever despite the many other genres he's written.
This is a story of vampires the way they SHOULD be portrayed. Vampires are not "sparkly". Vampires are not "sexy" and full of angst and guilt. They are soulless predators. Stephen King got it exactly right and took it up a notch by setting his story of vampire infestation in an isolated 20th century small town. Forty years later, this tale of ancient evil transported to the 1970's still holds up.
It's such an old story, already re-told in popular culture Ad nauseam, so you are certain you know where this is going. And yet..... who can resist a good vampire story? Not me. And this is without doubt a most EXCELLENT vampire story.
King was pitch-perfect with this story which begins with the description of a town that seems to already be on life support and the residents - many who are less than perfect, but all very real. Some folks you might like to have as friends, others you would avoid, still others so despicable that you are already picking them out to be the first blood donors. But, good or bad, you feel like you know these people, so when bad things start happening in their town, you care what happens to them.
King doesn't emphasize the gore; he is highly skilled at planting seeds that will do most of the work in the reader's mind. The plot moves at a deliberately steady pace allowing the tension to build and encouraging the reader to "fill in" the creepy bits you just KNOW are going on in the background. When the first innocent child disappears... well, you KNEW that was going to happen. But, still, the story continues oozing menacingly along in a vaguely familiar path, and you just can't stop reading and wondering if it will lead to the expected conclusion.
It does, and it doesn't. The story maintains the integrity of the Bram Stoker mythology but adds the interesting variants necessitated by the 20th Century setting - and THAT is what makes it so creepy!
A classic mythology adapted to a modern (at the time) setting, "Salem's Lot" is now a classic in its own right and a really fun read.
It's such an old story, already re-told in popular culture Ad nauseam, so you are certain you know where this is going. And yet..... who can resist a good vampire story? Not me. And this is without doubt a most EXCELLENT vampire story.
King was pitch-perfect with this story which begins with the description of a town that seems to already be on life support and the residents - many who are less than perfect, but all very real. Some folks you might like to have as friends, others you would avoid, still others so despicable that you are already picking them out to be the first blood donors. But, good or bad, you feel like you know these people, so when bad things start happening in their town, you care what happens to them.
King doesn't emphasize the gore; he is highly skilled at planting seeds that will do most of the work in the reader's mind. The plot moves at a deliberately steady pace allowing the tension to build and encouraging the reader to "fill in" the creepy bits you just KNOW are going on in the background. When the first innocent child disappears... well, you KNEW that was going to happen. But, still, the story continues oozing menacingly along in a vaguely familiar path, and you just can't stop reading and wondering if it will lead to the expected conclusion.
It does, and it doesn't. The story maintains the integrity of the Bram Stoker mythology but adds the interesting variants necessitated by the 20th Century setting - and THAT is what makes it so creepy!
A classic mythology adapted to a modern (at the time) setting, "Salem's Lot" is now a classic in its own right and a really fun read.
Some spoilers ahead and I hope what I wrote is not kids sensitive... :X
This book felt like love-making.... I am sorry but I am going out to say it...
There are many ways of making love, right? Fast and Furious, Slow with Passion - okay I don't more words to say now but you get it right?
This book felt like a couple in a hot tub, massage, touching, some foreplay and then it's over in a minute in a half....
This movie, starts with 300 pages of knowing every single person of a town - some focus on two or three of them.
Then more 200 pages of building a tension but really nothing happens besides some people dying off and we get to know that the bad guy is trully remarkable...
Then of the last 100 pages we've got 2 pages focusing on final confrontation and that's done! We've got some two saviors...
I wanted more. Why give so much information about some people that felt so unimportanted by the end? I think King should have focus on four or five characters and the final confronation should be epic and not such a failure... Okay the end (after the killing of the master) could have give us a sequel of some sorts but... I felt cheated of 600 pages book that ended the way it ended. Great tension building to fell flat.
Stephen King is a master of world building. He could have done, well he has done a fantasy epic series because he can - but then he lacks the mastery of make ends... Most novels I've read of him I felt rushed in the endings... He spends too much time talking boring things about people we will never read again, or just to be died off but rushes the end. He made a good enemy. A smart enemy and then he kills it when sleeping with no fear or danger for our two guys ...
And why the similarity with Dracula? Damn... At times I felt that I reading Dracula in modern times...
Oh well...
I am still going to read all his books but I need a break.
This book felt like love-making.... I am sorry but I am going out to say it...
There are many ways of making love, right? Fast and Furious, Slow with Passion - okay I don't more words to say now but you get it right?
This book felt like a couple in a hot tub, massage, touching, some foreplay and then it's over in a minute in a half....
This movie, starts with 300 pages of knowing every single person of a town - some focus on two or three of them.
Then more 200 pages of building a tension but really nothing happens besides some people dying off and we get to know that the bad guy is trully remarkable...
Then of the last 100 pages we've got 2 pages focusing on final confrontation and that's done! We've got some two saviors...
I wanted more. Why give so much information about some people that felt so unimportanted by the end? I think King should have focus on four or five characters and the final confronation should be epic and not such a failure... Okay the end (after the killing of the master) could have give us a sequel of some sorts but... I felt cheated of 600 pages book that ended the way it ended. Great tension building to fell flat.
Stephen King is a master of world building. He could have done, well he has done a fantasy epic series because he can - but then he lacks the mastery of make ends... Most novels I've read of him I felt rushed in the endings... He spends too much time talking boring things about people we will never read again, or just to be died off but rushes the end. He made a good enemy. A smart enemy and then he kills it when sleeping with no fear or danger for our two guys ...
And why the similarity with Dracula? Damn... At times I felt that I reading Dracula in modern times...
Oh well...
I am still going to read all his books but I need a break.