Reviews

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

dobeka's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

mainereading's review

4.0

"But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you." - Stephen King (Salem's Lot)

I enjoyed reading Salem's Lot, It was fun and spooky. I loved the ragtag group of people that came together to defeat the evil happening in Jerusalem's Lot. It was kind of slow in the beginning, but picked up pace later on.

kerry_s's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

eburgardt's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

• Twice a character refers to a woman’s breasts as “jahoobies” which is something I am psychologically incapable of forgetting
• Sometimes comically faithful to vampire lore despite the novel’s realism. At one point a character literally thinks “I remember this from the Hammer films starring Christopher Lee”
• The book is perhaps too long, and the pace crawls, but it lends itself to a big bad that has a Michael Myers quality about it - slow, methodical, somehow always just around the corner
• “[Adults] took laxatives, liquor, or sleeping pills to drive away their terrors so that sleep would come, and their terrors were so tame and domestic… There is no group therapy or psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed...the only cure is the eventual ossification of the imaginary faculties, and this is called adulthood.”

kdailey86's review

4.0

4.5 stars. No glittery vampires in this book. This is the way vampires should be viewed. They're scary, creatures of the night who prey on humans. Thank you Stephen King for writing it the way it should be.

bookish_bry's review

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I had a lot of fun with this book. King, as always, is great at making your skin crawl. I think I enjoyed it more since I've read Dracula already. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Animal death, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

rae2733's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.25

arnith87's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

I skimmed the last 3rd - it was too long for the subject to my taste. That said, I can see it being ground breaking when published. Definitely entertaining and page turning. The real horror isn't the campires, it's the humans. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse

x_ymst's review against another edition

4.5

My first Stephen king novel. Had some slow boring parts but they all were necessary in the end. Man, Mark’s character and the way it talked about children’s resilience to the fear of monsters.. this was a great book. Might be a five star. 

phantomphalanges's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5