A review by dannilmp
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

You would think a novel with Salem in it's title would be about witches, but here you would be very wrong. A refreshing vampire read compared to the novels I grew up with during my teenage years (looking at you Twilight, vampire academy and the Morganville Vampire series). King takes what should be a dark topic and makes it even more so. We follow a young man recovering from personal loss as he ventures back to the town he once spent time in as a child. Except now new men have moved in and the mood has certainly changed.

It is King's ability to write a good atmospheric horror setting that makes me enjoy all of his work so much, the descriptions of the vampires, of their creation, their impact on the town and the rest of the living is so stomach churning,
especially the description of the smells these vampires leave behind
Honestly I think the priest was one of my favoutire characters for this novel. 

I must say I wasn't a fan of the epilogue section of the novel, I thought this dragged out, didn't really add much more to the story but also didn't help to make the ending of the novel any clearer. In fact I think the epilogue muddied the experience and put me off of any ideas of a re-read any time soon. 
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