Scan barcode
A review by biblio_lore
The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie
3.0
I chose to read this book because I had been intrigued by the film but never saw it because I could never rightly figure out what it was really about. Now that I do know, I don't know that I would see it but I did enjoy the book for the most part. I want to start off with the good stuff because I feel like the story is worth a read and I have to give it credit for being a good horror book. Make no mistake: this is one that is purely horror. Horror is meant to be disturbing and this is a disturbing read. There is a decent amount of gore and the murders in it are brutal and they some of the worst are right at the beginning. If you're a gore hound, you will love it. That said, there's something to be said about the people in the story too.
From the start, Zombie and Evensome set up a kind of difficult scenario to work with. You have the witches who are not good people and actively work to maim and kill. On the other hand, you have the witch hunters who are brutal and horrible people too. Then you have the sorry jerks that are going to be the biggest victims of the story and its events. This is something that I have noticed about Zombie's film work and if this bothers you too, you might want to skip this one because you get a definite "who do I want to even live through this and why" kind of problem going. I feel like this isn't as severe as some of his film work but I do kind of sense that there could be more to these characters or at least a motivation for wanting them to try to survive. The three that you get to know are decent but by the middle of the book, I felt like the narrative got too disjointed and you ended the book wondering what happened and how you felt about it. I won't say that it's bad enough that you shouldn't read it but I will say that it is something that horror fans are likely to appreciate more than the casual fan and even then, if you love Zombie's films, you will love it. If, like me, you find him hit or miss, you might want to keep that in mind before you pick it up.
From the start, Zombie and Evensome set up a kind of difficult scenario to work with. You have the witches who are not good people and actively work to maim and kill. On the other hand, you have the witch hunters who are brutal and horrible people too. Then you have the sorry jerks that are going to be the biggest victims of the story and its events. This is something that I have noticed about Zombie's film work and if this bothers you too, you might want to skip this one because you get a definite "who do I want to even live through this and why" kind of problem going. I feel like this isn't as severe as some of his film work but I do kind of sense that there could be more to these characters or at least a motivation for wanting them to try to survive. The three that you get to know are decent but by the middle of the book, I felt like the narrative got too disjointed and you ended the book wondering what happened and how you felt about it. I won't say that it's bad enough that you shouldn't read it but I will say that it is something that horror fans are likely to appreciate more than the casual fan and even then, if you love Zombie's films, you will love it. If, like me, you find him hit or miss, you might want to keep that in mind before you pick it up.