Stephen King - Salem's Lot

Pros: Characterizations are superb, and the pacing is sure and steady. Vivid details.
Cons: None

It's been over 20 years since I first read 'Salem's Lot for the first time. I was still in high school and I happened to be in the K section of South Miami High's library when I came across this big hardcover of King's second novel. A few years ...

Pros: Characters, Stephen King
Cons: Lack of suspense, Predictable, Bad ending

'Salem's Lot was published in 1975. It was King's second novel.

PLOT

Benjamin Mears is a best-selling horror author. He returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (a.k.a. "'Salem's Lot," a.k.a. "The...

Pros: One of the scariest horror novels I have ever read...
Cons: ...and one of the longest horror novels I have ever read.

It may be hard to believe, but the original title of this tome of terror was to be Second Coming. The author showed a knack of quickly wising up.

Not that Stephen King, the much-lauded King of Horror and one of the ten best-known...

Pros: A great plot that sweeps the reader along from the first page to the last.
Cons: Characterization is fairly good but not up to the level of the plot.

"Salem's Lot" was my introduction to Stephen King thirty years ago, and a better introduction could hardly be found. Although the hardcover version is a hefty 464 pages, the book doesn't suffer from the bloated overwriting that plagued King's later ...

Pros: An exceptional read from a recreative standpoint.
Cons: Poor ending. All down to vampires.

Salems Lot is a very difficult book to review. First of all it is important for me too say that this is my first offering of a read from a book by Stephen King. I know it sounds ludicrous but this is the first book by the author I heave read; and I can...

Pros: exceptionally well-written, pretty darn scary, very character-driven
Cons: If you don't like vampires or haunted houses, you might not be able to get into it

Right up front, I'll say that anyone who has not read 'Salem's Lot because they saw the television miniseries has done themselves a huge disservice. The miniseries, while it really wasn't that bad considering the time period, once again changed Stephen...

Pros: King masters both structure and style.
Cons: implausibly insatiable vampire

and Stephen King conquers the Long, Complicated Novel just as surely as vampire Kurt Barlow makes din-din of the entire town of Jerusalem's Lot. King's second major novel was deliberately structured to parallel both the Victorian shock-fest and the...

Pros: A good, engaging read.
Cons: Not as good as his later works, but that's not really a big con.

What would happen if you one day discovered that your childhood terrors are based in reality? That's the question faced by author Ben Mears, who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot (named after a renegade boar), where he was once terror-struck ...

Pros: Interesting, absorbing, thoughtful vampire story.
Cons: Loose ends at story's finish.

Salem's Lot is an excellent modern vampire story, and it even pays homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula while telling its tale of the undead unleashed in small town Maine. While I've read better vampire stories (like I Am Legend),...

Pros: Stephen King at his scariest.
Cons: Less than five hundred pages.

If you haven't read Stephen Kings earlier work you are missing his scariest work. Now don't cop out and tell me, "I saw the movie." Of the probably 30 Stephen King-based movies, maybe three have lived up to the book (Misery, Shawshank...

Pros: excellently written, great plot, well thought out
Cons: not for all audiences (17 plus)

Stephen King grabbed my imagination and turned it loose with this novel.

Without giving the entire book away, it is about a town and its community that have been haunted by an evil that only erupts when Evil moves into the Marsten House.
...

Pros: a really great yarn
Cons: kept me up too late reading (not really much of a con)

I consider myself pretty well acquainted with the works of Stephen King, but for some reason until now I have steered clear of this book. Another reviewer brought me to realize why this is - I vaguely remember the mini-series "Salem's Lot" and...

Pros: A good old-fashioned scary novel-or is it a true story?
Cons: none

If vampires, the real kind, (blood sucking, garlic & mirror hating, and sun-shunning beings) REALLY existed, how would their first bite affect the poor soul who had the misfortune to have looked deeply into those huge pools of 'blood-for-eyes' that...

Pros: Page turner
Cons: Detailed development makes the book long (but well worth it)

Although one of his earlier works, this is one of Stephen King's best novels. When I first read this MANY years ago as a junior high school student, I became hooked on both Stephen King and reading.

The plot, about vampires in a sleepy New...

Pros: Imaginative, well-written
Cons: If you don't like scary, don't read it!

I just finished reading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Since I work at two jobs the only time I had to read was at night, in bed, right before I had to TURN THE LIGHTS OUT!! On a few nights I was definitely creeped out in the darkness after reading...