review by Meesh

*Warning: possible spoilers ahead.*

So, today I was scheduled to do a review of Dacre Stoker's book, Dracula - The Un-dead, the sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Why am I reviewing 'Salem's Lot instead? Because I haven't been able to read the other book, not in the three weeks I've had the book and have tried and tried to read it. Many times. Considering I was once a professional editor, it kind of astounds me that I can't finish the book. Hell, I can't even start it really. So I'll be reviewing it at a later date, hopefully after I've actually been able to read it, but if not, then I'll try to figure out why I couldn't get through it.

Why 'Salem's Lot? It was the first vampire movie I ever watched. I was 11 or 12, and I had nightmares for EIGHT years because of it. Seriously bad nightmares about pale children with hungry eyes scratching at my window would wake me in the middle of the night, long after I was past the age of being afraid of things that go bump in the night. For me, it is a masterpiece of horror, scaring me beyond what is normal for any scary movie. I was in my 30s when I finally read the book. My husband got it for me for Christmas, knowing how I love Stephen King and knowing it's the one book of his I'd wanted to read but never had the guts to do so. Thank you, darling, for almost making me pee my pants all over again.

Quick rundown of the plot. Jerusalem's Lot was home to Ben Mears, a writer who came back to the Lot after his wife died, to write a book about the Marsten House. The Marsten House that was the stuff of legends in the town due to the crimes of the owner, mobster Hubert "Hubie" Marsten, who not only was a hitman, but was also found to be a murderer of children after he had committed suicide. A pair of strangers, Barlow and Straker, buy the Marsten house under the guise of opening an antiques store, but shortly after they arrive, a young boy disappears and his brother dies of pernicious anemia, and day by day, more people die. Mears and a few other people in town know something wrong is going on, but he can't believe it is what it is. He and a young boy are the only two to escape the evil after they kill Barlow (the master vampire), and set some of the town on fire to try to destroy the vampires. They leave the town to the vampires, hoping to return later to fight.

It seems like a pretty typical vampire story. I'm an adult, reading what seems like a pretty typical vampire story, knowing vampires don't exist, and feeling confident that there won't be repercussions from my childhood terror caused by this story. Then in the middle of the book, Stephen King does the most brilliant thing. In the midst of the scariest part of the book, the adults in the story discuss how it can't possibly be vampires because everyone knows vampires don't exist. I almost cried. It was dark. I had to walk to my bedroom knowing that these people knew in their souls that vampires didn't exist, except they did and they were infiltrating the town. Stephen King is the only author who has ever written books that made me have to turn on lights the entire way to my bed. I literally walked through a room to turn on a light in the next room, then returned to turn off the light in the room I had just left, all the way to my bedroom. When I had to turn off the light and walk to my bed, I took a dive under the covers and stayed there until my heart rate returned to normal. The story freaked me out.

If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it if you like to have nightmares. It's an awesome horror story. If you have a chance, watch both the 1979 original and the 2004 remake of the mini-series and see which one you think is creepier. For me, it's definitely the 1979 version, but of course, I was 11 and much easier to frighten then, or so I thought. If you'd like to discuss this book, or any other Stephen King book, visit me at the Lair.