Salem's Lot > Likes and Comments
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Dustin
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Apr 09, 2012 10:09AM
Thank you, Lena and Alondra.:) It's good to know that I'm not the only one!
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Gonna get it Monday, along with Dolores Claiborne! Can't wait, Salem's Lot seems such an interesting book.
Andreea wrote: "Gonna get it Monday, along with Dolores Claiborne! Can't wait, Salem's Lot seems such an interesting book."Oh, it is very interesting, indeed! Enjoy.:)
Yes, Dustin..... it must be just you. Can you honestly tell me that you placed yourself in the character of the kid as he was searching the basement in "Salem's Lot?"How could you not be scared? Or are you used to running into hundreds of years old vampires?
Hi, Bondama!How have you been?
That's a good question. I can't say as I've ever placed myself in the kids shoes, so to speak, but I do recall imagining said events as SK describes them. There's definitely a fair amount of the creep factor, I'll say that much.
Now that you mention it, maybe a re-read is in order..?
Read this book for the first time recently and I LOVED it! I am not a fan of vampire stories (or anything vampire, for that matter) but Stephen King does a wonderful job as usual keeping the thrill alive :)
I have never read this book. Sounds good though. Might read it after UTD.
Oh, you've got to read 'Salem's Lot, David!:)
Awesome. :) I've had it since 8th grade and I have yet to read it.
Ikr haha:D Salem's lot and The Stand are the first to King books I ever owned.
Just finished Salem's Lot! My favourite Stephen King book, by far. I like it even more than Shining, the story is just so complexe and I love the big amount of characters. The Shining is my second favourite and Cell is the third. I hope i'll get IT soon, i'm in the mood for it. :D
Andreea wrote: "Just finished Salem's Lot! My favourite Stephen King book, by far. I like it even more than Shining, the story is just so complexe and I love the big amount of characters. The Shining is my second ..."Salems lot is such a nice little creep fest, but IT is great! Reminds you of the things that creeped you out as a kid. I slept with the lights on after meeting Pennywise... *shudders*
In my opinion, this is the scariest book I've ever read. It might be because I watched the 1979 miniseries when I was around five years old and it really messed me up, but either way, this book is the scariest one I've read. I had nightmares for around 10 years because of the miniseries, and this book was a great catalyst to start them back up!
Alondra wrote: "Salems lot is such a nice little creep fest, but IT is great! Reminds you of the things that creeped you out as a kid. I slept with the lights on after meeting Pennywise... *shudders* "I'm with you there, nothing scarier than a clown anyway... Salem's Lot is a good second though. I have lived in too many small towns like (Jeru)salem's Lot for that book not to freak me out a bit.
This was my dads first SK book and he read it around the same age I was when I read my first. Kind of a neat story. The part that freaked him out was (view spoiler)
I was surprised to see I hadn't reviewed this one yet. I read this book in the fall a few years ago right about the same time I was reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Hamlet in school dealing with the topic of Memento Mori. With that topic on my mind as I read this, I found a number of similar elements from Hamlet used in Salem's Lot like the scene in the graveyard, and the funeral. Salem's Lot is very well written, but I don't know if I would list it as a favorite. I did really enjoy the TNT version that was made in about 2003, but I think mostly I just thought it was really well cast especially with Donald Sutherland as Straker and Rutger Hauer as Barlow.
Brandon wrote: "I was surprised to see I hadn't reviewed this one yet. I read this book in the fall a few years ago right about the same time I was reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Hamlet in school dealing..."I agree that the cast was fantastic, but that's about all I enjoyed about the 2003 version.
Just wanted to say I think this is King's scariest book. Maybe not his "best" story or anything, but I think he hit his horror highpoint here. (Alliteration ahoy; my... apologies.)
Casey wrote: "Just wanted to say I think this is King's scariest book. Maybe not his "best" story or anything, but I think he hit his horror highpoint here. (Alliteration ahoy; my... apologies.)"
that's okay. I applaude your initiative.
Finished Salem's Lot late last week, and I absolutely loved it. I know The Stand is the resident favorite among King fans, but I actually preferred Salem's Lot. It's not my favorite of his, but it's in my top 3.I don't think a book has ever terrified me, but Salem's Lot was filled with "Oh man... don't go in there!" moments. It kept me alert and anxious. I have yet to read Carrie, but I liked that in his second book, King was already adept at creating cities full of believable characters.
Salem's Lot - wow - read this about 20 years ago. It's a classic though - great vampire novel. It's definitely much shorter and self contained than the Stand which is really epic. A great read - I wish they had made a better movie though.
Tom wrote: "...I know The Stand is the resident favorite among King fans..."MOST King fans.
Tom wrote: "Finished Salem's Lot late last week, and I absolutely loved it. I know The Stand is the resident favorite among King fans, but I actually preferred Salem's Lot. It's not my favorite of his, but i..."I am a King fan & I will say Salem's Lot is a lot better than the bloated & never-ending Stand. Salem's Lot is one of the best pure horror books King has written next only to Pet Sematary.
I just started reading this book. I was a little confused after reading the prologue but my husband recently read it and told me that it hasn't happened yet. Now I can dig into the novel without trying to figure that out.
I just finished the book and I thought it was great. To me it was just as scary as It, but I give the edge to 'salem's Lot just because it was shorter. I like the fact that it was written decades ago and before all the vampire hype from the present.
Kathryn wrote: "I just finished the book and I thought it was great. To me it was just as scary as It, but I give the edge to 'salem's Lot just because it was shorter. I like the fact that it was written decades..."Agree about your comparison with It.Both are great book but Salem's Lot is the personal favorite of mine among the two.
*** SPOILERS ***Having regretfully abandoned King in my late teens I have recently felt an urge to return and to finish what is clearly a worthwhile bibliography.
As a completionist with OCD tendencies I thought it best to start at the very beginning of King's body of work in order to understand how his novels have developed. Having read Carrie in my younger days I skipped straight ahead to 'Salems Lot, which seems to take awhile to deliver on a chilling story.
I think the creepiness began to accelerate when Mike Ryerson is attacked at Matt Burke's house. That really became the moment when, as a fully grown man, I found myself occasionally checking the bedroom curtains were firmly drawn and my hearing became especially sensitive to the sounds of the night. I am only 200 or so pages in and I am absolutely hooked.
I would like to ask, at what stage of 'Salems Lot did you begin to feel an especially macabre sense of dread?
Drew wrote: "*** SPOILERS ***Having regretfully abandoned King in my late teens I have recently felt an urge to return and to finish what is clearly a worthwhile bibliography.
As a completionist with OCD te..."
A friend of mine read this book at my recommendation, and he experienced those feelings at the same point as you.
For me that moment was earlier on at the book
(view spoiler)
It wasn't the most horror-filled scene in the book, but I had read enough King by then to know what was coming.
I agree, Drew. Once they went into that house, I was hooked until the end. It helped me get over the fact of how stupidi felt it was that Susan was even going in there to begin with... There were other scary moments, but the book seemed to not let go from that moment on.
I read this book originally in the early 90's when I was in high school. I loved it then and after reading it a second time, now that I'm forty I remember why I loved it so much. I missed a lot of things the first time I read it, which made the book the second time around feel new to me. As far as the movies go, I always try to read the books before I see the movie. I've not even watched Under the Dome yet. I can say this though after recently watching the Rob Lowe version, it was not too bad but the 70's version somehow felt more Stephen King like to me. I can't really put my finger on it as to why. They both differed from the book in a few ways. Maybe it was because the original movie was actually filmed in the era that the book was released. Anyway, loved the book all over again, one of my favorites. It even made me order a new copy for my king collection (small but growing. I had to restart it due to them being stolen when I was a teenager.) Happy reading all.
K.L. wrote: "I can say this though after recently watching the Rob Lowe version, it was not too bad but the 70's version somehow felt more Stephen King like to me. I can't really put my finger on it as to why. They both differed from the book in a few ways. Maybe it was because the original movie was actually filmed in the era that the book was released. "I agree with you. It's an interesting observation. Though not television productions that I feel the same way about the 1978 version of "The Stand" versus the 1990 version. Though the 90 publication included more material that I found to be interesting the attempt to update it falls short. The book was written in the early seventies and has that seventies, anti-establishment/counterculture feeling to it. Mixing that with the late eighties makes for a strange mixture.
Who doesn't love that sense of fear that an old dilapitated, haunted house brings to all of us? SK developed his 'vampire' character perfectly, I could see exactly what he looked like and what his manuerisms were. I have not seen either movie yet, as I heard there were two remakes.
I still say sequel to 'Salem's Lot!!!!!!!!!
In case you guys haven't read it, Night Shift has both a prequel and a sequel to Salem's Lot (named Jerusalem's Lot and One for the Road respectively). They are short stories though, so don't expect much.
I liked this book and for me it was an enormous improvement over "Carrie" narrative wise (Salem's lot was King's second published book). And yes, I find it scary, but I read it this year (2014), it is a 30 years old book, so the thematic is a little bit overused and the plot doesn't have really surprising twist, in fact is a little bit predictable. It wasn't as scary or disturbing as The Shining or IT for example.I read it for the most part because I'm in a sort of " reading road" to the Dark Tower series. My next step in the road?. The Stand.
I 1st read this about 20 years ago and its well overdue for a re-read, I hope I love it as much as the 1st time
I never did finish the book Salem's Lot. I found it too morbid and draggy. I recently say the 1979 t.v. movie Salem's Lot. Very scary. The floating brother at the window freaked me out.
Have you tried Salem's Lot again? I saw the TV movie when I was a kid and that floating kid at the window gave me nightmares for years! Also Salem's Lot ties into the Dark Tower series.
Dustin wrote: "Maybe it's just me, but none of King's stories have ever scared me. There are certain scenes/scenarios that are certainly creepy, disturbing, and thought-provoking, but that's different..:)"Same with me. I read his stories not because they scare me but because they are interesting and well written. He's a great writer.
I finished reading 'Salems Lot this past weekend. I was impressed (although I've come to expect nothing less from King) by his incorporation of "The Emperor of Ice Cream", one of my favorite poems. I normally keep a list of my favorite sentences from his books but I wasn't able to do that this time. I did really like the little anecdote of Matt thinking about his childhood as he walked upstairs to knowingly find the Mike Ryerson vampire. He thought of the task he had to do as a child and how being alone made it so much worse. Following that was the quote "Alone. Yes, that's the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym." Put in the situation he was in, especially as a child, being alone was very likely the worst thing imaginable, but I can also relate to it greatly (I love being by myself but only to an extent) Further on, he thinks about fear and relates it to his childhood self. He talks about childhood fears that are unable to be overcome because they are indistinguishable and thinks to himself, "If a fear cannot be articulated, it can't be conquered," I feel like this is a reoccurring theme throughout King's stories and I love the way he states it so simplistically! This is also my first post and I am more than excited to have found this webpage :) It's 4:14 am as well, so if this post didn't exactly make sense, I'll blame it on that.
I didn't like it that they killed the heroine in Salem's Lot. She turned into a vampire then was set on fire. I really thought she'd survive.
Love the floating brother outside the window. Creepy.
Love the floating brother outside the window. Creepy.
Jessica wrote: "I finished reading 'Salems Lot this past weekend. I was impressed (although I've come to expect nothing less from King) by his incorporation of "The Emperor of Ice Cream", one of my favorite poems...."
Great review, Jessica!
Great review, Jessica!
One of King's favorite bits of advice to aspiring writers is "Kill your sweethearts". :)
Aaron wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I finished reading 'Salems Lot this past weekend. I was impressed (although I've come to expect nothing less from King) by his incorporation of "The Emperor of Ice Cream", one of my..."Great post Jessica and I'm glad to find someone else who wants to write down King's sentences. He's a philosopher kind of, in the way Shakespeare was, offering commentary on life through his stories. Thanks.
Whether it's a book or a movie, I love it when all the characters are fair game. Makes things less predictable.
Costas wrote: "In case you guys haven't read it, Night Shift has both a prequel and a sequel to Salem's Lot (named Jerusalem's Lot and One for the Road respectively). They are short stories though, s..."Quite creepy short stories too!! Especially with the travelers.
I liked Salem's lot myself, read it a year or so ago for the first time. Has a way of seeping into you
