Salem’s Lot Book Review: A Modernized Dracula Suspenseful Horror Novel, by Stephen King
- Juan Scheuren
- Jan 16
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 17
Hello, all! This is my first book review on the horror genre. I’ll be reviewing one of my favorite horror novels, written by the King of Horror himself, Salem’s Lot. Before I bought a physical copy of this novel, I remember well that I was eagerly waiting for HBO’s movie version based from the novel. I watched it and was disappointed by what I saw. It is a somewhat of a common aspect when Hollywood adapts a novel into a movie. Some aspects of the novel aren’t fully explored in the movie, which makes it a bit of a dull adaptation of the original work. Other than that, the novel is considered to be the horror masterpiece of Stephen King that cemented his reputation of being a master storyteller in the horror genre of literature. Scroll down for more of the review! ⬇️
Stephen King’s Idea for Salem’s Lot, a modern re-telling of Dracula
When Stephen King was in the planning stages for this book, he was a school teacher teaching his students the story of Dracula and was living in Durham, Maine at the time, a place that heavily influenced the small town setting of the novel. The overarching place of Salem’s Lot, mentioned throughout and a key location in the book, is a dilapidated mansion in the outskirts of the town of Salem’s Lot, perched atop a hill called the Marsten House. King based the Marsten House out of a real-life location based on an abandoned chapel, Shiloh Chapel, that he explored with a few friends during his childhood in Maine. The story is set in 1975, a time when Americans were wary about government corruption and the belief that it was intervening in the lives of people. As King explored potential questions for the story, he asked himself, “What if Dracula came back to twentieth century America?” He was originally going to set the story in New York City until his wife, Tabitha King, suggested a more rural setting in which the vampire can have a more sinister presence in a town where fewer than 200 people lived.
A Small Town Setting is where Stephen King Excels at Describing in Salem’s Lot
Like many of his countless novels, Salem’s Lot takes place in the small town of Jeru(salem)’s Lot, a town that has a haunted past which makes it a perfect destination for evil to establish their presence. King has a powerful ability of immersing the reader into the world and narrative of the story with showing, not telling the reader about what’s occurring. King takes his time at describing, with every sentence written, the ons and goings of small town people, the interconnected nature of community that every character has towards one another, and the dark reality beneath what seems to be a peaceful small town just getting through the day. The town of Salem’s Lot is also placed far from an urbanized location, giving it a sense of disconnection and isolation which makes it a target for Kurt the Vampire, the antagonist, to establish a vampire colony by killing the civilians and spread all around.
A writer returns to his childhood town of Salem’s Lot for inspiration, only to experience a twist of events
Ben Mears, a known novelist in the story, returns to his childhood hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next novel, unaware of the dark reality of the Lot. As he finds inspiration, he stumbles upon Susan Norton, a recent college graduate and local teacher living with her parents, Ann Norton and Bill Norton, at the park while reading a book. This is one of the main relationships in the story in which both Ben and Susan become interested in one another during the middle of the story. As the story progresses, Ben slowly hears of strange occurrences happening around the small town, especially when Ralph Glick, a young boy, perishes at the hands of something sinister. He then hears from other neighbors about a mysterious antique shop that has appeared in the area and the enigmatic owner, Richard Straker, who seems to have a connection with the Marsten House. Straker is seen by residents entering the Marsten House, unbeknownst to them that he is working in secrecy under Kurt Barlow, the vampire, for his arrival to Salem’s Lot. Many people begin to experience symptoms that vampires exhibit: an intense thirst for blood, paler skin, vulnerability to sunlight, distaste for Holy Water, and a loss of authentic humanity. Ben Mears strikes up an unlikely relationship with an outcast school kid, Mark Petrie, who realizes the danger that the town is in and that Kurt Barlow is responsible for the deaths of his school classmates and teachers. Both of these characters team up together to put down Barlow once and for all.
How Darkness Can Instill Fear in a Population
King wrote this book at the height of many government events taking place in the United States. At that time, people were concerned about the overreach of government intervening in the people’s lives. King uses the aspects of government events, secrecy, corruption, and overreach and implants them into the characteristics of Kurt Barlow, who in the story is the figure of authority and spies the civilians of Salem’s Lot, As the story unfolds, Kurt Barlow, much like a secret agent, works to subjugate an entire population of human beings by overreaching his powers, instilling fear tactics among the general population, robbing them of their personal autonomy, and placing his victims under his total control only to be set free by impaling the turned vampires with a stake through the heart. King manages to effectively create a dark character, mixing the aspects of government secrecy and overreach, to create a force so sinister and deadly in Salem’s Lot.
RATE: 5/5
This concludes my review on Salem’s Lot. If you’re looking for a horror classic that’ll keep you busy for a few weeks or a month, then look no further to Salem’s Lot
Link to buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Salems-Lot-Stephen-King/dp/0385007515/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=
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