'Salem's Lot

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Doubleday - October 17, 1975
439 pages

Ben Mears, a popular writer, lived in Jerusalem's Lot when he was young, and left as soon as he could. But now, twenty-five years later, he feels a strange, compelling urge that pulls him back to the Lot. He decides to make his new book about the Marsten House, a house that was owned by a couple whose marriage was ruined in the Depression when Hubert Marsten killed his wife and then himself. Now, after all this time, the house has been purchased by two men named Barlow and Straker, who are not what they seem.

This novel began extremely slowly. I knew that something was going to happen when Ben came back as well as when the house was found to be purchased, but the vampire plot didn't surface until much later in the story, when (spoiler alert!)Danny Glick, who died following his little brother Ralphie being taken in the woods, rose from the grave and killed the gravedigger(spoiler end) that the real action began. Afterwards, it moved quickly. Sometimes, though, it seemed like King was looking for an easy way out, like when a vampire who was invited in was repelled by the invitation being revoked, something that seems too easy to do. Some of the many viewpoints got confusing or I did not care about. There were also many "crash test dummies", as mentioned in my Mockingjay review. As for characterization, some characters felt like archetypes while others were developed. I would be interested in seeing how Ben Mears would have written this story.

Grade: B