Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - 'Salem's Lot

After reading this book, I came away with a mixed bag. I liked how this is a different interpretation of how vampires are portrayed and his usage of the setting in the plot. Where it struggled was in its character development. I liked King’s interpretation of vampires. Vampires that seemed to have different motivations for being what they were. The outward terrifying appearance represented the inward turmoil that they endured. This was the one bright spot in the character development because some became vampires in effect to right a perceived grievance, whether it was legitimate or entirely in their own heads. Also how the setting of a small town played a role in how the vampire was able to manipulate people and grow his flock. Those that remained in the town faced dwindling prospects, harmful relationships, and self sabotage from internal pressures. Not fighting and being overwhelmed by the vampire was their way of choosing the best worst option. Almost like they were giving up and choosing numbness. I felt like King missed the chance to really hone in on these themes if he focused on fewer characters. He had so many of them that some of them felt like afterthoughts with plots left hanging unfinished. Because so little time was devoted to them, I didn’t feel much of anything when they faced peril. Nor did I believe that the decisions these minor characters made either way would impact the plot. So why include it? This prevented the main storyline from having the heft necessary because of the constant breaks. Much of the inner dialogue and struggles of these main characters felt like it happened off screen. To me, the story felt like it was giving insight into the lifestyle of small town neighborhoods. How difficult it is to have the courage to leave or the strength to stay. Knowing when to let go when something does more harm than good and how inability to recognize this can leave you lingering in the shadows of your decaying life like a proverbial vampire. The horror aspects were also a lot more muted than what I was anticipating.

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kit_kat006's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I was really excited to read this book. I kept it for the spooky season specifically. This was not my frist Stephen King book but unfortunately I struggle a lot with it. The pace is really slow and the description way too long that I lost focus. I never seen a book with this many characters. It was interesting to see the impact of the story on the whole town but sometimes it was just too much. I had to keep check my note to understood who was who and related to whom... Overall the story is good but I never actually wanted to pick it up.

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caspian's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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karina_dreamsinwords's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This was such a slog to get through and had wayyy too many characters for me to care about more than 2 (if even that).

I’m counting the fact that I finished this book as a win because I was close to giving up a few times. Thank goodness for audiobooks and the ability to speed them up otherwise all hope would have been lost! This definitely served some eerie atmosphere, and was kind of enjoyable in the end.

Now that I’m somewhat familiar with King’s writing style, I can tamper my expectations with anything else I might pick up from him.

p.s. Why do your chapters have to be SOO long??!

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