Scan barcode
A review by alligatoralyssa
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Did not finish book. Stopped at 93%.
This entire review contains spoilers so read at your own risk!
I wanted to finish this book. I really did. I think the moment I started keeping a journal of all the reasons I disliked this book, I was doomed to DNF. Page after page of derogatory terms and terrible character writing has finally whittled me down. From the beginning, I noticed how two-dimensional every character seemed, the women on another level. With all the praise I have heard over time of Stephen King's writing I expected something at least slightly better than this. The plot was interesting and kept me hooked enough until every other chapter when a "slice of life" was entered that added nothing more than crudeness for shock value. Gay slurs were used countless times and only contributed a window to the author's soul through it. It's plain as day that the author has written the main character as a heroic version of himself, with constant mention of Ben's raunchy writing. It felt like Stephen King looked up the words "stereotypical small town personalities" (yes I am aware this book was written in '75, I mean "look up" in the librarian sense) and went as surface level as possible with it. There was rarely a moment where female characters weren't portrayed as sexual objects, making it overshadow any attempt at decent writing. The misogynistic portrayals of women never stop with comparing them to cows (page 161) or shaving down the lead females worth to her sexual status and her relation to men (page 172). The list goes on and on. There were many moments in this novel that I struggled to get past, a big one being the altercation between Corey Bryant, Bonnie Sawyer, and her husband. Having Bonnie start claiming she was being raped was an obvious setup to belittle women who have experienced sexual abuse, and invalidate victims everywhere. There is heavy framing in making Bonnie out to be a harlot which supposedly justifies her husband's treatment from there on. The treatment of women throughout this book is disgusting and demeaning, and the more I reflect on it the more I wish I hadn't picked up the book. If you want to sweep all the cruelties aside, bare minimum it's weak writing. There are long paragraphs that amount to absolutely nothing, and I'm getting bored just thinking of them. To bring this review near the end let's broach the subject of what really made me throw in the towel: killing off Susan. I could see it coming from a few chapters away, and got pre-disappointed by it. With her gone, there is nothing drawing me to the story anymore. A lot of the plot felt very repetitive and boring. To anyone who might say "it was a product of its time" let me stop you now. Bad writing is bad writing. If this is anything near his recent novels, I will be staying away from Stephen King for a long time.
I wanted to finish this book. I really did. I think the moment I started keeping a journal of all the reasons I disliked this book, I was doomed to DNF. Page after page of derogatory terms and terrible character writing has finally whittled me down. From the beginning, I noticed how two-dimensional every character seemed, the women on another level. With all the praise I have heard over time of Stephen King's writing I expected something at least slightly better than this. The plot was interesting and kept me hooked enough until every other chapter when a "slice of life" was entered that added nothing more than crudeness for shock value. Gay slurs were used countless times and only contributed a window to the author's soul through it. It's plain as day that the author has written the main character as a heroic version of himself, with constant mention of Ben's raunchy writing. It felt like Stephen King looked up the words "stereotypical small town personalities" (yes I am aware this book was written in '75, I mean "look up" in the librarian sense) and went as surface level as possible with it. There was rarely a moment where female characters weren't portrayed as sexual objects, making it overshadow any attempt at decent writing. The misogynistic portrayals of women never stop with comparing them to cows (page 161) or shaving down the lead females worth to her sexual status and her relation to men (page 172). The list goes on and on. There were many moments in this novel that I struggled to get past, a big one being the altercation between Corey Bryant, Bonnie Sawyer, and her husband. Having Bonnie start claiming she was being raped was an obvious setup to belittle women who have experienced sexual abuse, and invalidate victims everywhere. There is heavy framing in making Bonnie out to be a harlot which supposedly justifies her husband's treatment from there on. The treatment of women throughout this book is disgusting and demeaning, and the more I reflect on it the more I wish I hadn't picked up the book. If you want to sweep all the cruelties aside, bare minimum it's weak writing. There are long paragraphs that amount to absolutely nothing, and I'm getting bored just thinking of them. To bring this review near the end let's broach the subject of what really made me throw in the towel: killing off Susan. I could see it coming from a few chapters away, and got pre-disappointed by it. With her gone, there is nothing drawing me to the story anymore. A lot of the plot felt very repetitive and boring. To anyone who might say "it was a product of its time" let me stop you now. Bad writing is bad writing. If this is anything near his recent novels, I will be staying away from Stephen King for a long time.