A review by andipants
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
3.0
Considering I call myself a fan of horror, I'd long felt somewhat remiss that the only Stephen King I'd read was the Dark Tower series - those were good, don't get me wrong, but they're not the kind of horror that most people tend to associate with Stephen King. So on a whim, and knowing absolutely nothing about the plot going in, I picked this one up at the library and dug in. It was...okay?
The plot and the setup were interesting. If nothing else, it was refreshing to rewind to a time when vampires were terrifying, evil monsters rather than emo-kid-pretty anti-heroes. The ending was satisfying without being pat. The main characters were likable enough, although endowed with no more dimension than the pages they were printed on. I didn't find it particularly scary, but then vampires aren't really my jam in that regard; the story was compelling enough to keep me reading, at any rate.
What really irked me was the sometimes pages-long pseudo-philosophical ramblings about darkness and the mundanity of evil and the fricking weather in Maine - cripes. Maybe forty years ago some of that would have come across as profound, but I doubt it. Or maybe I'm just a cynic. Either way, I think some sharper editing wouldn't have gone amiss there. Overall though, it wasn't a bad read, and if classic vampire horror is your cup of tea, you could do much worse.
The plot and the setup were interesting. If nothing else, it was refreshing to rewind to a time when vampires were terrifying, evil monsters rather than emo-kid-pretty anti-heroes. The ending was satisfying without being pat. The main characters were likable enough, although endowed with no more dimension than the pages they were printed on. I didn't find it particularly scary, but then vampires aren't really my jam in that regard; the story was compelling enough to keep me reading, at any rate.
What really irked me was the sometimes pages-long pseudo-philosophical ramblings about darkness and the mundanity of evil and the fricking weather in Maine - cripes. Maybe forty years ago some of that would have come across as profound, but I doubt it. Or maybe I'm just a cynic. Either way, I think some sharper editing wouldn't have gone amiss there. Overall though, it wasn't a bad read, and if classic vampire horror is your cup of tea, you could do much worse.