Day Eleven: 'Salem's Lot

'Salem's Lot is a vampire novel that fails to bring anything new to vampire novels. This isn't in-and-of-itself a problem. It mostly follows the Dracula rules, and it's hit-or-miss in how effective it is in playing those rules for scares.  Little kid vampires are inherently creepy. But it never quite makes the leap to scary in King's hands here. 

'Salem's Lot is about 100 pages too long.  That, I think, is the main problem with this novel.  The pacing is all over the place.  Somethings seem rushed, and others seem to drag out forever. We spend a lot of time getting to know characters only so that we'll recognize who they are when they later get killed by vampires. 

The vampire thing is sort of, but not really connected to the horrors of an old house that sits on the hill over looking the town.  Supposedly the satanic rituals that were done in the house decades before helped to pave the way for the vampire to make his home there. But it never really connects. It could have been left out of the book with almost no difference.  

A lot of the characterization is weak.  The relationship between Ben and Susan is not given no time to actually develop, but we are supposed to believe that that fall in love. But since most of this is rushed, and told to us rather than shown, the emotional impact of later evens falls apart. 

The story is framed by two of the characters after the horror that occurs in the town, and then the novel is a flashback of sorts.  The problem is...I don't understand why. There's basically no reason for it.  It makes for a little bit of drama when you are wondering what, exactly got them to where they are, but in the end, it doesn't really add anything substantial. 

The vampires...they are cheesy.  Really, really cheesy.  There is so much overblown melodrama.  One point in a paticular where a character is talking about how majestic wolves are...it's total "my children of the night" shit.  The stuff leading up the the vampires is pretty creepy. The idea of a town just sort of dying is interesting and could be scary. But basically once the fangs come out, the fear turns to scoffing. 

'Salem's Lot Overview

Connections: Prequel and sequel short stories. The town is mentioned in several other novels, including the Dark Tower series. 

Car Talk: Not much, actually. 

King Digs Dylan: 1 Dylan references here in an chapter epigraph: "Tell you now that the whole town is empty" from North County Blues

Root Beer Sightings: Yep. Like in Carrie, small towns=5 cent root beer.

Lameness of Ending: Low. The end is fairly satisfying, and less cheesy than I feared, considering the rest of the book. 

Fear Level: 5 out of 10 - When it works, the creep level is high, when it doesn't, it's eye-rolling.

Overal Rating: 5 out of 10. There's some good stuff here, but it's overwhelmed by the bad.

Next Book: The Shining