'Salem's Lot - Stephen King

'Salem's Lot is Stephen King's second book and despite being successful in 1974, it's not very good. In his arrogant youth, King had presumed to write the next great American novel, suffused with vampires as a daring attempt to elevate the horror genre into the realm of serious literature. The undertaking is inevitably a failure, for the characters he so desperately wanted us to care about come across as flat, insipid caricatures in banality. Set in a small Maine town called Jerusalem's Lot, author Ben Mears has returned to write a new novel and exorcise traumatic memories involving the spooky Marsten house on the site. Around the same time, a mysterious man named Straker also arrives, purchasing the house of horrors and opening an antique store. A dog turns up dead in a grisly fashion, children begin to disappear and a spell of darkness invades the lives of the town's inhabitants.

It does not take long for the reader to realise that vampires are responsible for the strange events, and this new edition gleefully gives away this major plot point on the front cover with the tagline, 'Do you believe in vampires?' Advised by his editor to draw the opening out to keep early readers guessing, King made the book unnecessarily long and it suffers majorly as a result. Long winded passages of purple prose will have you rolling your eyes long before the big reveal takes place. The plot spins out more or less identical to Dracula, with little attempt to hide the similarities. It often seems as though King is purposefully flaunting this ill-disguised fan service to Stoker's classic tale. The final confrontation with the big bad master vampire Barlow is tragically laughable as he commands "Get off me!" to the hero. This illustrated edition includes bonus content such as deleted scenes and a short spin-off story. Recommended to major Stephen King fans only.

Rating: 2/5