Book Review – Stephen King’s “‘Salem’s Lot”

Today I finished reading ‘Salem’s Lot, one of Stephen King‘s earlier novels.

Set in the fictitious town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, the story involves an ancient vampire attacking the residents and slowly building an army of the undead.  It’s up to a small team of people to defy the odds and put an end to the attacks before the whole town is eventually killed.

‘Salem’s Lot begins with Ben Mears, a writer who grew up in the town of Jerusalem’s Lot (often shortened to just ‘Salem’s Lot), a small town in Maine.  He’s returning to town to continue working on his next book, a story involving the Marsten House, a house with a very negative reputation (for both the locals as well as Ben Mears).

After arriving in town, Ben quickly begins a relationship with Susan Norton, a young lady who is a fan of his writings.  Ben also befriends Matt Burke, an older high school teacher who knows anything and everything about the town.

Ben’s arrival in ‘Salem’s Lot coincides with a mysterious Austrian named Kurt Barlow purchasing and moving into the abandoned Marsten House.  One of the odd things is that nobody in town ever sees Kurt Barlow, they only see his associate and business partner, Richard Straker.  It’s Richard Straker who handles the affairs of the house as well as sets up and runs Barlow and Straker — Fine Furnishings, a high-end furniture store planned for the tourists.

It’s not long until a young boy named Ralphie Glick suddenly disappears.  He was walking through the woods with his older brother, Danny, when Danny was attacked by an unknown entity and fell unconscious.  When he later woke and returned home, Ralphie was still missing.  Later we learn that Ralphie Glick was sacrificed in a ritualistic manner to appease a higher being.  Not only after that Danny Glick falls ill and dies while in the hospital.  Danny becomes the first person in ‘Salem’s Lot to become a vampire.

During the next couple of weeks, Danny Glick attacks other people and the number of people killed and turned into vampires slowly grows.  People slowly start disappearing, and as a result the town itself continues to shrivel up and die.

One of Danny’s intended victims is another young boy named Mark Petrie.  It turns out that Mark is a smart young man who knows folklore about monsters, zombies, and even vampires.  He knows that vampires need to be invited inside of a house before they can strike.  He also knows that holy items such as crosses and holy water can keep vampires at bay.  Mark refuses to allow Danny into his parents’ house, and then he uses a cross to make Danny flee.

As the town’s people continue to disappear, Ben Mears has a suspicion about what is really happening, but nobody wants to listen or believe his story.  He soon discovers an ally in Matt Burke after Matt is attacked by a vampire in his own home.  A mild heart attack later puts Matt into the hospital, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing to research the topic of vampires.  He eventually persuades his personal doctor, Jimmy Cody, into further investigating his theory about the locals being turned into vampires.

Susan Norton believes the stories after Matt is attacked and sent to the hospital, and that’s when Mark Petrie finds the group and shares his vampire encounter as well.  The general theory is that the vampires are somehow tied to Richard Straker, and the chief vampire himself might be residing in the old Marsten House.

While Ben Mears is in the hospital and recovering from his injuries (he was viciously attacked by Susan’s ex-boyfriend), Susan and Mark both decide to investigate the Marsten House.  They had both set out individually and accidentally ran into each other in the woods outside of the house.  They work together to break into the house and try to find Kurt Barlow.  Their plan is foiled when Richard Straker surprises them both and attacks them.  Susan is taken down into the cellar to be Barlow’s next victim, and Mark is taken to an upstairs bedroom and tied up so that he can be another victim for when Barlow is ready.

After Straker leaves the room, Mark works on his ropes and eventually frees himself.  He then makes a weapon and ambushes Straker when he returns to the room.  Straker is violently beaten and nearly killed, and Mark runs downstairs.  He tries to help Susan but he’s too late.  Susan is attacked by Barlow and turned into a vampire, and Mark flees the house.  He runs back to town and returns to his parents.

The local priest Father Callahan is persuaded to join the fight against vampires.  He joins together with Ben Mears, Jimmy Cody and Mark Petrie to go to the Marsten House to find and supposedly kill Kurt Barlow.  When they enter the house they discover that Richard Straker had been killed by Barlow and left hanging in an upstairs bedroom.  They go down to the cellar and there’s no trace of Kurt Barlow.  Instead, they find a letter that Barlow wrote that personally threatened each member of the vampire hunting party.  They also discover the body of Susan Norton.  She’s a vampire and Ben Mears is forced to drive a wooden stake through her heart to “kill” her.

After the trip to the Marsten House, Father Callahan goes with Mark so that he can warn his parents of the threat by Barlow.  His parents don’t believe him, and during their discussion Barlow attacks their house.  Both of Mark’s parents are killed (but not turned into vampires), and Barlow takes Mark prisoner and has a stand-off with Callahan.  Father Callahan negotiates for Mark’s release and then tries to fight Barlow one-on-one.  Callahan loses and he’s forced to drink the blood of Barlow.  Callahan is left alive but in an alternate reality where he is no longer allowed to even touch the doors of a church.  As he later discovers, touching the church doors causes a powerful electric shock.

Father Callahan is now a broken man.  He purchases a ticket for the end of the line on the first bus out of town.  The last we hear is that Callahan has turned to alcohol to help ease his mental pain and suffering.

Not long after Callahan’s defeat, Matt Burke dies from a heart problem.  Now it’s up to Ben, Jimmy and Mark to find and destroy Barlow along with the rest of the vampires in town.  They quickly work during the daylight hours while all of the vampires are resting in their hiding places.

Ben begins making hundreds of wooden stakes while Jimmy and Mark begin to explore the town and locate the sleeping vampires.  They enter homes and make a note of any vampires so that they can later return and kill them.  While going through the homes, Mark and Jimmy realize that Barlow is really hiding at Eva Miller’s boarding house, the same place where Ben had been temporarily living while researching and writing his latest book.

When they arrive at the boarding house, Jimmy and Mark discover that the place is quiet.  Nobody can be found.  That only means that the people there had all been attacked and turned into vampires.  When Jimmy heads downstairs to the cellar to look for Barlow, he falls through a section of the stairs and impales himself on many knives.  It was a trap.  Barlow was expecting them to eventually search in that house.  Jimmy quickly dies from his numerous wounds, and Mark takes Jimmy’s car and barely manages to drive back to Ben and tell him what happened.

As the daylight hours quickly diminish, Ben and Mark return to the boarding house.  They carefully reach the basement and discover a second storage area hidden behind some furniture.  Inside there is a coffin containing Barlow’s resting body.  They open it and prepare to kill him with a wooden stake.  Suddenly Barlow’s eyes open and Mark looks into them.  Mark is hypnotized and acts under Barlow’s orders and tries to kill Ben.  The attack fails and Ben manages to fight off Mark.  Ben then takes a wooden stake and pounds it through Barlow’s heart, finally killing the head vampire.

By this point the sun had finally set and the other vampires in the boarding house have “awakened”.  They’re still deadly vampires, but now they’re leaderless and acting on their own.  As the vampires stare at the dead body of their master, Ben and Mark slip out of the house and escape from town.

‘Salem’s Lot ends a short while later when Ben and Mark return to ‘Salem’s Lot to finish their business with the vampires.  They had been reading through newspapers and taking note of all of the disappearances associated with that small town.  It’s extremely dry outside, so Ben decides to start a fire that will quickly sweep through the town and destroy the buildings.  Many of the vampires will be killed in the fire, and the others will be forced to find alternate resting places.  That’s when Ben and Mark will continue to hunt and destroy them, extracting their revenge and ridding the world of the menacing creatures of the night.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is ‘Salem’s Lot any good?

Absolutely!

This is a fantastic story that takes a terrifying look at vampires as they slowly take over a small town, killing the residents and converting them into vampires as well.  If you love bloodshed, vampires, and a tale of things that go bump in the night, then ‘Salem’s Lot is definitely for you.

Although this story was first published in 1975, it’s still a great read for today’s audiences.  The biggest issues for people will be the terminology used by some of the characters.  Otherwise, apart from the lack of computers and cell phones, it’s very easy to picture the events in this book taking place in a small town today.

To me, the character of Kurt Barlow was quite fascinating.  I was left with a craving of wanting to know more about him and his evil activities for the past thousand or so years.  We know that he’s an extremely old creature, but that’s really about it.  What brought him to Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine?  Where else has he lived (and killed)?  Where did he come from?

Barlow’s mystery helps add to the terror in this story.  We’re fed small pieces of information, and it’s up to us to use our imagination and fill out the rest of the details.  All that we need to know is that he’s evil, he’s supernatural, he’ll gladly kill everybody in his path, and he has existed for over a thousand years.

‘Salem’s Lot is a page-turner from start to finish.  Be cautioned that you may have several sleepless nights as you continue to turn the pages and discover what happens to the characters.