Books Read in 2026 - No. 4Welcome Book Nerds!
I've finally lost my Stephen King cherry at nearly 50 years old! I've wanted to read his work for years but never got around to it for one reason or another. Mainly because I saw myself as a fantasy reader not a horror reader.
I've loved the adaptions of his work on television and film including Stand By Me, It, Carrie, The Dome and of course Salem's Lot.
That includes the show with Starsky and Hutch actor David Soul, it terrified me as a child. I also enjoyed the recent 2024 movie. Both had me wanting to read it even more. Even though the book is different.
So I decided the first Stephen King book I would read will be Salem's Lot, and I bought the book a couple of years ago. It helps that I like vampire stories.
In March it was the perfect opportunity to start it as it was chosen at work as a book club read. Yes it took me 4 months to read, but I did take May off to write. Plus my version has a big foreword and afterword. Its also got deleted scenes.
Sadly out of the 8 who took up the Salem's Lot book club read, only about 3 finished it.
It's Stephen King's version of Dracula and has writer Ben Mears return to his childhood home of Jerusalem Lot or Salem's Lot for short. He's gone back to face ghosts of the past (quite literally) and write his next novel. He's not the only newcomer to Salem's Lot as two people called Barlow and Straker have arrived at the Marsten House. The house that Ben fears most and the house that sits dominating Salem's Lot.
Soon after these newcomers have arrived, children and people start to disappear. Some reappear ill then die.
Ben and a few of the towns people start to investigate and face an evil they have never seen before.
Overall - This has been a great start to my Stephen King journey and I wished I had read him years ago. He has already become one of my favourite authors and I'll be collecting more of his novels soon.
In the foreword he describes his writing journey and I can't believe he wrote it in his early twenties. Twenty -Three I think. Plus it's only his second published novel after Carrie. I was immediately impressed by his writing prose and world building. His character work is also great and the POV moves to different characters throughout the story. Some for a limited amount of time and some characters like Ben for most of the novel.
A lot of characters are creepy and despicable and deserve what happens to them.
It is a slow build story, setting everything up which adds to the mystery and horror as it builds to the realisation that vampires are in the town.
The vampire Barlow isn't in the novel much which adds to the mystery of the character. Although I think there could have been more scenes with him in.
Spoilers - at the end of the novel there are still vampires around the area of Salem's Lot even if the main villain has been dealt with. It is left open ended so if Stephen King hasn't already written a sequel - I'm not sure if he has - he easily could do.
After the main story has finished King pays homage to Dracula with a few chapters set in the past in letter form. These go into the dark history of Salem's Lot and how it was used by the Occult. Spoilers - it mentions IT.
In the modern edition I have, it also features Deleted scenes. These were a great edition and showed how the novel progressed. It did take a while to read the letters in the epilogue and deleted scenes but it was worth it.
As a horror and vampire novel it is perfect, with a slow burn which builds up the horror and tension. Some parts are too slow but it pays off. I'm glad I've finally read a Stephen King novel, I will be reading more of his works in the near future!
Score - 10/10
Goodreads - 5/5
