‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Contrary to what many people believe vampires are not a recent creation and have actually populated the minds of man since the dawn of human civilization, though not always in the formats we visualize today. They also weren’t always looked at as a fictitious creature and instead were just accepted as a part of the world, alas, a darker supernatural part of the world but one which many people understood to exist, especially in a time when science was barely able to explain or make sense of the oddities that people faced on a regular basis. It is also interesting to note that Bram Stoker wasn’t the first when it came to penning stories about vampires, yet he is probably the most famous. Many also consider him to be the father of the modern day vampire because in the decades following the publication of his novel filmmakers started taking an interest in vampires and often used his novel and title character as a model for their own works, ones which slowly but surely helped to popularize the vampire figure and mold it into the creature that most recognize today. This molding was not without conflict, however, and despite what many people think today, the divide between the “romantic vampire” and the “monster vampire” is not new and pretty much dates back to the early onscreen visual depictions of the vampire, the 1922 movie Nosferatu (Max Schreck) and the 1931 Dracula (Bela Lugosi) giving viewers the two images that most vampire depictions would be based on up to the present day. Around 1973, while still teaching high school, Stephen King decided to add his own story into the even growing vampire mix; though rather than picking a specific type of vampire to depict he decided to merge the two, his idea being to combine the somewhat romantic Victorian vampire of Bram Stoker’s Dracula with the bloodthirsty vampires of the 1950 E.C. Comics which he enjoyed while growing up, all of which he talks about in the introduction of the Pocket Books printing of ‘Salem’s Lot. What resulted was one of the best vampire novels ever written, case closed.

‘Salem’s Lot is the story of Ben Mears and the town of Jerusalem’s Lot, a place he spent some time in as a child and returns to as an adult. A moderately successful novelist, Ben Mears hopes the relocation to the town will help him write his latest novel while also exorcizing some of demons from his past that haunt him, particularly one revolving around a horrible childhood experience with the old Marsten House, and another involving the death of his wife in a motorcycle accident, the latter of which he partially blames himself for even though it wasn’t really his fault. Unfortunately rather than destroying the horrible memories the move to Jerusalem’s Lot will only add more as the town is quickly, yet quietly overrun by vampires, all spawned by Kurt Barlow, a very old and powerful vampire who purchased the Marsten House before Ben Mears could get his hands on it. Now the question is, will Ben Mears and his newfound companions be able to fight off the growing vampire hoard and save the town, or succumb to the fate Kurt Barlow wishes upon them, one that many would consider to be worse then death. Only time will tell, time filled with the agony of loss, something which the small band of vampire hunters must get used to if they are going to stand and fight this evil.

“Best damned book ever written,” was the response I got when I brought this novel to the checkout counter in Borders in the fall of 2000. It was a statement that completely blew my mind away because I had never heard anyone in such a position say anything like that before (haven’t since either). The guy’s enthusiasm was correct, however, and while I won’t go so far as to say this was the best book ever written, it is certainly within my top ten favorite list, one which is heavily populated by Stephen King’s works. Even more impressive, however, is the fact that I was not even a fan of vampire fiction when I bought this book, my mind kind of thinking vampires were a bit stale, yet came to love the story and characters so much while reading the first few chapters in the store that I bought it. To this day I still don’t know what possessed me to even pick up the book given my dislike of vampires. All I know is I went to the store in hopes of finding a new author to read since I had consumed everything by Dean Koontz (the first grown up horror author I was allowed to sink my teeth into and had been wanting to read for years), and walked out with ‘Salem’s Lot, a novel that would turn me into a die hard Stephen King fan, one who gobbled up everything the author had in print within a few months. Since then I have eagerly waited every new release, my mind and body always ready to sit down and be lost within the pages of this author’s amazing imagination. I don’t care what anyone else says, Stephen King is the best. No other author even comes close to matching his abilities.