Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot
Salem's Lot
Author: Stephen King
ISBN: 72137
Pages: 439
Rating:
  • Currently 4.8/5 Stars.
 2

4.8 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 3
Reviews: Member | Write a Review
We're sorry, our database doesn't have book description information for this item. Check Amazon's database -- you can return to this page by closing the new browser tab/window if you want to obtain the book from PaperBackSwap.

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Salem's Lot on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Jerusalem's Lot is an unassuming small town in southern Maine. It is the kind of town where everybody knows everybody else and most of the residents have lived there all of their lives. In this atmosphere it was odd indeed when three strangers came to town at almost the same time. One of these strangers wasn't really a stranger at all. He had spent part of his childhood there and had returned in hopes of ridding himself of some old demons. The other two strangers also had an old connection with the town but it was a much darker and sinister connection.

Stephen King starts his macabre tail with these facts and then begins to weave a fascinating tail. He introduces the reader to the town in such a way that it makes one feel as if he had actually been to this fictional place. The reader will get to know many of the residents, some all too well. Some are likable, some are loathsome, and some are described so well that the reader will actually mourn their passing. One can easily feel Ben Mears' pain when he finds out that someone that he is very close to is gone.

As the dark cloud of vampirism spreads across the town there are a few residents who figure out what is going on. Some refuse to believe what logic and their senses tell them and they fall victim to the curse while others figure things out in time to flee. A few try to stop the spread of this evil and pay dearly. For those who have not seen one of the movies based on this book, this is all of the story that I am going to give away. For those who have seen the movies, neither movie follows the book too closely and the book is far superior to either film.

King's flair for this type of story is well known and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed with this book. It will entertain you, it will scare you, and it will delight you. While reading parts of this book I was able to feel the sense of dread that many people in the Lot were feeling. King is indeed a master when it comes to bringing gloom and doom off of his pages and into the hearts of his readers.

There are a few places where it is a little hard to follow just who is saying what in some of the conversations but beyond that I could find few flaws. I found it very interesting that the reader would not be able to figure out what was happening to the town until about the same time some of the characters do. Of course, that was when this book first came out. I dare say that few people who start this book now, nearly thirty years after it was written will be surprised by the basics of the story. The creepy factor must have been much greater before the plot was given away by the movies, but rest assured, there are still plenty of creeps between the covers of this book.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 30 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Classic early King. Read this in junior high and couldn't sleep with the book in my room. In fact, I had to put it on a different floor of the house.
Bettyjean avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on
Helpful Score: 2
One of King's earliest books and one of his best. A town is visited and eventually overrun by vampires, and a small band of people try to fight back. The story is loaded with so many frightening scenes, you'll remember them long after the last page. This book hooked me on King for good!
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 88 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the best books Stephen King has written, a real favorite of mine!
reviewed Salem's Lot on
Helpful Score: 1
I've read all of King's books and this is the creepiest.
Read All 74 Book Reviews of "Salems Lot"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Acknud avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on + 82 more book reviews
I have read this many times. I feel it is the best book written by King. Compelling tale of a small town in Maine. What happens when your new resident is literally feeding off the populace?
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 148 more book reviews
A classic tales of Vampires and love gone astray.Good read!!
reviewed Salem's Lot on
awsome book...stephen king at his best...scary, heartless vampires...NO TWILIGHT BULL****..lol
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 10 more book reviews
Talk about scary! I love vampire books and Stephen King does an excellent job of making the impossible seem possible. It's very frightening. I wouldn't recommend reading it late at night when you're home all alone unless you're prepared to be scared by every little sound you hear!

If anyone watched the movie made from the book (I think two were made), this has that beat hands down. Much more intense and creepy than any movie. This book is definitely a keeper for me.
reviewed Salem's Lot on
A great, scary read. It's a little campy in spots, but classic King. A very loose Dark Tower Tie-in.
MommyJen avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on
Steven KIngs's book Salem's Lot. Real old, but a GREAT read
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 14 more book reviews
An early Stephen King novel (1975) about a town possessed by an "unspeakable evil."
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 12 more book reviews
Horror/Suspense, dark novel detailing a haunted town.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 67 more book reviews
Very good read. One of King's finest. Loved it.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 7 more book reviews
So scary. I read this book at night, in my bed, and I had a hard time getting to sleep, hearing every little noise and imaging someone was at my window. I still get chills when I think about it. Great book!
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 21 more book reviews
I think this Stephen King book scared me more than any of his others. Don't read it when you're alone!
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 6 more book reviews
Not sure how I didn't read this sooner! I had heard of it and read other Stephen King books but somehow managed to pass this one up for some time. This is classic vampire tale. But written in only the style that Stephen king can write. I loved all the main characters and was sad when some didn't make it. I really don't know what else to say except that if you are new to Stephen King I would recommend this one for you to read first.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 56 more book reviews
another classic by King!
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 44 more book reviews
The town knew darkness...and the awful, heavy silence of terrifying images grotesquely dancing in and out of the shadows...and stark white faces, huge empty eyes and long gnarled hands that reached out iwth lustful insistence...and the paralyzing fear of a diabolical corruption and the hideous peril more dreadful than death.
tlmetz avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on + 14 more book reviews
This is one of my favorite Stephen King books though I do have many.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 8 more book reviews
I read this book many years ago, but I remember being really scared by it. Anyone who likes King novels and/or vampire stories will enjoy this book.
KrayolaKidd avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on + 48 more book reviews
My second favorite Stephen king novel and my third favorite Vampire tale.
reviewed Salem's Lot on + 39 more book reviews
"A spine-tingling novel of creeping terror, gripping in its unrelenting spell of suspense... it will hold you mesmerized!"
"A super exorcism.... tremendous!"
Piper avatar reviewed Salem's Lot on
King at his finest!

Category : Horror

Something strange is going on in Jerusalem's Lot ... but no one dares to talk about it. By day, 'Salem's Lot is a typical modest, New England town; but when the sun goes down, evil roams the earth. The devilishly sweet insistent laughter of a child can be heard echoing through the fields, and the presence of silent looming spirits can be felt lurking right outside your window. Stephen King brings his gruesome imagination to life in this tale of spine tingling horror.

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'salem's Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved. All would be changed forever: Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot. This is a rare novel, almost hypnotic in its unyielding suspense, which builds to a climax of classic terror. You will not forget the town of 'salem's Lot nor any of the people who used to live there.


Genres: