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'Salem's Lot
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'Salem's Lot
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'Salem's Lot
Audiobook17 hours

'Salem's Lot

Written by Stephen King

Narrated by Ron McLarty

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem's Lot in the hopes that living in an old mansion, long the subject of town lore, will help him cast out his own devils and provide inspiration for his new book. But when two young boys venture into the woods and only one comes out alive, Mears begins to realize that there may be something sinister at work and that his hometown is under siege by forces of darkness far beyond his control.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 7, 2012
ISBN9780385360142
Unavailable
'Salem's Lot
Author

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

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Reviews for 'Salem's Lot

Rating: 3.9676676971503726 out of 5 stars
4/5

4,562 ratings150 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this book because the author did a good job of building the tension throughout the town. For a book with a ton of characters, you never feel overwhelmed or confused. Each interaction is very realistic to a small town and lays some ground work for later developments. The only relationship that seems out of place is the intensity of the romance between Ben and Susan. It just doesn’t quite feel right but in no way deters from the rest of the book.

    The group of “heroes” is very diverse and even though not necessarily connected in their everyday lives their interactions do not seem forced or unauthentic. The character of Mark Petrie is just so adorable you want to wrap him in your arms and protect him from the evil. Matt Burke is an interesting character when compared to Mark Petrie. Mark Petrie is a child and is immediately accepting of the reality surrounding them as is Matt Burke who is a 60-something school teacher. Matt’s lack of resistance to the idea of evil is very refreshing and gives his relationship with Mark Petrie a nice twist. Dr. Cody is a very logical and scientific person yet he also has enough respect for the intelligence of the others in the group. The main character in the book is Ben Mears and he is a nice normal guy caught up in something unexplainable. Mr. King takes this into consideration as he walks us through Ben’s emotions and actions which are very true to his character. The reader feels each part of Ben’s struggle in their own gut and is rooting for him as soon as he drives into Salem’s Lot.

    Ron McLarty did a fabulous job on the narration. His ability to convey the tension, the creepiness and the fear of the characters was phenomenal. I could really get into and root for the characters and I feel Mr. McLarty deserves as much of the praise as does Mr. King.

    The prologue by Stephen King was good but I found his elevating of the Ben Mears’ character to hero status over the other characters was not correct. It did not do the other strong heroic characters in the book enough justice.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of Stephen King's finest novels.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I disagree with the simple "make them repulsive and yucky" argument. Vampires can be scariest when they deal in ambivalence and paranoia. Repulsiveness just turns them into straightforward monsters where you know where you stand and what you're supposed to run away from. Ok, monsters and running-away can be scary too. But I think the human/monster, desire/disgust, fear/curiosity type ambivalences are where the vampire figure really comes into its own. But you need to make those contrasts really bite, not like those drippy Twilight emos. The vampires in "True Blood" are agreeably scary. They can be nice, they can be refined, they can even be love-lorn -- but they are still powerful, unhuman, and capable of great harm. The vampires in "Being Human" are similarly portrayed, and so they work. Vampires go through phases. Before Stoker they were walking corpses driven by the need for blood, and Stoker humanised them and we all know what happened over the next 130 years. And it's not like Meyer was the first person to make cuddly vampires: “The Count from Sesame Street”, Count “Ducula” and the terrible 80s TV show The Littlest Vampire… do I need to say more? We don't need King to tell us how to make them scary again, it'll happen on their own, they're too much of a use trope not to. Besides, I don't mind vampires being nice to look at if they're also capable of murdering you and not really giving a shit. The vampires in “True Blood” are sufficiently violent and amoral, but unfortunately people often associate the series with Twilight because it's become popular at the same sort of time. The two couldn't really be much further apart. The literary (as opposed to folkloric) vampire has been fatally attractive since Polidori's Lord Ruthven (based on Byron), Gautier's Clarimonde, and Lefanu's Carmilla. At least Mitch in Being Human holds up the Byronic and dangerous tradition. While also being cute and funny, he's capable of picnicing on a train-carriage of commuters, when on a Bonnie-and-Clyde vengeance kick with the deliciously naughty Daisy. Vampires are inevitably sexy: they're all about oral fixation, eros-thanatos complexes, a neat twist on Transubstantiation, and often an effective Queer metaphor. Meyer's attempt to recruit them for her 'no sex before marriage' Mor(m)on family values is utterly misguided…Vampires also should be able to move around in daylight, but weaker. The disintegration in sunlight was invented to show off the special effects in Nosferatu. (They don't sparkle, either!)I suppose it would be nice to get back to really traditional vampires, but zombies have filled that niche so I think we're stuck with pretty vampires. I'm not going to complain about it though ;)I remember having read somewhere Sam Mendes was planning to do a movie based on the Garth Ennis epic, "Preacher". One of the main characters in it is the vampire Cassidy, and King would recognize him instantly as an Irish correlation of "The Walking Dude". He's charming and gleefully amoral, one of the best characters around. One of the most hilarious parts of Ennis' story is when Cassidy encounters some Anne Rice type vampires in New Orleans. Cassidy is unimpressed with pale, swooning poets who want to be vampires, and ends up giving them lessons in what vampirism is really all about. Not for the faint hearted.“‘Salem’s Lot” is one of the biggies for me. “'Salem's Lot”, “Revival”, and “The Stand” are the King novels that I have read over and over, for pure pleasure. I don’t much like other early ones, like “The Shining” and “The Dead Zone” and “Night Shift”; they just don't quite work for me in the same way. His later work is also spotty--I haven't even read all of it--but “Bag of Bones” was probably the best of the bunch. When I'm looking for a common denominator of my two favourites, what I see most clearly is that I love it when King assembles a team, a gang of friends, who work together to battle the forces of evil. I really enjoy the way that King depicts how friendships can form and grow and be solidified, and how different pairs of friends in a larger gang of pals typically have their own individual dynamics.“'Salem's Lot” has a central pivot point in Ben Mears, but part of the joy of “The Stand” and “IT” is that the gangs of friends are even more balanced. Yes, Stu is probably the central pivot of “The Stand”, just as Stuttering Bill is probably at the center of “IT”--but the rest of the friendship circles in each of those novels are given the texture and time to also be legitimate leading characters. I've always been a Haystack man, for example, when reading “IT”, in part since I never was a chubby kid. “'Salem's Lot” also establishes the King formula of the slow build, followed by a long and intense action phase; it works because the build-up gives the reader the time to know the characters and the setting, and to develop some relationships and fondness and context, which gives action sequences and scares weight and consequence. Also, the pay-off for King is long and involved--it isn't like a two hundred page build-up followed by forty pages of excitement--he rewards the readers' patience for the first half of a novel by making the entire second half action-packed, as he does in “'Salem's Lot” (and in “IT” and “The Stand” the action-packed segments are even heftier).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Really, I'd give this 3.5 stars. Although I have read all of King's recent books, I've read only a handful of his older books. I'm trying to remedy that now. If you don't know, Salem's Lot is a vampire story. King doesn't really bring anything new to the legend, but it is still a compelling and dark read. And, I will not be looking out of any windows at night for a very long time - so don't come knocking, scratching or calling out for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When different people in the friend and co-worker group bring up the same book in a short span of time and reference it as "the one that kept me up at night," I had to read it. It didn't keep me up at night. But if you've read Bram Stoker's Dracula, consider this a masterful 1970s retelling. I still thoroughly enjoyed it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I went into this book blind and absolutely LOVED it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It had been a while since I read Stephen King, it was like returning to an old friend. This novel was the second he published, and one of the classics I had not read. I really enjoyed this tale of vampires, and even though it was published more than 30 years ago, I think it has aged very well. It is classic King with his writing style, character building, and combination of the real and the horror fantasy. I look forward to continue my lifetime march toward reading all of his novels and short story collections.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Saw the movie when I was 8 read the book when I was 9. I spent many a night hiding under my mother's quilting frame holding a crucifix.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Salem's Lot is not like today's vampire stories - full of love and eternal happiness; rather, the vampires promise those very things but we see how empty those promises are. This is what makes the book so frightening - having a loved one tap on your window, promising love and happiness, is sure to drive many people to open the window.The story begins with an introduction of several houses and families which really brings the town alive, showing each house is different and has the quirks that we are all familiar with - ultimately showing how it could happen to any small town. The amount of characters throughout the story could be troubling for the reader, but brings the town to 'life' and shows what this evil would really do.Maybe jaded by the horror genre on television and in movies, this book was not as frightening as expected. A page turner, no doubt, but the conclusion left a lot to be desired - how quickly it finished up and life continued on (for some). My biggest complaint is what happened to Father Callahan. He was a strong character and his actions showed him as such, for a while - religious subtext here?In the end, this is an exciting, page-gripping story that brings the vampire alive in our modern world. No more looking at a vampire as antiquated, or full of eternal love for his high-school sweetheart. This is a story of pure evil, and what must be done to stop it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Something strange was 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. When the sun goes down, evil roams the earth. The evil laughter of a kid can be heard echoing through the fields.I found this book very repetitive, and very dragged on. The beginning was extremely boring, it seemed like it didn't actually start to get good till I reached page 100. The chapters are each about 40 pages long, that also seemed to make the book longer. I kept mixing up characters because there were too many and he kept bouncing around to each one and I could not keep track of them all. Once I got past the boring beginning I really enjoyed it. His gruesome imagination and extremely twisted writing definitely kept my attention. I recommend this book to people who don't get bored easily and who is willing to read past the beginning and give it a chance. It is worth it, and if you enjoy a good little scare this is a good book. It just wasn't the best book to me because I get bored VERY easily.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of my favorite Stephen King titles. Still creeps me out!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    King's take on vampires does not disappoint. I remember watching the 1979 TV movie thinking that it was pretty solid. The book definitely adds to the experience with King describing the slow decay of a small Maine town ('Salems Lot) at the hands of the gruesome vampire, Barlow. Two interesting things struck me when reading this: 1. King continues to show the horror of real life America by digging deep into the individual homes of families and their everyday situations. This is just as frightening as the vampires themselves. 2. I couldn't help but think that the slow decay of this small town due to the vampire takeover is a commentary on what many small rust belt towns in the US experienced during the decline of the manufacturing economy. In this case, the vampires do serve as a nice metaphor for draining the life out of these small towns over a period of time. Another fantastic book by the king of horror!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really do like a good horror story..this one doesn't dissapoint.Now most people's memory of 'Salem's Lot will be flavoured by the 70s TV series featuring David Soul as Ben Mears. Well I don't remember the series that well but having read the book I don't think Soul did the protagonist justice, apart from the fact that Soul is a blonde and the 'real' Ben Mears is raven headed. Yes, raven-headed, a nod to Poe there...well it is a horror story after all... Anyway for those not familiar, the story concerns a vampire setting up shop in an old run down house in a town called Jerusalem's Lot in Maine. Now I've never been to America and I've yet to read Dracula (shocking I know...but watch this space) but after reading King's afterword about the genesis of the book I too believe that transplanting a modern day Dracula into a small dusty old town makes more sense than dropping him into a big bustling city-the Lot just works as that setting. An old monster watching over a few minions in a quiet town that has proper autumn weather-where you feel October as well as see it. And the smell of death and age mix in with the dust...a keeper.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Having read a lot of vampire stories lately, I loved that while this book is not exactly a vampire story, it is related, a sort of ghost-vampire hybrid tale. I also was amused by the idea that maybe in this story Stephen King is drawing on his own nightmares, sharing his deepest fears to provide substance for his book, using his dread of writer's block to provide the words that keep him writing long enough to provide his readers with a new book.
    Some of the scenes in this book do get pretty graphic, including a murder-rape, so this is not a good book selection for readers with 'trigger' issues in that area, but for the average thriller reader I definitely recommend this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    loved this book. Genuinely terrifying. the best kind of vampire novel, not like that teen twilight crap. If you want a horror book about vampires down to its roots (Stoker-esque), then this one shouldn't be missed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hard to believe it has been THREE DECADES since i originally read this masterpiece of horror! YEARN to get my hands on a hardcover copy to add to my select permanent library.... and to RE-read to see how my life experiences may alter the effect this work has upon me. Yet ANOTHER work by Horror-Master Mr. King that set the standard for my judgement of other horror efforts. AMAZING.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hey, who doesn't like to have the tar scared out of them...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I. Loved. This. Book. It's definitely not short, and there is liberal use of slurs and turns of phrase that will probably shock new readers today, but it's so, so, so worth it. A lot of people lament the days when vampires in fiction were scary, and for those people who long for that this is definitely a book for you. Nothing about this book is slow, dull, or boring and it's absolutely a page-turner. And while I absolutely would recommend it to anyone who wants to see vampires be scary again, who wants a good monster hunt, who loves horror, I would definitely not recommend that you read it in the middle of the night. Especially if you happen to be at home alone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this would be more of a challenge to read, as I am not normally a fan of anything horror and EVERYONE and their dog seems to love Stephen King. Luckily, not so. Suffice to say, I was even more doubtful given this was my first taste-no pun intended- reading King ( who everyone loves, etc).

    My thoughts? Amazing. Creepy. Incredible characters that make sense on screen. Love the apt characterizations and interior feelings and nuances of each peripheral character. Found the characters Straker and Barlowe completely believable as modern-day/christian-era vamps. Interestingly, it did not feel like I was reading about vampires until characters were actually beginning to openly discuss their paranoia with the goings-on in town. Kudos to King for creating this kind of ominous atmosphere without spelling it out right away. The humor and violence present in the characters & plot were so authentic one moment I would be chuckling, the next cringing and feeling desperate. And as a novice King-reader, I realized quickly that I had no idea how it would end, which was unnerving in itself. I like that I am suddenly reading and interested in a genre that I have up until this point avoided. Inspired to read Dracula now.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At one third of the way through, there still weren't any vampires. I'm not saying I need vampires at page one, but they should be part of the plot setup.But still, this is one of the books that reminds you why people admire King (or did in the eighties). Despite the tedium of character after character after character, the prose still crackles with quaint expressions and sharp dialogue. Even though no one is working towards a goal, the characters are interesting and there are tons of them.Some of whom only get one scene or two and are then killed off. But the difference is, because they get a little screen time AND something you can stick to them (the bus driver who hates kids, the husband of the former beauty queen who catches her in an affair) their deaths have meaning (even if it's only an ounce).It's the progenitor of many of the Stephen King cliches we take for granted today (setting in Maine, supernatural creatures without origin, one-dimensional bullies, useless police, crazy fundamentalists, rednecks, abusive jerkasses, alcoholics, letdown of an ending) and there's pacing issues abound. Though they crackle, there are long stints of nothing happening, especially in the beginning. Although it gives the effect of making the town a character (so there is meaning when it becomes doomed), it makes me wonder which parts were written on a coke binge and which weren't.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First off: I listened to the audio book, and didn't read the book proper, so this review might be a little different otherwise. It is a difficult book to listen to at first, because of all of the characters. But I think they are mostly repeated enough for it to be okay later in the book--wouldn't be a problem if I were actually reading it. I really liked Ron McLarty narrating, he did a bang-wiz job as Ben, and I also really liked his rendition of Father Callahan. On to the book itself--I really enjoyed the slow-burn feeling it has, similar to The Shining. It definitely takes time to build up to the action, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed that the town itself had its own chapters. And I really enjoyed the introduction by King, and liked making the connections between it and Dracula (which is one of my favorites). I didn't like how the characters--maybe particularly Ben, the main character, is at one moment cursing and sounding "small town" and then at another moment waxing poetic. It was a little incongruous, but overall the book was pretty good.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a timeless vampire novel, written before the days of Twilight, True Blood, and the Vampire Diaries. The character development is wonderful, and it's creepy in a way that makes me think this type of thing could really happen. I also liked it because there were some characters that who I didn't think would get into trouble that did- it was not predictable. It was a little tough to get used to the point of view King was writing from- it was the 3rd person and you get to hear a lot about the different characters reactions. Overall it's a very creepy and great read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a reprint of the second book I ever read by King (Carrie was first) way back in 1976. This is classic vampires, better than Stoker's Dracula. And I enjoy the extras in this version of SL, much like the extras we get nowadays on our DVDs.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed this, but I'm a quick reader--this one took me two days to get through. If I'd spent more time on it, I think I may have gotten frustrated with the slow-build; it took King quite a while to introduce the major characters (and a lot of minor, on-off characters, too), and after the first 100 pages I was somewhat impatient. As it was, I read this one quickly, and quite enjoyed it. I like that the reader is kept guessing for so long as to the exact nature of the evil menacing the town, though once the culprit is revealed, the lore gets a bit muddy, and more than a few loose-ends are left hanging at the end. Still, I enjoyed the characters, and there were enough truly clever sections in this book to offset the bits I was less impressed by. Not my favorite Stephen King novel, but I wouldn't warn anyone away from it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was the first King book that I've read in years. I was actually pretty scared to read it because of all of the things that I've read and heard about it. However, it didn't really scare me. I think it's because this novel is centered around vampires taking over a small town and I don't seem to believe in vampires. Now, loved ones going crazy from being isolated in a humongous mansion? Crazy stalkers that are obsessed with their idols? Those are more realistic plots that scare me more than any vampire tale. But in all honesty: it was a good story. There were memorable characters (Mark Petrie, Ben Mears, Father Callahan) that were plucky and admirable and a storyline that kept me reading until the end. And that's more important than being scared to fall asleep at night.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel is a frustrating read in the modern day. Not because King does a poor job storytelling, in fact, my frustration stems from King's apt depiction of our modern political and social landscapes. This book was written in the brutal aftermath of the Watergate scandal and has a buzz of small town apathy and governmental distrust. It's a bleak depiction of the future of small town America that might be more poignant forty years later than it was when Nixon gave those famous double peace signs. This is an American Tragedy. The prose is matter-of-fact and King's penchant for adverbs shines through thoroughly, constantly, iritatingly. But considering this is his second published novel it is somewhat easier to forgive. This review is being written after my third reading. It's not my favorite novel of his, but I plan to read it again someday. And maybe again after that. If it keeps biting, that is.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Saw the movie when I was 8 read the book when I was 9. I spent many a night hiding under my mother's quilting frame holding a crucifix.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The first King novel I wasn't really enthralled by. Alternately tedious and exciting. It felt like 3/4 of the book was set up, and then the final parts weren't even that great. Pretty verbose descriptions that began to wear, too.

    Certainly not bad, however.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What if vampires are real and one moved into a small, New England town? That is the premise of this haunting novel by the master of horror, Stephen King. Ben Mears is a small town boy, turned novelist who decides to exorcise some of his demons by returning to his hometown to write a novel about the creepy old haunted house he remembers in his nightmares. To his shock, Ben discovers that the old house has been purchased by two strange furniture dealers from the city. When people begin to go missing in Jerusalem's Lot, it doesn't take Ben long to get to the bottom of it. But can he believe what his instincts are telling him?This is the type of vampire novel I like. It beautifully captures the fear of the classic vampire - back when they were monsters and not boyfriends.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A modern day Dracula. I haven't read The Dracula yet, but still I really enjoyed this one. The monologues, tangents & little scenes were each fulfilling, concise & well thought out.