|
\'Salem\'s Lot was King\'s second published novel, and it came to be one of the first to award King the title \"Master of Horror.\" Situated firmly between the telekinetic girl of Carrie and the haunted hotel of The Shining, \'Salem\'s Lot\'s vampires stands as one of the scariest novels ever written.
It concerns a small town in Maine named Jerusalem\'s Lot (shortened to \'salem\'s Lot) and the pervasive evil that comes to inhabit it. The town knows horror, of course. Years before the main events of the novel take place, we learn that a man named Hubie Marsten (prisoner of psychosexual disorders he can\'t control) commited a murder- suicide and now his house stands empty, seeming to watch over the town. The Marsten House becomes the symbol of evil in the novel, a central place in which terror and death come from. The Bad Place motif will be used countless times in later King fictions. Introduced to the small town of \'salem\'s lot are three strangers: a writer named Ben Mears who used to live in the town when he was young; a young boy named Mark Petrie, a kid obsessed with monsters and horror movies; and the mysterious figure known as Mr. Barlow, who opens up a shop in town (quite an obvious precursor to Needful Things\' Leland Gaunt). But Barlow himself doesn\'t make an appearance in the novel until more than halfway through. His assistant, Mr. Straker, takes care of Barlow\'s business while Barlow takes care of the town\'s business. Following the arrival of these strangers, a young boy is found dead. Then, after the funeral when darkness falls on the town, the boy emerges from his coffin. His father\'s command becomes prophecy. Death invades the town, but it is not really death that grips it: it is the much worse undeath of vampirism. By the time Ben Mears, Mark Petrie and their friends discover the truth, the town is almost unsalvagable. Their only hope is to destroy Barlow, burn the town, and escape. The novel begins and ends with Ben and Mark leaving to once again visit the Lot, as they have discovered the vampire threat hasn\'t vanished. What exists, though, is one of King\'s most intense and scary books. King\'s mastery of vampire myths and legends is amazing, especially in how he infuses them into a modern-day society. And the fact that the major villain stays behind the scenes for the first third of the novel only adds to the excitement and anxiety. \'Salem\'s Lot. is not just a vampire novel. It is a novel of pure and unbridled fear, a truly scary book,. But it is about small towns and the nature of evil. It is about love found, love lost, and the persistance of hope. And, well, it has those vampires.
|
