Carrie ends with the entire town being burned to the ground. 'Salem's Lot ends with the entire town about to be burned to the ground. Did Stephen King's creative writing teacher tell him that this was the best way to end a story? King even has a scene where Ben, the main character who is a writer, burns his manuscript based on Jerusalem's Lot instead of finishing the book. Has anybody checked to see if King's college alma mater isn't just ash and smoldering ruins?
At least The Shining is his next book and we all know that one won't end with the entire setting being burned to the ground because we've all seen the movie and it ends in a snowy hedge maze instead!
This book is the print version of a snuff film. That's not a complaint, by the way! Not that I have ever seen a snuff film nor do I think I would enjoy it. I'm just writing a review! King spends the first half of the book making sure the reader gets to know every single resident of Salem's Lot so that he can spend the second half of the book killing them in ways that make you go, "Who is this again? Oh! It's the jerk bus driver, I guess." Maybe people who remember names better than I do didn't have as much trouble remembering that Ruthie Crockett was the high school girl with the nipples and Sandy McDougall was the baby puncher and Charles Rhodes was the kid hating bus driver. Anyway, they all die. That's sort of a spoiler but not really because I'm pretty sure the first chapter lays out plainly that pretty much everybody died but one guy and one boy.
For a vampire book, there weren't enough homoerotic scenes for my tastes. Hmm, maybe I should do a review of The Tale of the Body Thief. That's one of the best books about how people commit acts to ensure that they never lose the person they love but those acts actually cause them to lose the person they love. Lestat probably should have been more like Barlow. Although we never really get to experience Barlow's feelings towards Straker. I bet there were some longing romantic looks over torn out children's throats in that household.
Stephen King spends an inordinate amount of time with his characters trying to convince themselves and others that this vampire invasion is a reality. It's a modern conundrum King has to navigate in that he realizes his characters would know all about the myths and fictions of vampires and it would be insane for them to not question the evidence piling up all around them. It's almost like modern writers having to figure out how to deal with cell phones in modern horror and suspense films. To make it realistic, you have to deal with the questions which will be foremost in the reader's minds. "How would an actual person react to evidence that somebody might be a vampire?" I think I'd probably be like the sheriff. I'd realize something was wrong and slowly realize what was wrong was that vampires were all over my town and then I'd crack and run screaming. You want to be a hero? Then you can end up impaled on knives at the bottom of some boarding house cellar! Bravo! You were brave!
All in all, this was a solid Stephen King book. It also may have had the first appearance of Pennywise in Callahan's childhood memory of Mr. Flip staring at him from out of the closet.
P.S. Hey, Internet. Look up dramatic irony and the concept of jokes before you correct me about the ending of The Shining!
At least The Shining is his next book and we all know that one won't end with the entire setting being burned to the ground because we've all seen the movie and it ends in a snowy hedge maze instead!
This book is the print version of a snuff film. That's not a complaint, by the way! Not that I have ever seen a snuff film nor do I think I would enjoy it. I'm just writing a review! King spends the first half of the book making sure the reader gets to know every single resident of Salem's Lot so that he can spend the second half of the book killing them in ways that make you go, "Who is this again? Oh! It's the jerk bus driver, I guess." Maybe people who remember names better than I do didn't have as much trouble remembering that Ruthie Crockett was the high school girl with the nipples and Sandy McDougall was the baby puncher and Charles Rhodes was the kid hating bus driver. Anyway, they all die. That's sort of a spoiler but not really because I'm pretty sure the first chapter lays out plainly that pretty much everybody died but one guy and one boy.
For a vampire book, there weren't enough homoerotic scenes for my tastes. Hmm, maybe I should do a review of The Tale of the Body Thief. That's one of the best books about how people commit acts to ensure that they never lose the person they love but those acts actually cause them to lose the person they love. Lestat probably should have been more like Barlow. Although we never really get to experience Barlow's feelings towards Straker. I bet there were some longing romantic looks over torn out children's throats in that household.
Stephen King spends an inordinate amount of time with his characters trying to convince themselves and others that this vampire invasion is a reality. It's a modern conundrum King has to navigate in that he realizes his characters would know all about the myths and fictions of vampires and it would be insane for them to not question the evidence piling up all around them. It's almost like modern writers having to figure out how to deal with cell phones in modern horror and suspense films. To make it realistic, you have to deal with the questions which will be foremost in the reader's minds. "How would an actual person react to evidence that somebody might be a vampire?" I think I'd probably be like the sheriff. I'd realize something was wrong and slowly realize what was wrong was that vampires were all over my town and then I'd crack and run screaming. You want to be a hero? Then you can end up impaled on knives at the bottom of some boarding house cellar! Bravo! You were brave!
All in all, this was a solid Stephen King book. It also may have had the first appearance of Pennywise in Callahan's childhood memory of Mr. Flip staring at him from out of the closet.
P.S. Hey, Internet. Look up dramatic irony and the concept of jokes before you correct me about the ending of The Shining!
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