Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book. But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work—in fact, his hometown … hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.
With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.
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Read the book when first came out and loved it. Getting ready to read it for my third time. Very enjoyable read as are all of Stephen King’s work’s. I have just suggestion I regards to reading this book. Don’t read alone in the dark!
Although It has been many years since I read ‘Salames Lot’I still remember it. The scariest things we can read are things that we can identify with; Steven always does a good job in storytelling because we do find the scariest thing in those things we are familiar with. Steven King is still the master.
Great characters, and scared the crap of of me every time I read the book!
Not my favorite Stephen King book
3.7
In typical King fashion where he includes an excessive amount of details and run-on sentences. It started to pick up for me about 34% in. It’s a much longer book than I think it needed to be but still very entertaining and one by him that I actually looked forward to reading.
I also went into this one not knowing anything about it – it was a nominated winner for a book club. I think that also added to the fun with trying to figure out what was going on along with the characters in the book.
My first Steven King book just to see what he’s all about.
Not really into zombies but thought it would be scarier.
White knuckle tour. I couldn’t put it down. My favorite King book among many favorites. This is his best and I’ve read many.
One of Kings best ever!
CL
What can you say? If all you’ve ever done is watch the dated David Soul TV movie version of this, you are doing yourself and Mr. King a true disservice. This book is a wonderful reminder that even in the early years of his career, King was a master of pacing and plotting with a narrative voice that was at once warm and relatable and at the same time terrifying and otherworldly. This is King firing on all cylinders and blowing the doors off with every new chapter. We forget that King reinvented vampire fiction with this book and that Lestat, Angel, Sonja Blue, the Salvatore brothers and all the scores of blood-suckers that came after them would not have existed without this book. King is not only the best American horror novelist of the 20th century, he’s one of our best novelists ever. Period.
Put me on to Stephen King
Great scary book! Mr. King’s pacing – from slow burn (building tension) to a four alarm fire (almost when you weren’t looking), in the turn of a page! His characters are real – some of them are good company, some are most irritating and some are just pure unadulterated evil! Good prevails but at great cost
Loved it, scary as hell, gave me nightmares. One of King’s best!
First King book I ever read, it haunts me up to today. One of the most scary books I’ve read.
This was the second King novel I read back in the late 70s. I was already onto King after reading Carrie. However, I had no idea that I was participating in the beginnings of a great American writer’s career.
Lots of character development, which King is known for, prevails in this novel. The author is able to find that bit of being scared you thought was long gone since childhood and throws it right back in your face. This story gave me so much dread (in the scary way) because I sorta knew what could happen. Yet, it played out in a very scary and terrifying way.
Without giving a lot away, one scary part was when a character held a few teeth from a vampire, they tried to bite him while he held them in his palm. That’s just flat out scary!
One of Stephen King’s best books in my opinion
It’s been decades since I read it, so I’ve forgotten too much to be specific about it. I do know that his early books were his best, and I remember loving this one.
These vampires emphatically do not sparkle. It’s another one I might view through different eyes today, but it scared the heck out of me when I was a kid and my uncle slipped it to me when my mom wasn’t watching. It was awesome.
Love Stephen King. This story is one of his true horror novels & movies. My dad and I used to watch the movie every Halloween when they had the special Halloween horror movies the week before Halloween. Scared the crap out of me! Always had a hard time watching it alone. I didn’t really care for the ending. I thought it was a little too far fetched but all in all still one of my favorites to get creeped out over.
I was genuinely tricked into believing it was all real and actually happening in real time.