Stphn King

The words "Vampire Drama"have certainly been dragged through the mud in recent years. Romanticizing the idea of getting bitten by a blood-sucking, flesh-eating monster who can't come outside in the daylight. Stephen King's 'Salems Lot however may be the beacon of light for this troubled genre.

'Salem's lot tells the story of author Benjamin Mears with a perfect mixture of a haunted house horror and Vampire infiltration as he returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's lot, Maine to write a horror story about the Marsten House where a murder suicide had occurred many years before, Ironically though he soon finds himself in his own horror story

This story begins with the kidnapping and sacrificial murder of Ralphie Glick, a young resident of the town, and then the eventual death of his older brother Danny. Slowly the rest of this small town begins mysteriously dying off, more every night all while the bodies of the dead are beginning to disappear from the morgue and graveyard.

Only then does Ben finally realize what is really happening, the new residents of The Marsten House are in fact vampires infecting the entire town. How Stephen King incorporates this revelation into his book majorly changes the outcome of the story, Stephen King writes his book with only a few people believing Ben's story, this obviously makes it much more difficult to save the town and also makes the plot line ever more tumultuous.

Stephen King's use of description greatly enhances the readers view of the town and it's dire situation by describing every detail of the story so as to paint a picture for the reader:
"The witch grass grew wild and tall in the front yard, obscuring the old, frost-heaved flagstones that led to the porch...The house itself looked toward town. It was huge and rambling and sagging, its windows haphazardly boarded shut, giving it that sinister look of all old houses that have been empty for a long time. The paint had been weathered away, giving the house a uniform gray look. Windstorms had ripped many of the shingles off, and a heavy snowfall had punched in the west corner of the main roof, giving it a slumped, hunched look. A tattered no-trespassing sign was nailed to the right-hand newel post.

This description give a much clearer picture than just saying the Gray house had a hole in it and it was falling apart, like many other authors would have done in such a case.

The way Stephen King includes all of his characters is astounding, by giving each one a small part of the story to tell. For example if the characters separate by any chance the book will follow each one and tell that piece of the story, this may seem mundane but it was an extremely helpful aide in reading this book.

I also found it interesting that 'Salems lot had three titles. First was The Second Coming, but was discouraged By his wife, and fellow author, Tabitha King by saying it sounded too much like a bad sex story," His second title was Jerusalem's lot, but was shot down by his publisher for sounding "too religious,"Finally he decided on the title of 'Salems Lot This is why I rate the book Salem's lot a 5 out of 5 stars.… (mehr)