Salem’s Lot is Stephen King’s love letter to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The modern master of horror and suspense brilliantly takes on the tropes, rules, and characterization of the classic vampire novel, and then drops it right into the middle of the quiet, New England town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine.
King’s protagonist (if we can really call him that, but more on that later), Ben Mears, is (surprise, surprise) an author who returns to Jerusalem’s Lot after being away from it for nearly three decades. His return to Jerusalem’s Lot is attributed to the Marsten House, where Ben had a disturbing, supernatural experience when he was a child. It serves as the inspiration for the next novel he’s working on while staying at the town’s boarding home. However, Ben discovers someone has moved into the Marsten House after decades of being abandoned. This buyer is none other than our antagonists, Kurt Barlow, the vampire, and Richard Straker, the familiar. Their cover story for being in town revolves around establishing an antique furniture store.
Along the way, Ben meets several other characters who’ll become part of the group to stand against Barlow and Straker. If you’re a Dark Tower reader, you’ll know it is Ben’s ka-tet. If you aren’t a Dark Tower reader, this is a tragedy, and you should fix that. Moving on. Ben meets a young lady, Susan Norton, with whom he develops a romantic relationship. There’s also Matt Burke, a high school teacher, and Jimmy Cody, Matt’s doctor who start to realize there’s something strange going on within their small town.
Rounding out the cast of characters are Mark Petrie, a young boy who recognizes the vampire menace invading his town way before anyone else does, and Father Callahan, a Catholic priest with a drinking problem and having trouble with his faith. Lastly, the important character in Salem’s Lot is the town of Jerusalem’s Lot itself. Between the chapters surrounding Ben and his ka-tet, there are segments detailing the experiences of minor characters living within Jerusalem’s Lot. These are the most delicious and interesting bits within the story as it jumps around from household to household showing what goes on behind closed doors within these small, quiet American towns. There’s child abuse. Loneliness. Domestic abuse. Depression. Affairs. Gossiping. Fill in the blanks with deep, dark secrets happening behind the scenes. Barlow and Straker are a catalyst to hasten the death of Jerusalem’s Lot, but there is already corruption and evil at the core of the town.
Unfortunately, Salem’s Lot didn’t grab me as much as Pet Sematary (easily one of my favorite King novels) or The Shining. While I did enjoy the time I spent in Salem’s Lot, I didn’t feel as invested or interested as I was with other King novels. This specifically comes to the forefront if you’ve read previous King novels featuring a group of characters (ka-tet) coming together for the purpose of defeating an otherworldly evil like in IT, The Stand, and The Dark Tower series. Of all the ka-tets to come together, this one is hands down the least interesting, as they do not accomplish much with each other, and to the next major point of criticism, the characters from top to bottom with the exception of Barlow and Father Callahan, are not very well fleshed out.
Starting with the protagonist(?) Ben Mears, there’s a lot left to be desired. Ben Mears doesn’t really drive the story forward in any meaningful way until the last half of the novel, and that’s being generous. Ben spends the majority of his time drinking beer and romancing Susan Norton. It’s pretty easy to see Ben Mears is an alcoholic and doesn’t realize it. His romancing of Susan Norton seems more like he’s bored and looking for someone/something to do while in town writing his novel. That is only until he’s forced into action by Barlow and Straker, and then he becomes more of a force within the novel. However, it is too late. He lacks personality and doesn’t really make me care about him one way or another. He’s a “meh” character among a whole sea of “meh” characters.
Susan Norton is also another misstep for King, and it is something he is often criticized about in his writing of women. Susan Norton is troublesome in that her only purpose within the novel is to act as a love interest for Ben and motivate him into action toward the later half of the novel. Upon meeting Ben, it seems as if her entire personality shifted to revolve around a man she’d only known for a short while. It’s clear that Ben doesn’t care for her as much as she cares for him, yet she’s 100% into this budding relationship. This clinging behavior may stem as a result of her wanting to escape from Jerusalem’s Lot, and her seeing Ben Mears as her ticket out. King’s depictions of other women in Jerusalem’s Lot also leave a lot to be desired. The women are either extremely nosy and gossipy, they’re shrewish old women, or they’re child abusers. For a story encompassing so many minor characters and talking about an entire town, I feel as if there’s plenty of room for Susan Norton to show how she’s different from the rest and give her more of a personality of her own.
Mark Petrie is perhaps one of the better characters in the novel. He’s a twelve-year-old boy, and he is the first to accept there is a vampire in his town. Another common criticism toward King is that the children in his novels are often too smart, too mature, or too intelligent for their age bracket. Mark is no exception to this. However, in King’s defense, there are in-universe explanations for these special abilities or the wisdom beyond their years. Without going too far down the Stephen King lore rabbit-hole, these kids with special abilities have a bit of “shine” to them. Or they’re being helped along by outside forces. In this case, I don’t believe Mark Petrie had either working on his behalf. As King’s second published novel after Carrie, I don’t believe King had any of the lore behind his special kids trope settled yet. Maybe he did? Either way, Mark Petrie is a better protagonist than Ben Mears mainly because Mark takes action and is more competent than the adults around him.
Finally, the last protagonist character to talk about is Father Callahan. He’s also an excellent character. Callahan is fleshed out through several chapters and some very important and intense scenes later in the novel. Unfortunately, I was exposed to Father Callahan via another Stephen King novel, so his fate was ultimately spoiled for me long ago. This, however, did not take away from my enjoyment of the novel or Callahan’s part. In fact, finding out about Callahan’s history made the character better for me, but not by much. I personally don’t like Callahan in either book, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s one of the better characters in Salem’s Lot.
In a book with such a large cast of characters, it’s a shame we only got a few well-developed characters to cling to as an audience. Even Barlow, who you’d think would be the most interesting character in the novel considering he’s a freaking vampire, isn’t the supernatural tour-de-force I expected. Still, he was an interesting character, and his scenes were tense. His confrontation with Father Callahan is an especially powerful scene in the novel. Straker feels more fearsome than Barlow, to be honest. Straker is involved in the earlier part of the novel and carries an air of menace to him which fills in the gap for the lack of Barlow early on.
Overall, Salem’s Lot isn’t a perfect book, mainly because most of the characters fall flat for me. However, this doesn’t mean the book isn’t an entertaining read. It kept my interest as I read, and I wanted to keep going to find out what would happen next. That’s all a reader and writer can ask for, really. As previously mentioned, this is the second book King had published after Carrie, and while I wasn’t as thrilled about it, I cannot help but notice Salem’s Lot is ultimately a prototype for the structure of future King novels like The Stand, Under the Dome, and to a perfection of the style in IT. I’m glad I read this novel as it was enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d ever give it a re-read. There are other King books out there that are better executed and provide a similar experience. Seriously, check out The Stand, and you’ll see what I mean. Well, there are some issues with that book too, but that’s for another time and another review.
Rafael Marmol 