"I should probably be doing schoolwork..." is what I keep saying to myself as I open up the Blogger tag and wait for my crappy instant udon to warm up.
Instead I'm sitting here contemplating beginning the Japanese horror manga,
Uzumaki.
Yes yes, I know I should be more concerned with school, seeing as its the first week and in exactly a year from today I will be done with my B.A.--now thats a scary thought.
Instead I'm going to use the excuse that I'm miserable thanks to the heat, and write my first review (for this blog). So get off my back, mom.
Let's talk about a book I read this summer, what I call 'fun summer reading,' and what my mother refers to as "dear God you're reading another one of those? Why can't you read something fun and happy for once?"
Indeed ladies and gents, I'm talking about a Stephen King book.
Now, I'm a huge Stephen King fan. I've read
Carrie, IT, The Shining, 1408, Children of the Corn, The Mangler, Misery...and countless other stories. So I poked around online looking for recommendations of what to read next and found;
READ 'SALEM'S LOT ITS HIS BEST WORK EVER YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.
And I went "pfffffft yeah we'll see about that, I mean
IT and
The Shining were so damn good how can anyone even think something beats that?"
Well...it certainly did.
'Salem's Lot was written by King in 1975, and its about this town in Maine called Jerusalem's Lot. In this town, there is an old house that sits at the top of the hill and just kind of looms over the town in a very haunting fashion, and much like you're probably expecting, it was the site of gruesome murders and pure evil.
So then this guy Ben Mears comes into town and much like the main male characters of
IT, The Shining, 1408, and
Misery, he is a writer. (Hey, I mean, write what you know, right? No complaints from me.) He comes to the Lot to write a horror story about the Marsten House on the hill, running from his demons by going to confront his childhood horrors -- never a smart idea.
In the Lot there are some truly amazing characters Mears encounters including; love interest Susan, English teacher Matt Burke, Father Callahan, Dr. Jimmy Cody, and young boy named Mark Petrie. The book bounces around a bit at the beginning giving you a different character to be for a chapter so you really get a feel for who they are, and trust me, you'll grow to love them. It also introduces heaps and heaps of characters that just live their daily lives, fleshing out the town and how real it is just a little more. Great touch in my opinion.
When I said "
'Salem's Lot" I'm sure the first image that popped into your head was this:
...or something to that extent. (No, I have not seen the movie yet.)
Yes in fact, it is a vampire story. When Ben Mears visits the Lot, he is confronted with unfathomable horror because vampires have taken up residence in the haunted house, and its their plan to spread the vamprism disease like missionaries spreading Christianity.
Hot damn what a plot.
To avoid spoiling it too much for you all, I'll just mention that obviously the plot then becomes Ben Mears and his rag-tag/dream-team of friends trying to stop the head vampire, Barlow, expect a lot of bloodshed.
Whats my opinion of the book? Oh how nice of you to ask, I'd love to talk about it!
The first few chapters I felt were a little slow, unlike some of his other books. I was irritated at first because I was expecting to hit the ground running with some horror masterpiece, and instead I got about the first 1/3 of the book just being slow build up to the story.
However, when the book picked up, it really fucking picked up.
When the horror is unleashed on the town you know, and you are terrified for everyone in this town.
My favorite parts of this book were;
- You care about all of the characters. Even towards the end with all the bloodshed and death, there were small scenes about characters you hadn't even met meeting their maker, which made it so...upsetting.
- It became abundantly clear that becoming a vampire is a fate much worse than death. And its heartbreaking.
- Its written in a way that makes you think it really could happen. There's a scene where Ben Mears is helping his friend Matt Burke after the first encounter with a vampire. Burke wants to call the police and alert the town and keep everyone safe from the threat, but Ben says "no we can't do that, they'll all think we're crazy." Unlike other horror books and movies, the characters are aware of hard it will be to get people to believe them, which makes it wonderfully realistic.
I could go on and on about this book, trust me. You can ask the boyfriend, I would read it on the train and get off and be like "oh hey you look great today SO GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK IT WAS HORRIFYING AND AWESOME BLAH BLAH BLAH." And he would just nod and pretend to care about what I was saying, bless him.
'Salem's Lot can be purchased on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, or even Kindle AZW file for about $8. But honestly, I'd just run out to
Barnes and Nobel and buy their edition of it. You know, the fancy covers they release for books? Yeah well, not only is it pretty, but its three books in one,
Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, and
The Shining. All books worth reading.
 |
| I mean HOT DAMN its pretty. |
Someone even made it into a purse that I've been dying to buy.
 |
| Take my money, Etsy seller NovelCreations. Take all of it. |
All in all, I'm giving
'Salem's Lot 5/5 stars.
★★★★★
Definitely go pick up a copy like right this second, I highly recommend it. (It may even be my favorite one of his books!)
Alright well, enough blabbing from me. The udon is gone and Catalie is licking the bowl in hopes of getting some flavor, so I will take my leave and read
Uzumaki until its time to go out for margaritas with my History major friend.
And so, dear reader, I leave you with this question:
Have you read 'Salems's Lot? Or any other Stephen King book for that matter? What did you think and what are some of your favorites?
Leave your comments below, I'd love to hear them!
"I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife."
♥ the 'real' Tatum Riley
