Salem´s lot
The most gripping King´s stories play on the subject of loneliness and of course isolation and Salem´s Lot belongs to this group. The author uses the apocalyptic tone of The Stand and describes it in Jerusalem´s Lot, a small town in Maine (this title was also used in the collection Night Shift). This is classic King and a story is an example of the real horror genre.
Ben Mears comes back to his town Jerusalem´s Lot in which he grew up after his wife death. What does he want? He faces the childhood fears which are connected with The Marsten House that keeps the frightening and desolate things.
However, when Mears arrives in Jerusalem´s Lot, he figures out that two businessmen, Barlow and Straker, live in this house. And from this moment the story starts to deepen into the classic territory if King.
It would be unfair for the readers if there nothing strange happens. A young boy disappears and murder occurs after the arrival of Barlow and Straker. But these are the common things in King´s world but in our world it is not normal.
Ben starts a romance with Susan Norton, a younger woman interested in the profession of Ben and it becomes understandable that the appearance of the strange things is an evil that threatens the future life of the whole town Jerusalem´s Lot. And then the citizens of this little town will turn into thirsty vampires. And this can be at a risk to be gripping and moving story of the small American town.
Salem´s Lot creates a precedent for the next novels of the author and the stories such as Pet Semetery and The Tommyknockers used the same fears and aversion of the American town, only Salem´s Lot really catches the desolation and the spirit which is offered only by the small community.
