What is Salem's Lot about?

Question

How scary is the novel for a 13 year old? 1-10? 10 being the scariest?

Answer 1

King's books always read better than the movies. However, I think that the movie was pretty good. But, by today's standards, the clothes, dialog, hair, etc. will make it campy.

It was scarier when it came out because it was more realistic. Today, it would probably be a 5. When it came out, I thought it was an 8. I can not tell you if you will have scary dreams, because it will depend on how "jaded" you are to horror and suspense.

If you are going to read King, Salem's Lot is a good book to start out with. Most of his works are subtle attacks on the institution of religion (Christianity in particular). For the most part, it takes me almost half a novel to get interested in anything King writes. The exceptions are "Carrie" and "Salem's Lot". But, I read "Salem's Lot" when I was working the night shift in the oil field and got the willies.

Of all of King's work, I think Salem's Lot is the best. The book was 100 times better than the movie. If you are wanting a good vampire movie to watch, rent " Fright Night" with Roddy McDowell - It was a little bit better than Salem's Lot (which ran too long).


Plot- A nasty vampire moves into town and starts to kill everybody in the town. The Hero, David Soul, tries to figure out why everybody is dying, then turns to kill all the vampires. He falls in love with a girl, who is kidnapped by the #1 vampire. There is a showdown between the two at the end.

What is so scary? Mostly, it is a build up of suspense and your imagination that gets too you. As posted earlier, it is probably tame compared to other movies that have since come out. But, it is a good flick to watch on the tube in the dark when nobody is around to hold your hand.

As a footnote, when I was reading the book, we worked out of a van and one of the guys knocked on the window behind me to get my attention. It startled me so much, I nearly jumped out of my chair.

Answer 2

If you are referring to the Stephen King novel:

Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot (1975)--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.
Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lot is great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary. As King said in 1983, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires, but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV.... Howard Baker kept asking, 'What I want to know is, what did you know and when did you know it?' That line haunts me, it stays in my mind.... During that time I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light." Sounds quite a bit like the idea behind his 1998 novel of a Maine hamlet haunted by unsightly secrets, Bag of Bones. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Answer 3

It probably won't be too scary for a 13 year old, given all the scary movies and tv shows that most kids have probably seen already. "Salem's Lot" is a great book about vampires in a small Maine town. It's one of King's earliest books and one of his best, in my opinion. For scary content I'd probably give it 8/10.

Here's a link to the book's Wikipedia page but be warned, it does have spoilers! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Salem's_Lot

Happy reading to you! :-)

Answer 4

simple terms...vampires. I suggest that you watch the 4 hour mini series that was on TV then the 2 hour one that went to the theaters... they took the 4 hour mini series and cut it down to 2 hours for the movie theater