October. The month when things go bump in the night. I stepped out of my element and picked up a book by an author I never read, and it’s about time I did. I read my first Stephen King novel! I love watching scary movies this time of year, so I find it hard to believe I’ve never read one of his books. I’ll be returning for more. They don’t call him “The King Of Horror” for nothing.

I researched his titles and decided that Salem’s Lot should be my first one. I’m a big Twilight -vampire kind of person so I deemed it an appropriate choice. King wrote it in 1975, and it was his second novel. 

Jerusalem’s Lot or Salem’s Lot for short, is the fictitious city in Maine where the story takes place. Writer, Ben Mears, returns to the town where he grew up to work on a novel about the long-abandoned Marsten House. In his younger years, he was involved in an incident there which still traumatized him. 

He learns that someone named Kurt Barlow has purchased the dilapidated house that has stood vacant for years. Barlow wants to open an antique store and is supposedly on an extended buying trip so is never seen around Salem’s Lot. However, his business partner, Richard Straker, has been lurking around the town, meeting some of the residents.

It’s a crazy, detailed, and dreadful story that will keep you turning the pages wondering what impending doom will strike next. As I was reading it and knowing that his work is obviously fiction, it resonated as being real because of King’s incredible writing style that pulls you into the pages and keeps you in suspense, with bated breath.

I can’t believe it took me this many years to dive head-first into one of the 65 novels he has written to date. I happened to catch an interview with King about a month ago featuring his newest book, Holly.  That’s when I knew I needed to be a contributor to the number of 400 million copies of his books sold worldwide, to date. 

As you are reading this post, there are 26 days until Halloween. Pick up Salem’s Lot and I bet you will finish this 672-page masterpiece by October 31. You all know how slow of a reader I claim to be and I plowed through it. Enjoy this book..with your windows locked.

“ The true horror of Salem’s Lot was that it could happen anywhere to anyone”….Stephen King, Salem’s Lot

Enjoy the clip from the interview mentioned above, here.