Hello friends,Nothing like a good spooky read to start October. Time to dive back into the King Cannon...this time way back to the oldie but goodie, 'Salem's Lot.
Sadly, this one really didn't hold me. King sets up a town of crusty old New-Englanders ripe and ready for blood-sucking goodness. Everyone is there: the fat gossip, the lazy sheriff, the drunk, the grave-digger, the author, the ingenious child. And there's even a pyromaniac/psychotic hunchback who runs the town dump.
And yet...meh. I didn't care about any of these characters. King does a much better job of establishing a sense of community in later works like It and Needful Things. Here, I was just patiently biding my time until all these folks got nice and dead. Not the worst way to spend a weekend of reading, but still, kinda lame.
Plus, vampires are kind of predictable, at least in this story. Nothing really ever scared me...maybe some mild creepiness, but aside from a good bit of baby-punching (not done by a vampire) the freak-outs were minimal.
Reading this book reminded me of a visit to the Stratford Festival many years ago. I was with my aunt and uncle and we were in town specifically to see a musical production of Dracula. It was incredibly cheesy. My uncle kept laughing during the show, much to the dismay of the people around us. After one of his girlish squeals of laughter the patron in front of us turned back and told us to "just leave!"
I didn't want to leave during this book...but it was seriously cheesy. Crucifixes and holy water make me laugh, especially when I'm reading on Yom Kippur. Give me a psycho-killer or a monster or a devil any day. Vampires can go suck it.
Garlic is yummy tho.
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