Salem's Lot Readalong Wrap-up

Oh what fun it is to read Stephen King books with other people. This month Trish, Care, and I co-hosted a readalong of Salem's Lot. We had so much fun! Sometimes I forget what an addictive writer King is. I had to put the book down for about a week at one point because I couldn't stop reading and was getting too far ahead. 

Those of you who sent me your address received a set of vampire teeth earlier this month. I loved seeing everyone's photos with them! Before I get to my thoughts on the book, here's just a few of our scary poses. 

Salem’s Lot

By Stephen King

★★★★☆

A small town, a creepy old house, mysterious deaths, this one hit all the right notes. The vampires felt very old school to me. There were definitely no sparkles. 

One thing I really loved about the book is that it struck me as pretty realistic. I felt like this is probably how things would go down if it really happened in a small town. People would be unlikely to believe the truth even if they saw it with their own eyes. They would also have almost no idea how to handle it. Some might know the general superstitions, but would feel silly waving a crucifix around.

Like all of King’s novels, it’s the characters that suck you in. He gives you just enough time to get attached to a few of them before the bodies start to drop. The plot was scary and suspenseful, but it wasn't gory. There were very few parts with where death was described in any detail at all and I really appreciated that. My level for gore is very low, but it was just scary enough to be perfect.

BOTTOM LINE: Definitely makes the list top ten of King books for me. The Stand, The Green Mile, On Writing, and Different Seasons are a few I liked more, but I really liked this one. It was just the right amount of scary for me.

 
WRAP-UP POSTS:
Kay's Reading Life 
The Friday Friends 
Word Hits 
Care's Online Book Club 
 
(Leave a link in the comments to your post and I'll add you in!)

Photos by participants 

Salem's Lot Readalong

Who is ready to be scared silly? I don't remember who exactly started the Stephen King readalongs (Trish? Jill?), but the first big King novel I ever read was The Stand and I wouldn't have done it without a group. 

This month Trish, Care, and I are co-hosting a readalong of Salem's Lot. I might be crazy to do this while pregnant (I already scare easily), but Trish is pregnant too, so if she can do it then so can I! 

This will be a laid back readalong. I will definitely do a wrap up post at the end of October, but I think we will mainly be sharing thoughts on twitter with the hashtag #SalemAlong as we go. Thanks to Trish for the awesome button that she made! Feel free to use it on your blogs, twitter, or instagram.

If you'd like to join in the fun, which you definitely should, just add a link to your blog in the comments. Also, send your address to my email (avidreader25 [at] gmail.com) and I'll send you something silly for participating. Jill started that trend with sunglasses for The Shining and clown noses for It. 

So here's go nothing. You can always put it in the freezer if you get too scared. 

The Silent Land

The Silent Land 
by Graham Joyce 
★★★★ 

A British couple in their 30s is on a ski trip in the Pyrenees when they are caught off-guard by an avalanche. Zoe and Jake's harrowing experience leaves them stunned and they return to the small village where they are staying shaken but grateful to have survived. When they arrive they find the whole place deserted. 

Their reactions follow a predictable pattern at first. They make excuses as to where everyone is, explore the area, act like kids in a candy shop as they try food and wine in different restaurants, etc. But soon their unease mounts with each passing hour and they start to notice odd details about their surroundings. The novel seems tame at first, but the tension builds beautifully. 

There were moments that reminded me of the eerie solitude in “The Shining”. Other times their sweet playfulness felt like a romantic comedy gone horribly wrong. I was completely sucked into the story. I’m glad I read it in the midst of January snow storms. The mood was already set for the chilling story. 

Occasionally the writing felt forced and overly descriptive and took me out of the story…  “The mist hung in the air like a prancing unicorn.” 

Those eye-rolling moments gave me pause, but the overall impact of the book more than made up for it. 

Without getting into any spoilers, the book had more depth than I was expecting. It was bittersweet and balanced reflection, fear and love in equal parts. 

BOTTOM LINE: Hard to put down. At times the writing felt overly melodramatic but that was my only complaint. A great choice to curl up with when it’s cold outside and you want something a bit unnerving. 

*I also just have to say that the hardcover is gorgeous! It has a vellum dust jacket and a stark cover. 

"What are we if we're not the sum of our memories? 
You're forgetting about what we might become. Isn't that more important?" 

"Nurses and soldiers, thought Jake. They see it all, and pretend they've seen nothing." 

"Their conversations were all the time shrinking in length but expanding in implication." 

"Old habits were falling away. There was no need for privacy and the light now had become a property of value, a thing that traded in the currency of life rather than death. It seemed an affront to want to keep it out, so the curtains stayed open."

The Shining

The Shining 
by Stephen King 
★★★★

After losing his job and struggling with his alcoholism, Jack Torrance decides to take a job as an off-season caretaker at a huge resort hotel in Colorado. He wants time to rebuild his relationship with his wife and young son and to work on the play he is writing. His son Danny has an odd psychic gift that worries his parents. When they move into the Overlook hotel the power becomes much stronger and they quickly realize something is dreadfully wrong.
The reason this book is so timelessly scary is because it’s more about one person losing their grasp on reality than it is about the haunted hotel. It shows what addiction can do to a person’s psyche. Obviously there is a big dose of the supernatural thrown in for fun, but it wouldn’t be as scary if Jack wasn’t second-guessing what he saw because he didn’t trust his own mind. The book became particularly well-known because of the loosely adapted 1970s film version and it really put King on the map as a respected author. I can’t believe this was only his third book!

**SPOILERS

The scariest parts of the book aren’t the moments when we see a ghost, though those are terrifying, they are the moments when Jack begins to justify his evil actions. We watch as he becomes obsessed with the hotel and self-destructive in his own life. The thought of what one man is capable of doing to his family is more than disturbing. It takes on a particularly dark twist when you remember that the author struggled with his own alcoholism around the same time.

There is a scene in The Playground (chapter 23) where we get the first inking that things are seriously amiss. Jack is trimming the topiary animals and believes they are creeping towards him. It is absolutely terrifying, especially because we don’t know if it’s actually happening or if Jack is losing his mind and imagining it.

The first time we really see the dark changes in Jack is when Danny sneaks into Room 217. He is beyond terrified by what happens to him, but Jack eventually convinces himself that Danny deserved what he got because he had been trespassing.

“If the boy had gotten a scare, wasn’t that at least his just desserts?”

That’s the moment when we realize Jack cares more about the hotel than his own son’s safety. He begins to feel connected to the hotel and we realize that he’s loosing control of the situation.

“Nothing in the Overlook frightened him. He felt that he and it were simpatico.”

In the end of the book, when Dick Hallorann is rescuing them, there’s a scene in the wood shed that I think is so crucial. It was really important to see that Dick was tempted to do the same thing Jack had been attempting to do. It showed us that it wasn't just Jack being susceptible to the hotel’s power because he was weak and had too much self-doubt. It made the reader understand just how powerful the hotel was and that it wasn’t just Jack’s fault. He truly did love his son.

**SPOILERS OVER**

BOTTOM LINE: It scared me a lot, and I think that’s the point. I didn’t love it in the same way I loved The Stand, because I didn’t feel as connected to the characters, except Dick Hallorann, he was fantastic. I think this is a great book to read when you’re in the mood to be scared silly.

“Tough old world, baby. It you’re not bolted together tightly, you’re gonna shake, rattle and roll before you turn thirty.”

**I had so much fun reading this along with my fellow #shineon ladies. Thank you for hosting Jill and getting us all awesome sunglasses to protect our eyes from the bright shining!

Other Shineon reviews: (let me know if I missed your’s!)

Between the Covers
Care's Online Book Club
You Gotta Read This!
Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity
Fizzy Thoughts
Book Journey

*Photos of me and Ollie