Mx3 Guest Post: The First Book That Terrified You (Salem’s Lot by Stephen King)

I’m pleased to welcome Julie from Whimpulsive (aka SuziQOregon) for today’s First Book That Terrified You guest post!  Julie is ” an avid reader who lives outside of Portland, Oregon with The Hubster and two incredibly spoiled cats.  I am (alphabetically) a beersnob, blogger, booklover, duck football fan, evil genius trainee, oregonian, photographer-wannabe, wine-enjoyer, & zucchini-hater.” Welcome, Julie!

Salem’s Lot: Still scary after all these years

 I first read Carrie when I was in High School and then devoured everything Stephen King wrote for many years. My early Literary Guild book purchases were all Stephen King. I’ve read many of them multiple times but ‘Salem’s Lot is one that I haven’t re-read for the simple reason that it scared the crap out of me.

When Jenn asked about which book first terrified us it was an easy choice for me. I decided that since it’s been over 30 years I should re-read it. My library has this Illustrated edition that includes an introduction by the author plus some previously unpublished material (deleted scenes and two related short stories).

Yes, it’s still creepy. It didn’t scare me as much as I’d remembered but it’s also many years and many other vampire books later. I’m glad I read it before the fall time change because after finishing it I’m quite happy it’s still light when I get home from work and I’m really glad that we don’t have a basement.

I think one of the reasons that this book creeped me out so much and stuck in my memory as a scary one was because it was my first real exposure to vampire lore. I later went on to read Anne Rice’s Interview With a Vampire and a couple of the sequels and in recent years I finally read Bram Stokers Dracula and the Sookie Stackhouse series. I’ve successfully avoided those sparkly vampires from Washington. ‘Salem’s Lot has always remained the scariest of the vampire stories in my mind.

The thing about ‘Salem’s Lot that’s different from those other stories is that in the others the vampire story is peripheral to the setting. The majority of society goes on and lives their lives and the vampires do their thing while only directly impacting a small portion of the general population. In ‘Salem’s Lot the whole town is destroyed in a matter of days after the arrival of Barlow. Only a handful of people get away successfully. The evil is able to devour the town because everyone knows everyone. The friend and family connections make the town that much more vulnerable and allow the evil to take over. That’s the part that is still so darn scary to me. The stronger the personal connection the more vulnerable the potential victim.

I’m just glad we don’t have any trees that would make a knocking sound on my second floor bedroom window.

Thank you, Julie! Come back on Thursday for another “First Book that Terrified You” guest post!