Friday, October 7, 2016

The #StephenKing Challenge: Salem's Lot Read-Along - Discussion One #TuesBookTalk


Note: If you have not completely read section one through subchapter 10 in Chapter 4 of Part One, please not that there are spoilers ahead.

Subtlety. That's how I would describe how King sets up a story. He goes about showing us how normal a town is, throwing in bits of alarming details, like the savage hanging of the dog on the cemetery gate, slowly building us toward the horror to come. It's masterful.

It's at that point, when we feel nice and settled in, perhaps part of the town now, that he throws us the scene with the Glick boys in the woods. Now we really get the master of horror. Yikes. The growing terror is palpable and the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. The scene in the cellar, when Hank Peters has to go back down to leave the keys...and sees a shirt, jeans, a sneaker, and then one of the aluminum bands comes loose on the big box. Egads!

I have been a fan of Stephen King since I was about ten years old. Oddly, I read a lot of his books as they were released, like Pet Sematary, Cujo, Christine, etc., and did not read these older books until I was well past my thirties. I read The Shining a few years back. Excellent. The Stand, also excellent. Now this one. And I can tell already...excellent.

This is the perfect read for this time of year. I can't wait to keep going. I know I've seen both editions of the made for TV movies, but these often do not compare to the book (although the 1979 version was quite creepy. My parents wouldn't even let me watch it when it was first aired. I saw it years later).

From the 1979 movie - Delivering crate to the cellar


So, what are your thoughts so far?

I'm also sharing this discussion in the TuesBookTalk group on Goodreads.


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2 comments:

  1. You said it all! At first I was like "Meh... When does the real action begin? I want blood!" but then I was so addicted to the story that it was a real pleasure.

    I just love how you get to know random facts and then, all of a sudden, there's a glimpse of horror. And then King goes as if nothing happened.

    I can't wait for the next pages. Mr. Barlow is very... suspicious? I don't know. Maybe he's the one to fear, or maybe not. I guess we'll see!

    ReplyDelete
  2. My thoughts on the first discussion post are on my blog:

    <a href="http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-stephenking-challenge-salems-lot.html</a>

    ReplyDelete

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