'Salem's Lot

this is the 6th Stephen King book i've read and i'm very secure in saying that he is the best author of all time.

I know i'm reading all his very popular work first before i get to his lesser known stuff but his popular work is popular for a reason and i want to know what everyone is talking about

this book is reaaaaaallly good but its the first King book ive rated less than 5 stars.
It was fast paced but the “boss fights” went too quickly and things felt too quickly concluded so the book felt kinda empty??
I loved the characters. King knows how to make you feel like you've known a character your whole life with just one page, its crazy.
I loved Mark. what a legend.

NOS4A2 by Stephen Kings son Joe Hill is the better vampire story in my opinion.

I blame myself for not getting scared. Watching too many movies(horror and others) has dulled my imagination into a stuporous state. I have reached a point where nothing, except jump-scares, can scare me. And that doesn't happen in books. I really loved this book, just so that I make up for giving it only 3 stars. Writing is excellent. Scary - not so much.

The buildup is fine, maybe tad excessive. For the first time in a book, I actually loved the author describing the sun and the wind and the darkness and such. It felt real, visceral.

“The tongue of darkness seemed to lick hungrily at this kitchen, waiting for night to come so it could swallow it whole..”

Summary: A writer comes to his childhood town(Jerusalem's lot), to fight his childhood demons and hopefully make a book out of it. Only, worse demons await him. The fight of the few good people of the town, first against their own rational minds and then against these umm.. vampires.

“No one pronounced Jerusalem's Lot dead on the morning of Oct 6, no one new it was.”
Post-apocalyptic vibes.

Second read:
Pretty much the same. This is far from King's best novels. This is far from best novels, period. It's ok. Not terrible but at this day and age it doesn't stand out either.

Mark was ridiculous character, especially in the first few scenes.

The book is not scary nor thrilling. I guess in the same way The Exorcist (movie) is not scary today. Maybe people shat bricks 40 years ago but I certainly didn't now despite even going out of my way and reading most of it after dark. The Shining or Pet Sematary are orders of magnitude better and more thrilling.

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Original review:
The most over-hyped book I've ever read. It was pure boredom. The two short stories at the end are waaaay better. But they were originally part of short stories collections so I'm not including them in the rating.
It's a small miracle King was able to improve so much in the next book - The Shining.