!vampires

If you haven't heard of it, here's the synopsis: An author returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover that the townspeople are being attacked by a bloodthirsty vampire.

It was pretty good, I read it over October. I found the early Marsten House parts more scary than the actual vampires, but I have a greater theory that it stems from the younger generations becoming desensitized to vampires through franchises like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and kids' ones like Hotel Transylvania. Boomers in 1975 must've shat their pants at this book. It did have some spooky vampire moments that could've been mitigated if people just closed their goddarn blinds and window shutters. It was creepy when danny glick did it but by the time it got to Susan she's just like oohhh maaark let me in your window I'll be your vampire mommy girlfriend oOooOo~! and mark's just like no this isnt scary anymore Mr. King just let me sleep and take that thot with you. Last bit on the vampires, I am of the opinion that Barlow jobbed at the end and his demise was anticlimactic but I can't imagine the alternative would be a Castlevania style battle between King Vampire and a grieving thirtysomething writer with emotional baggage; a Callahan vs. Barlow showdown would've been too Marvel.

The best parts had to be the worldbuilding, the coziness of the town setting, and later the terror of how inevitably buttery smooth the town descends into ruin when faced with this threat. King's treatment of the vampires felt very raw and refreshing from the perspective of someone who grew up in an age of hot teen vampires.

As far as characters go, protagonist Ben Mears himself was just all right and Mark Petrie felt like King's overpowered childhood self-insert; no 5th-grader would accomplish that much, he'd just be scared shitless and die like the Glick kids did. Or maybe some kids were just built different in the 70's. I haven't read or watched It and those kids did pretty well for themselves. Maybe I just sucked as a 10 year old. Both Father Callahan and Matt Burke would later steal the show and had me wondering if I even cared about Ben anymore. Susan Norton was mid and died mid, RIP lol. The novel got better when I decided that Constable Parkins Gillespie was the exact same person as Wayne Unser from Sons of Anarchy and I read all of his lines in Dayton Callie's voice.

I've seen its slow, meandering beginning 1/4 to 1/3 criticized, but whatever, I can appreciate things some people call uneventful or boring. It's an easy read and becomes a page-turner when things ramp up. I haven't watched any of the adaptations but I can say that in no universe does Ben Mears look like Rob Lowe. Maybe a dollar store Rob Lowe with less defined features.

I forgot /h/lit existed so this will live here