Hey guys!
Been a minute since my last post – been busy with life and stuff.
I recently went for a close friend’s traditional wedding ceremony, and it was not only great fun but also an eye-opening experience. I realised that I know so little of my own culture lol.
I was also in SG a couple of days ago for a work meeting with the SG team – there are major changes coming and I’m not sure how I’ll cope, but the only way is to soldier on I suppose. I’m not going to kill myself over it because my anxiety charts are off the roof lately.
I’ve also been working on some part time projects; these will come in handy if my (day)job suddenly goes tits up – so even though they’re eating into my time at the moment, I’m trying to keep them going.
I also found some time to finish Salem’s Lot (finally!). Trying something different this year in that I want to upload more videos, so here goes the review. I still don’t like appearing on camera, so for now voice will do:
If you don’t like my nasally drone-y voice (ha)!, here’s a summary –
Fans of horror should definitely read Salem’s Lot, one of King’s earlier novels (I like to call it his ‘Renaissance’ period). The horror titles he produced between the 1970s – 1990s are some of my favourites, the likes of Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Running Man, It, The Shining and The Stand. To put it simply, Salem’s Lot is about vampires – the kind that rips your throat out and sucks you dry, not the sparkly lovestruck kind.
The horror in Salem’s Lot is less about what people do to others, but goes back to a more primeval fear, of evil personified as monsters lurking in the dark. It’s the fear you get while entering a damp and dark labyrinth full of unknown creatures, rather than the fear of walking home at midnight looking out for muggers. (does that make sense?) The characters are well developed with good story arcs, and you can’t help but root for them to overcome dangers thrown their way. The climax of the novel is a bit of a letdown, however, and I feel that it lacks that oomph in its resolution. Still, I think it’s a great horror novel and a great introduction to King if you are not yet familiar with his work.
Fun fact: Stephen King has had 83 novels published. Which one is your favourite?
Ohhh… I love this one! I remember the 80’s tv mini-series!
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An oldie but a goldie ! Actually I think his older novels were better. Personal opinion.
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They are, as well as his non horror stuff.
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I love King’s “classic horror” stuff the most, I think. ‘Salem’s Lot was one of the first novels of his I read, and one of the novels featured in my university dissertation (which was about horror, haunted houses, and Stephen King). I think my overall favourite King novel (at the minute) is Misery, though.
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Hi Judith, thanks for commenting! Yes, I love the books he wrote from the 1970s to the 90s; I think they were some of the best! The new stuff lacks oomph, somehow. Although they are still enjoyable reads. I love Misery; I thought the film was one of those rare ones that translated the source material really well. 🙂
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I haven’t seen Misery yet – I’ve seen clips and I can see what you mean, and the performances look superb. I’m just nervous about the … hobbling parts – I had to quickly skim those pages in the book, so I don’t know if I’d manage with the film equivalent!
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Oh ! Well, the good thing about watching the film now as compared to when it was on VHS is that we can always skip them easily 😛 But it’s very well done; there’s no gore at all but just clever camera work. The rest is up to the viewer’s imagination. 🙂
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Thanks for the advice!
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