'Salem's Lot (2)

by Stephen King

Once we have reached part 2 of 'Salem's Lot it is clear that we are in full battle mode. The fighters on behalf of the human race (at least the members of the human race that live in Jerusamlem's Lot) are a small group, which is quite a common device in King's output.

Ben Mears is still very much a part of the group, but his new girlfriend Susan is one of the first to fall victim to the Marsten House and the creature that lives therein. Before she is bitten, though, she teams up with little Mark Petrie, whom we have previously met in part 1 of the story but who only now becomes a major player. Mark is one of many, many heroic children that also become a common theme in Stephen King's books. They are mostly boys. Only very few main players are young girls (Firestarter, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon). Also joining in are the now bedridden Matt Burke (who will shortly succumb to a heart attack), his doctor Jimmy Cody and the priest Father Callahan.

From my first read I didn't remember Father Callahan showing up so late in the narrative. I thought him to be a larger presence. Not that his part is insignificant. No, he actually saves little Mark from the very claws of the beast by offering himself to the Barlow. Callahan, however, never turns agains his posse (or humanity), bless him.

After having suffered a number of big losses (including poor Mark's parents) the group decides it will be best to find the hiding places of those infected, mark the area to come back and take them out the next day (in broad daylight) with the stakes that are being manufactured by Ben while the others are out searching.

All the while they also have to locate Barlow. The only thing to go on is what Mark remembers from being in his claws - blue chalk. At first they are thinking schools, but the color of the chalk is what stumps them. Until they make a connection to a pool table stored away in the cellar of the boarding house Ben is renting a room in.

In the end, the group will be reduced to only Ben and Mark (badly shaken at this point), who take on the task of clearing as much of the town as they can.

Thus dies Jerusalem's Lot.

7/10