Doctor Sleep

yes, i loved this book. yes, it's probably one of my stephen king's favorites along with it. yes, i love dan torrance and abra stone with all my heart and might.

having said that, jesus christ, this is endless.
i clearly took a long time to finish it; i was very disinterested in reading by the end of last year/january of this year, so when i picked this up last week i was ready to get it over with. and it kept going. and going and going and going. it felt longer than it, and that's saying something.

anyway, that's why it's a 4/5 rather than a 5/5.

A fitting sequel to the shining.
Creepy at times and has a nail biting ending.
King at his best.

the thing with King books is that they have their own rules when it comes to my star rating system. A 4 star read from King is 100x better than other book that wasn't written by king that i rated 5 stars.
Even a 3 star read from King is better than most of the 5 star reads from other authors i've read.

This book wasn't even being considered to be read by me for a while, it was pretty low on the list of what i wanted to read and i wanted to read maybe 10 more King books before i got to this one but I had this period where i reeeeeeally wanted to re-read The Shining but i promised myself i wouldn't re-read anything this year so the obvious choice was to read the sequel to The Shining... this book.
I'm glad i did because its a great great novel and story but as a sequel? nah. If you read this hoping for the feeling The Shining gave you then you've picked up the wrong book. This book had no essence from its predecessor. This doesn't mean it's bad but this book is it's own novel and holds up wonderfully by itself. It's just a completely different feel and experience.
As King said in the author note, he wrote The Shining when he was an alcoholic and he wrote this book while sober and i applaud him. He incorporated sobriety into this book and it shows how far King has come since his “the bottom” days. I'd rather a 3-4 star read from a sober happy man than a masterpiece from a sad alcoholic man.
Major respect from King.

i will say it again, yes this book is a 4 star read but translating from my King rating system to my normal one... its like a 8 star read.

If you don't read King then you're missing out!

I really enjoyed this. I couldn't wait to find out what happens next. As usual, King crafts amazingly relatable characters. In particular, I found his ability to bring life to the villains and evoke a reluctant sympathy in the reader (when you're not thinking about the terrible things they do) actually made me more engaged in hating them and rooting for the eminently deserved ass-kicking I was sure would come. Really artful, in my opinion.

I did have to skip some of the rumination on missing children because it was way too disturbing. But having a potential victim as strong and resilient as Abra made a nice counterbalance.

I feel like the constant drumbeat that AA is the Way, the Truth, and the Light was a bit grating (in part because I'm not a huge fan of the organization), but though it got a little over the top, for the most part it was a believable element of Dan's development.

I listened to the audiobook, and Will Patton was amazing. I'll be searching out more books read by him!

Doctor Sleep was good, but not great. It's not a bad book by any stretch, but it was not what I was expecting as a sequel. I read this immediately after finishing The Shining and I had higher expectations for it. I think if I let time pass between reading them, I would have enjoyed Doctor Sleep more.

I hated the beginning of book, but warmed to it the farther I read. By the time I was finished, I understood why the beginning had to be the way it written.

Interesting premise. I liked it.

Life was a wheel, its only job was to turn, and it always came back to where it started.

First Stephen King of the year! <3

Despite all the awful things that happen in Doctor Sleep, it was strangely comforting to return to the old familiar characters after such a long time. I love The Shining so I was nervous to see where SK had taken Danny and Wendy Torrance, and as much as I had wished for redemption and a good life for Danny, I wasn't surprised to discover that SK had, rightly, remained true to Jack Torrance's legacy - Danny, like his father, is an alcoholic trying to escape his past. The story of Dan's redemption is at the heart of this book, and its climax on the Roof of the World moved me to tears.

Doctor Sleep has snuck in right behind Insomnia in my list of favourite SK works. Not terribly surprising, I suppose, when you consider how similar the pacing and the themes of the two books are. I'm really enjoying the way that his writing has evolved into this wonderful mix of quiet horror wrapped up in almost literary fiction. It's a far cry from his earlier books and eminently readable.

4.5 stars.

PS. Loved the wee Silence of the Lambs reference!

Doctor Sleep, Stephen King's uber anticipated sequel to his 1977 horror novel The Shining was in almost all ways, worth the wait. Fifty pages into Dr. Sleep, my only thought was “my god, King is a maniac.” Danny, the lovable and haunted boy, son of Jack Torrance from the original novel, is all grown up now. Instead of Danny having the life all us readers wanted him to have, Danny is a drunk. A scoundrel. A mess. He spends years trying to blot and enmesh the shinning in alcohol, women, and drugs in the vain hope that he could function as a human adult. He often fails. When Danny obtains a tentative truce with his alcoholic demons via AA, Danny needs to come to terms with his “gift” and maybe, just maybe, help some people along the way.

Character-wise, even though many a King fan wanted the easy happily ever after, for Danny, god knows he has been traumatized enough, I think the direction that King went with Danny is much more solid and realistic. Danny is a mess because he came from a mess. He has had horrific childhood trauma, lost his father, been chased around by ghouls, and eventually succumbs to alcoholism. It feels like a much more real character and one that I can empathize with than say, the white picket fence and 2.5 kids. We also eventually meet Abra, who is Danny as a child minus childhood trauma. He could have been what she is, generally happy and well adjusted under different circumstances. However, childhood demons aside, both Danny and her have a core of steel that I find in most of King's protagonists. King doesn't tend to write characters that are wishy-washy or weak. These are no exception.

“There's nothing to be scared of.” Instead of taking Charlie's pulse – there was really no point – he took one of the old man's hands in his. He saw Charlie's wife pulling down a shade in the bedroom, wearing nothing but the slip of Belgian lace he'd bought her for their first anniversary; saw how the ponytail swung over one shoulder when she turned to look at him, her face lit in a smile that was all yes. He saw a Farmall tractor with a striped umbrella raised over the seat. He smelled bacon and heard Frank Sinatra singing ‘Come Fly with Me' from a cracked Motorola radio sitting on a worktable littered with tools. He saw a hubcap full of rain reflecting a red barn. He tasted blueberries and gutted a deer and fished in some distant lake whose surface was dappled by steady autumn rain. He was sixty, dancing with his wife in the American Legion hall. He was thirty, splitting wood. He was five, wearing shorts and pulling a red wagon. Then the pictures blurred together, the way cards do when they're shuffled in the hands of an expert, and the wind was blowing big snow down from the mountains, and in here was the silence and Azzie's solemn watching eyes.”

― Stephen King, Doctor Sleep

The villain, and great horror of the story, because this is Stephen King and we need to have a great villain, is a woman that is called Lady in the Hat. She is driven, mean, intelligent, and utterly sure of her position and spot in the food chain. She is a perfect nemesis for Abra and, by extension, for Danny. She was terrifying in some scenes, much like a cult leader leading her deadly flock of psychic lizard-like RV geriatrics. (This is a sentence that I never thought I would say, but there you go.) They want Abra; they need Abra's shinning and will do anything to get it.

“We are the True Knot,” they responded. “What is tied may never be untied.”

― Stephen King, Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep is a great second act to the life of Danny Torrance. At times the story is terrifying, especially in the last 30%. Other times the story meanders and takes its sweet time doling out the details to Danny's story. It turns and twists, but I don't believe the story ever lulls. It takes it's time over the almost 700 pages and gives you beauty, light, self-destruction, and self-acceptance. Is it as scary as the original? No. Nothing much is. But it doesn't have to be.

It is a worthy sequel to the classic that I highly recommend.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had not read [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588.SY75.jpg 849585] before reading this but it did not take anything away from it. Things were explained without too much exposition. I listened to on Audible and it was narrated very well.

Nothing like the first book as it revolves around togetherness and an expansive setting instead of the claustrophobia and dread of the first. Although at first this was a disappointment it turned into a strength. Similar to Alien and Aliens.

Good characters and a satisfying evolution of ‘The Shining'.

I don't know about this book. It was a challenge for me to read because I was bored reading it. I think it might be a me issue. I no longer find inspiration or the motivation to read Stephen King books anymore.

I very much enjoyed the study of the effects on alcoholism on the family. I thought that was VERY well done. A bit too much supernatural/fantasy element for my personal liking but overall a very good sequel and a very good book.

Sorry, but I really didn't find this book all that interesting.
I missed a lot of King's usually great characterization, I didn't feel Danny was the same person as the kid (I know he grew up and all, but still...), I missed some more Wendy and some more Dick.
I felt that King skipped over too much, too easily, in this one.
I missed the feeling of danger that is present in all of his other books.
Still looking forward to Revival, though, and the sequel to Mr Mercedes, ‘cause King is still mostly a superb story-teller.

Plot wise, this was one of King's better books. There was good pacing in building up to the climax and its resolution. It also had very realistic issues that some folks face in their lives and antagonists that reflect actual fears that other folks have.

One issue I did have is one of the antagonists having a name reference that is an ethnic slur. No one else in the True Knot had a similar degrading name and it's not the kind of word that was once considered to be okay but now it's not.

Setting that aside though, it was a good story on just what happened to Dan Torrance and also how trauma and later addiction can affect someone. Abra having a powerful shine was fun and one of the twists was something I did not expect.

I got this as a Christmas present and tucked into over the holidays. It brought back to me instantly why I've read so many Stephen King novels. I love his writing style and it gives me great pleasure to read such a master of his craft. As with other King novels, this one grabbed a hold of my attention and wouldn't let me go until I was done. No TV, no Facebook, just Doctor Sleep. And d'you know what? It was helluva enjoyable.

So, why only three stars? I felt let down slightly by the end section. I can't really put my finger on why and I don't want to add spoilers to my review. It's also, as I've found with a lot of Stephen King novels, quite forgettable. Thrilling, attention-grabbing and forgettable. It's a strange combo.

I did love the AA and recovery that permeated Dan Torrance's story. Let's just say I can relate.

And the reference to the Dark Tower made me laugh out loud with joy. I think this is the first of his novels I've read since finishing that series. His reference in the afterword was a peach, too.

I've just added The Shining to my list for the year. Of course I've seen the movie, but never read the book, and that's rather unlike me.

I loved this book as a sequel to The Shining. I think it had some cool characters the story was fun. The second half of the book was fast paced and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend after reading The Shining.

I have been trying to read this book for over a month. I recently read the shining for the simple fact it was one of the Stephen king books I wanted to reread. I actually think I liked this one better then the first.

Executive Summary: An interesting take on concepts established in [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585] that makes this feel less like a sequel and more like a spin-off. This is a fun albeit very different book from it's predecessor.Audio book: Mr. Patton does an excellent job reading this book. He has many distinct voices and accents that adds a little something to the story. I was surprised they used a different reader than the [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585], but as it turned out to be a fairly different book, I think it was a good decision.Full ReviewI'm not a fan of sequels. I'm not really sure [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585] needed a sequel. Sure there were lingering questions about Danny and Wendy at the end, but they weren't critical in my mind.That said, Mr. King's novels tend to interconnect on several levels, so I was curious to see what he would do in a sequel to one of his most popular books.Doctor Sleep is a very different book from its predecessor. The shining plays a key role of course, but I would categorize this book more as Paranormal Thriller rather than Horror. I would however recommend you read/reread [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585] before this though.The first part of the book catches you up with Danny, his mother and Dick Halloran, and then proceeds to catch us up to Danny in the present day.Unfortunately for Danny, Mr. King is a big believer in like father like son. Danny has become an alcoholic and has the same anger issues Jack struggled with in the first story. It hard to blame him given his traumatic childhood coupled with the horrors being so strong in the shinning has exposed to him.A good part of this story felt like an advertisement for the Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm not sure if that's how Mr. King got himself sober, but it certainly seems like it, as he talks about it to excess. It does make for an interesting idea of “what might have happened if Jack Torrence sought help?”, but I could have done with less time being spent on that aspect of the story.Keeping with his themes of the cyclical nature of life, the other main protagonist is a young girl who is even stronger in the shinning than Danny was in his youth.We are also introduced to the True Knot, a pack of “physic vampires” that are near immortal by traveling the country and feeding on the shinning for their longevity. Can you guess where this is going? I could.So it wasn't the most unpredictable of stories, but in many ways I enjoyed it more then [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585]. I'm not a big horror fan. This book explores the shining in much greater detail than its namesake novel. Mr. King introduces some well developed new characters, and doesn't just retell the same story again with minor changes like many sequels tend to.So will you like it? If you're a big horror fan hoping that Mr. King can scare the hell out of you again, probably not. If you're like me and enjoy the fantastical nature of Mr. King's novels then you just might.3.5 Stars, rounded up because [a:Stephen King 3389 Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg].

When I first heard that Stephen King was writing a sequel to The Shining I wasn't very keen on the idea. I have a thing against revisiting classics and rebooting them or adding a sequel years later. Then I read a brief synopsis and still wasn't keen except for the part about this True Knot and their desire to get a girl who has the most powerful case of shining. This intrigued me as I wanted something of a horror/thriller from King.

Well,this isn't much in the way of horror, barring the opening chapters, but boy what a thrill! The tension in this book gradually builds up to a very satisfying conclusion.

It does start off slowly, this is a character we know from a classic book and a lot of years have gone by and King wants to fill us in on what he's been up to whilst also giving a history of Abra, the female protagonist. If this wasn't a sequel then I don't think Danny Torrance's back story would have been as detailed and drawn out as it was.

Gradually, though, our two ‘heroes' come together and discover the threat that is out there. The True Knot are a very interesting group, lead by Rose the Hat who is a fantastic character; sly, intelligent, resourceful, caring (to her own) and mostly a vicious piece of work. We get a good look at their group and how each person has a different ability, we get hints about their long past and we witness their abhorrent acts.

Yes, this is a sequel to The Shining but it is a very different work. I found that all the references to the first book weren't in your face and we're all done nicely.

If you are expecting a scare from this tale then you may be disappointed but any lover of fiction should love this as all the characters are wonderfully realised, it is written on par with King's best, he was definitely in the zone when he wrote this.

Pros:
Excellently written
Very good characters
Great antagonists
Thrilling read
King at his best

Cons:
Slightly slow at the start with backstory

This is my 50th Stephen King book!

3,5 and rounding up
As far as sequels go, I found this very satisfying.
Once the action picks up about halfway through it's a great ride to the end.

A weak sequel to a book that didn't need a sequel. There is potentially interesting material with Danny dealing with alcoholism and not wanting to become like his father, but the novel doesn't do this and instead focuses on battles with immortal vampires. (It's not as interesting as it sounds)

Precise rating: 1.5 ⭐

I don't think any book could have lived up as a sequel to The Shining. Doctor Sleep got pretty close! I loved the beginning, most of the middle, and especially the end. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that this book has one of King's best endings ever, at least from the works that I've read. However there's just a few sections here and there that just kind of...drag. They're not boring by any means, but just overstay their welcome. However, this is pretty typical of King's writing, and some might even consider it his style. It just stood out a little bit more to me here because The Shining practically had no parts like this at all. Nonetheless, definitely a book that I plan on coming back to in a few years.