Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Doctor Sleep

I read this as King wrote it, as a sequel to The Shining, but it would still be a great stand alone read.
Dan Torrence is an incredibly complex character, at times loveable and at other times frightening and out of control. His journey is rich and painful, and his connections to the terrible events of his childhood haunt him in ways that he can't explain to people without being hospitalized for psychosis.
Abra is well written, a young woman of 13 dealing with gifts and threats to her self and family that others teens can't even imagine. King does an outstanding job capturing the voice of an adolescent girl without making her too childish or adult.
The bad guys are constructed in a spine chilling way, but it never goes over the top. I highly recommend this book.

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ashmont27's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was definitely skeptical that a sequel to The Shining would be any good and really didn't know what to expect so I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed this. While I 'complained' that this felt much more like a fantasy novel than a horror novel, King still managed to give me nightmares. I also felt for most of the book that it didn't really need to be a sequel to The Shining, it felt like it stood on its own, but by the end, I felt myself going back on that opinion as well. Definitely some unnecessary gross stuff in here, but oh boy does Stephen know how to tell a good story!

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felofhe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bomenvernietiger's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kmaller01's review against another edition

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Don’t read this book if you can’t read about as meetings and managing with alcoholism . 100 pgs in and it’s only about him avoiding the shining by drinking himself silly

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_masha_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King couldn’t hold a flame to its predecessor, The Shining, but was entertaining all the same. I loved getting to see a grown up Danny Torrence, and King’s approach was certainly meant to push some buttons. In King fashion, Doctor Sleep deals with tough topics in addition to its plot, such as addiction, which I think he handles extremely well. With that being said though, even though I genuinely loved The Shining, King’s sequel fell short in a lot of key areas. First off, the characters. I genuinely didn’t feel an attachment to any character, so things happening to them felt weightless and inconsequential. Not to mention that the villain (the True Knot and Rose the Hat) was one of the worst villains I’ve seen to date. Evil for evil’s sake, the True Knot is certainly bad, there’s no doubt, but WHY. Why them? Why now? There were a lot of unanswered questions and so many factors trying to break them that it felt chaotic and convenient. Second, the book lacked a reliance on the events of the Overlook in my opinion. Yes, there were mentions and a few characters, but I was largely disappointed in how the final battle ends, due to the potential of the location and host of characters that once wandered the halls of the Overlook. Third, the plot. The plot was so simple and predictable, which is typically not something I’d attribute to King and his writing. You pretty much knew where the story was going, even if you weren’t sure how you were going to get there, whether it be an Earth cruiser or The Helen Rivington, someway somehow, you knew where the book would end. I think this book had potential, but it tried to separate itself from the original while holding on to minor aspects (instead of using the major callbacks from The Shining: the roque mallet, Jack Torrence, the hornets nest, the hedge animals, the boiler). Obviously some of these couldn’t make a return, but, then again, it’s a Stephen King novel. Anything is possible. If you’re a fan of the Shining and want more Doc, then I’d say it’s worth the read, but try not to compare it to the Shining too heavily, or you may be disappointed.

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alaskan_bull_worm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The beginning of this book is horrible, but mostly because you have to accept precious little Danny is no longer precious little Danny. After you’ve let that sink in, the book is pretty good. But having to see Danny as he is as an adult in the beginning was so hard I nearly quit right off the bat.

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