Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Docteur Sleep by Stephen King

16 reviews

_masha_'s review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Sexual content, Gore, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Violence, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Drug use, Medical content, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Car accident

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Violence, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Cancer

smeyer's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Death, Alcoholism, Cursing, Gore, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Grief, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence and Drug use

azaan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, and Violence

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

You know, DOCTOR SLEEP isn't all that bad!  As far as King's horror books go, I think this is one of the better ones, along with THE SHINING.  It's always fun to see characters "all grown up" and I liked not only seeing what became of Danny Torrence, but also learning more about the Shine and his gifts, and what others like him are capable of.  Abra Stone was a great new character as well, and it's always good to see women rising up as formidable forces (good, and evil) in horror books... far too often they're still just victims. So I appreciated that!

I think that this new plot was interesting, and I'd be curious to learn more about the "True Knot" and people like them (is this in another King book?  His universe is tied so well together).  All in all a decent, spooky autumn read!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, and Racial slurs

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, and Terminal illness