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A review by obsidian_blue
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
4.0
It took me a long time to start Doctor Sleep. I remember reading "The Shining" when I was a pre-teen and being scared to go to sleep for weeks without my handy flashlight next to me. I felt for Danny Torrance and his family as they were trapped in the Overlook hotel where people that were dead did not stay dead. I always wondered what happened to Danny and his mother after they survived the Overlook. Doctor Sleep allows us to see what kind of man has Danny (Dan) become since "The Shining."
When the novel begins we have Danny and his mother still recovering from the events at the Overlook. We a visit from Dick Hallorann thrown in we readers quickly find out that Danny is still dealing with the events at the Overlook and we find out an interesting side effect to the shining. Stephen King then throws the novel forward into Danny's (now known as Dan) early to mid twenties who we come to find out has become a drunk who drinks to forget his past. The novel zig-zags through Dan's life and we also have incorporated into the novel some asides to characters called "The True Knot" who apparently know what "The Shining" is and want it for themselves. Additionally we have the characters of Lucy, David, and their daughter Abra.
I have to say that I was very taken by the characterization of Dan in this novel. After everything he has been through who would not have some scarring left from that. However, I felt disappointed that we do not get to get into his life with his mom growing up except for a few short sentences referencing her and Dick. To have Dan just falling and hitting rock bottom was believable except for the part that I doubt that Dick would have ever let Dan fall that hard without a little tough love and getting back in touch. I felt as a reader that Stephen King left off some important information for me to just get into why Dan just slid as far down as he did in the world.
Regarding the characters who made up "The True Knot", I really did not find them scary at all. Definitely horrible villains but they did not make me feel as fearful or scared as I did while reading Stephen King's "Full Dark, No Stars" or the character of It in "It" (involuntary shudder) compared to those villains these people were just lightweights. I really wish that they had not taken up as much of the novel as they did or we had been able to understand exactly what moved them besides just staying alive.
I found the character of Abra interesting along with her parents and I would love to see this character followed-up on in a subsequent novel but find that once the connection to Dan was finally explained by King that I just felt disappointed. It really didn't make a lot of sense and I felt that the explanations of how everything tied together actually made the novel lose its steam at that point so when we go into the last couple of chapters I found myself not as engaged as I should have been.
All in all this was a very nice sequel to "The Shining" but I think it would have been better if we just didn't have the whole "True Knot" characters in the novel or if we did they really should have been scarier or at least I should have been scared for our heroes.
When the novel begins we have Danny and his mother still recovering from the events at the Overlook. We a visit from Dick Hallorann thrown in we readers quickly find out that Danny is still dealing with the events at the Overlook and we find out an interesting side effect to the shining. Stephen King then throws the novel forward into Danny's (now known as Dan) early to mid twenties who we come to find out has become a drunk who drinks to forget his past. The novel zig-zags through Dan's life and we also have incorporated into the novel some asides to characters called "The True Knot" who apparently know what "The Shining" is and want it for themselves. Additionally we have the characters of Lucy, David, and their daughter Abra.
I have to say that I was very taken by the characterization of Dan in this novel. After everything he has been through who would not have some scarring left from that. However, I felt disappointed that we do not get to get into his life with his mom growing up except for a few short sentences referencing her and Dick. To have Dan just falling and hitting rock bottom was believable except for the part that I doubt that Dick would have ever let Dan fall that hard without a little tough love and getting back in touch. I felt as a reader that Stephen King left off some important information for me to just get into why Dan just slid as far down as he did in the world.
Regarding the characters who made up "The True Knot", I really did not find them scary at all. Definitely horrible villains but they did not make me feel as fearful or scared as I did while reading Stephen King's "Full Dark, No Stars" or the character of It in "It" (involuntary shudder) compared to those villains these people were just lightweights. I really wish that they had not taken up as much of the novel as they did or we had been able to understand exactly what moved them besides just staying alive.
I found the character of Abra interesting along with her parents and I would love to see this character followed-up on in a subsequent novel but find that once the connection to Dan was finally explained by King that I just felt disappointed. It really didn't make a lot of sense and I felt that the explanations of how everything tied together actually made the novel lose its steam at that point so when we go into the last couple of chapters I found myself not as engaged as I should have been.
All in all this was a very nice sequel to "The Shining" but I think it would have been better if we just didn't have the whole "True Knot" characters in the novel or if we did they really should have been scarier or at least I should have been scared for our heroes.