thefoxyreader 's review for:

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

3.5

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

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If it wasn’t for the ending, I would have LOVED this book.

In fact, I spent most of this book thinking, “Wow this might be my favorite Stephen King book I’ve read.”

But then I got to the ending and WAH WAAAAAHHHH. Wind out my sails.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s go back to the beginning.

SYNOPSIS: Danny from The Shining mentors a young girl and faces off against a group of nomads who really like to call people “rubes”

For King to take 36 years to write a sequel to The Shining, I’m really shocked that it is a.) this good and b.) not just a retread of The Shining.

It’s like he almost could have made this it’s own story because it really is wildly different in terms of tone and what is happening.

You still have Danny, who is all grown up now and suffering from alcoholism from his old man. You still have people who have “The Shining,” psychic gifts and apparently an imaginary friend named Tony.

The novel thing in this book is you get a nomadic group of people who feed on children who have the shining in order to maintain their immortality, which is what connects Danny to a strong Shining girl named Abra.

And both Danny’s struggle with alcoholism and his friendship with a young girl is what gives this book a lot of heart and soul.

Yes, Danny is one Stephen King’s “Aw Shucks” everyman with the flannel shirt, BUT we as readers know Danny. We’ve been with him through a harrowing time and we just want him to pick himself up from rock bottom and make something of himself.

Doctor Sleep is really more of a character study than anything, and yeah, Danny is a good character to root for.

But as I said, the ending was really not good. It just felt SO LONG. And as much as I liked Rose the Hat as a villain, she was hilariously easy to defeat.

The movie adaptation does a much better job of wrapping up the emotional parts of the story while having a convincing ending to Rose the Hat.

So overall, I really did like this book, but the ending needed a few rounds of editing to make it tighter and more thrilling.

But kudos to King for coming back to this world and providing a good ending for one of his most famous child characters.