Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2)

I have been a King fan since the 70s. That\’s right. I\’m a fossil. I got hooked with his first novel, Carrie. Then had to wait for a couple of years for Salem\’s Lot to come out. And so it went…I would read novels and short stories as soon as they were published. My favorite King\’s works are: The Dead Zone; The Stand; Misery; Pet Sematary; The Green Mile; The Shawshank Redemption and of course THE SHINING! Some of his more recent works have lacked something…I don\’t know what exactly. Perhaps passion. Maybe he\’s tired – – who could blame him after all this time, really. ANYWAY, I truly wanted to like this sequel to The Shining, however, it lacked the same HORROR and originality. The character development was flimsy, in my option, and closely resembled a number of other characters from his former novels. The villains were laughable and cartoonish. The storyline was predictable and dragged horribly during the middle HALF of the book. It was hardly worthy of it\’s predecessor. Let\’s face it, THE SHINING was a stand-alone masterpiece. How could a sequel possibly live up to that?

Holy crap! Holy effing crap! This book was all that I hoped it would be and more. It\’s been a long while ago that I read the Shining but it didn\’t matter, things come back to you, and I didn\’t even really need to read the Shining to get this book. To me, it can be read as a stand alone. I\’m so glad that Stephen King was moved to write Danny\’s book, that I got to see him as an adult and see how the aftermath of what happened to him and his mother in the Overlook Hotel. Taking it all back to his shining and adding even more mysterious and ghostly things. I\’m always pleasantly surprised when a book can get one over on me, it doesn\’t happen often, and it did in Doctor Sleep, a few times. This is a must read book if you\’re a Stephen King fan, if you\’ve read The Shining or not or if you just want to read a really freaking awesome book!

I waited and waited for King to release this book. What works here best is the continuation of the original story that began in The Shining. Admittedly, my interest in that book (it was the first by King that I read) probably colored my experience of this book. I can see how a reader would want to start with The Shining for context here. In terms of scare factor, some of the images from this book will be with me for a long while to come. A must for King fans, but I recommend it for any reader.

A fun, fast-paced follow-on to \”The Shining\” but not as classic-y. I rather enjoyed this story but it almost felt too contrived, and too forced. I mean, really…Vampires with pirate names that suck psychic energy (called steam) from highly psychic people? Which make the vampires younger, more psychic and able to live many, many years more than a normal human? And these old folks are computer savvy like today\’s teenagers? This story almost marginalizes Dan\’s major-league shinning abilities he had as a kid by presenting a little girl, our heroine, who has explosively more talent than Dan. Well, I tried not to get too rational while I read this but it did make me re-read \”The Shining\”, a much better story.

Im going to throw myself under the bus by admitting I never read the original Shining or what Kubricks version but I thoroughly enjoyed the mini-series version and have read clips and exciting nuggets from the original book. Why did I grab Doctor Sleep? Because I read You by Caroline Kepnes and until then I was not even away a sequel had been released…yes I know..bad reader. Trust me I have smacked my own hands plenty. Danny Torrence needed this! After surviving the Overlook his life needed documented. Now that being said and despite my 5 glowing stars …WTF is up with the ending? No spoilers here but AHHH! Maybe its my years of reading HEA in the romance genre and how everyones future is known with the final parting words but come on Master King….dont leave a girl wanting like that! Unique, informative, a true-King thriller with marvelously enthralling characters and all the Shining you could ever hope for all while Dan picks up the discarded pieces remaining from his life of living with psychic issues. I truly fell in love with all his broken parts even though I grew up too with a parent who could never use the advantages of AA and fell into the bottle until it swallowed her. Enticing and addicting I couldnt stop reading or filling my head with each explanation and new character. Another King masterpiece I cant wait to see play out on the big screen.

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