Reviews with content warning for Violence - Doctor Sleep

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Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

37 reviews

_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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