What The Fuck Did I Just Read?!
Doctor Sleep - Stephen King 2/5 stars
Let's skip the obvious question here because it's already been answered a million times. If anything, The Shining is one of Stephen King's greatest novels so a sequel has to live up to that and sadly, Doctor Sleep does not. When King is good, he's damn good but when he's bad, you get a book like Doctor Sleep. I will go on record as saying that this is the worst book that King has ever written. You'd have more fun watching paint dry than reading this shitty sequel. What makes me so angry is that everyone kept telling me it was going to get better towards the end, but they lied to me. The plot twist? That really pissed me off and if you have ever read a King novel during his glory days you know just how awesome King can be. Here it's like he's not even trying. The book has a few moments where you think it's going to pick up and even gives you some Manson family type people called The True Knot, but they're not as prominent in the story as I would have liked. The could have been some of the greatest villains King has ever created, but he's too focused on Danny, and then later Abra.
Oh and don't get me started on the plot twist. It's totally ridiculous and lacks any real emotional punch. It's like King ran out of ideas and just added this in as an afterthought. Once you hit it, you're going to be so pissed off and may throw this book in the garbage where it belongs. What I loved about King's early work was how much detail he would give his characters. In each book, you have characters that you care about, characters that you want to survive whatever they're up against. Here, it just doesn't happen. The only thing of interest is that Danny has taken on the role of Dick Hollarann and Abra is young Danny Torrence. Instead of the Overlook, you have The Knot who are kind of like psychic vampires, but it doesn't really matter because again, they feel like an underdeveloped idea to give the book a bit of meat on its shallow bones. That's the problem with the book. The book is so slow and boring King never gets around to making us care about Danny or Abra. It's way too long and not a lot happens. Danny stops drinking, Abra is eventually sort of pursued by The Knot but everything in between is just filler. I wanted to see Abra killed and I wanted to see a drunken Danny chasing after the kid with a Roque mallet.
Doctor sleep could have been good, but it just unravels quickly and shows that any writer can have a bad day or a string of them. King spends a lot of time building the plot, but it's just not a good follow up to The Shining. It pales in comparison and makes you wish King had left well enough alone. While I did eventually finish it, I have to admit I skimmed through quite a bit at the end. Not that it matters because the book itself is forgettable and a lackluster sequel to one of the greatest books ever written. Of course, there are people who love Doctor Sleep so maybe I'm in the minority here or just have set my expectations a little too high. No, this book fucking sucked and I wished I would have stopped reading it, but even my girlfriend urged me to keep going. I should have stopped. I should have stopped at the plot twist. Better yet., I wish I would have never bought this piece of shit. Well, maybe the movie will be better. Nah, I doubt it.
Let's skip the obvious question here because it's already been answered a million times. If anything, The Shining is one of Stephen King's greatest novels so a sequel has to live up to that and sadly, Doctor Sleep does not. When King is good, he's damn good but when he's bad, you get a book like Doctor Sleep. I will go on record as saying that this is the worst book that King has ever written. You'd have more fun watching paint dry than reading this shitty sequel. What makes me so angry is that everyone kept telling me it was going to get better towards the end, but they lied to me. The plot twist? That really pissed me off and if you have ever read a King novel during his glory days you know just how awesome King can be. Here it's like he's not even trying. The book has a few moments where you think it's going to pick up and even gives you some Manson family type people called The True Knot, but they're not as prominent in the story as I would have liked. The could have been some of the greatest villains King has ever created, but he's too focused on Danny, and then later Abra.
Oh and don't get me started on the plot twist. It's totally ridiculous and lacks any real emotional punch. It's like King ran out of ideas and just added this in as an afterthought. Once you hit it, you're going to be so pissed off and may throw this book in the garbage where it belongs. What I loved about King's early work was how much detail he would give his characters. In each book, you have characters that you care about, characters that you want to survive whatever they're up against. Here, it just doesn't happen. The only thing of interest is that Danny has taken on the role of Dick Hollarann and Abra is young Danny Torrence. Instead of the Overlook, you have The Knot who are kind of like psychic vampires, but it doesn't really matter because again, they feel like an underdeveloped idea to give the book a bit of meat on its shallow bones. That's the problem with the book. The book is so slow and boring King never gets around to making us care about Danny or Abra. It's way too long and not a lot happens. Danny stops drinking, Abra is eventually sort of pursued by The Knot but everything in between is just filler. I wanted to see Abra killed and I wanted to see a drunken Danny chasing after the kid with a Roque mallet.
Doctor sleep could have been good, but it just unravels quickly and shows that any writer can have a bad day or a string of them. King spends a lot of time building the plot, but it's just not a good follow up to The Shining. It pales in comparison and makes you wish King had left well enough alone. While I did eventually finish it, I have to admit I skimmed through quite a bit at the end. Not that it matters because the book itself is forgettable and a lackluster sequel to one of the greatest books ever written. Of course, there are people who love Doctor Sleep so maybe I'm in the minority here or just have set my expectations a little too high. No, this book fucking sucked and I wished I would have stopped reading it, but even my girlfriend urged me to keep going. I should have stopped. I should have stopped at the plot twist. Better yet., I wish I would have never bought this piece of shit. Well, maybe the movie will be better. Nah, I doubt it.
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