D.’s review of Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2) > Likes and Comments
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nice review - I was quite scared when rose was meditating and Abra caught her, so I kind of disagree with you on the non scary bad guys thing! I thought it was pretty smart that Abra and Dan's minds became the outlook, that helped to reignite that claustrophobic feeling for me.
Me too. Excellent review, but I thought the Knot characters scarier than the Overlook ghosties. Especially in that they were roaming and so innocuous looking on the road.
Don't get me wrong, I thought they were scary as a concept. It's just that the way they were presented started making me feel overly familiar with them so that they seemed to be more antagonists pitted against the good guys as opposed to monsters that evoked any sense of dread in me. King is an awesome writer, and his characters are second to none. I simply felt that in this case the great character development worked against the fearsomeness of his monsters.
I agree. What the knot did to children is scary, but it's as if king intentionally wanted to show them as a family unit; dysfunctional, for all that. he even had Dan feeling a twinge of sympathy towards the end, when the one couple pressed their foreheads together as they cycled to their deaths.
I found the monsters in this piece more "nasty" than truly scary.
I agree; I didn't think the Knot were scary. But I think the real evil in this story was within Dan and Abra. They both had the potential to become monsters, and they both chose not to let it happen. It's a story about facing up to the demons within yourself, the ones locked away inside…not the ones driving around in RVs.
I just finished reading this book last night. The scene were they kidnap the baseball boy and what happens to him was truly horrifying. Maybe you need to be a parent to be affected like I was, but I was.
Yes, Mike, scary to the max. Way more than nasty to me. That they HAD some emotion with or to each other, well- to me that even made their evil worse. Not even an "excuse" of being soulless!
I felt the same way as you. I really was looking for more of The Shining, but it does fall short in the suspense. King is notorious for his extensive characterization, and this book has it in spades. I struggled to continue at one point, because I was a bit bored.
Nonetheless, the ending was pretty satisfying. I did wonder what came of Jack even after this (health-wise), because there us never an update that addresses the concern. I'm also left wanting a sequel to this one.
This encapsulates my thoughts exactly. Rose the Hat had the potential to be frightening as hell. But I think he wound up telling us more about her giving us the ability to empathize with her, which in turn made her lose power a bit. The only scary scene came when they were killing the boy.
But.... I loved the book because I like SK's character development and I enjoyed Dan Torrence as an adult.
I like you review. I read The Shining before Dr. Sleep to freshen up the story, and I found it very rewarding. It gave me the idea of being present in Dan Torrance's life without interruptions. I somewhat agree with you about the True Knot being not as scary as the Overlook ghosties. I really enjoyed the story. The book is solid.
Agree with you totally. I never found the True Knot either scary or all that formidable.
The one member who was interesting was the one they turned who had been raped by her father. King then totally erased her from the Novel until the end. She was far more interesting than Rose the Hat as we knew from where she came.
This was a Stephen King book by the numbers with an outcome I could have predicted 50 pages in.
I have to admit though, last weekend I was in a place where several big RVs were camping and minding their own business. They were so close to what SK described for the traveling Knot! I kept looking at them just wondering, "what if"?
This is what SK does to you. He plants seeds in our minds for future fears.
Things that are ordinary and one wouldn't think to be a risk to us are usually fodder to get under our skin and speak to our fears.
I am already scared of people in RV's. Haha.
This was just a good story! I felt like it was his best in years and the ending, oh the ending was so satisfying to me. FINALLY! However, The Shining was sheer terror. I adored this book.
I felt that the bad guys were scary, maybe not terrifying, but definitely scary. However I did feel that this was more suspenseful than horror. All in all I enjoyed it though a lot.
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Oct 13, 2013 01:28PM
nice review - I was quite scared when rose was meditating and Abra caught her, so I kind of disagree with you on the non scary bad guys thing! I thought it was pretty smart that Abra and Dan's minds became the outlook, that helped to reignite that claustrophobic feeling for me.
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Me too. Excellent review, but I thought the Knot characters scarier than the Overlook ghosties. Especially in that they were roaming and so innocuous looking on the road.
Don't get me wrong, I thought they were scary as a concept. It's just that the way they were presented started making me feel overly familiar with them so that they seemed to be more antagonists pitted against the good guys as opposed to monsters that evoked any sense of dread in me. King is an awesome writer, and his characters are second to none. I simply felt that in this case the great character development worked against the fearsomeness of his monsters.
I agree. What the knot did to children is scary, but it's as if king intentionally wanted to show them as a family unit; dysfunctional, for all that. he even had Dan feeling a twinge of sympathy towards the end, when the one couple pressed their foreheads together as they cycled to their deaths.
I found the monsters in this piece more "nasty" than truly scary.
I agree; I didn't think the Knot were scary. But I think the real evil in this story was within Dan and Abra. They both had the potential to become monsters, and they both chose not to let it happen. It's a story about facing up to the demons within yourself, the ones locked away inside…not the ones driving around in RVs.
I just finished reading this book last night. The scene were they kidnap the baseball boy and what happens to him was truly horrifying. Maybe you need to be a parent to be affected like I was, but I was.
Yes, Mike, scary to the max. Way more than nasty to me. That they HAD some emotion with or to each other, well- to me that even made their evil worse. Not even an "excuse" of being soulless!
I felt the same way as you. I really was looking for more of The Shining, but it does fall short in the suspense. King is notorious for his extensive characterization, and this book has it in spades. I struggled to continue at one point, because I was a bit bored. Nonetheless, the ending was pretty satisfying. I did wonder what came of Jack even after this (health-wise), because there us never an update that addresses the concern. I'm also left wanting a sequel to this one.
This encapsulates my thoughts exactly. Rose the Hat had the potential to be frightening as hell. But I think he wound up telling us more about her giving us the ability to empathize with her, which in turn made her lose power a bit. The only scary scene came when they were killing the boy. But.... I loved the book because I like SK's character development and I enjoyed Dan Torrence as an adult.
I like you review. I read The Shining before Dr. Sleep to freshen up the story, and I found it very rewarding. It gave me the idea of being present in Dan Torrance's life without interruptions. I somewhat agree with you about the True Knot being not as scary as the Overlook ghosties. I really enjoyed the story. The book is solid.
Agree with you totally. I never found the True Knot either scary or all that formidable.The one member who was interesting was the one they turned who had been raped by her father. King then totally erased her from the Novel until the end. She was far more interesting than Rose the Hat as we knew from where she came.
This was a Stephen King book by the numbers with an outcome I could have predicted 50 pages in.
I have to admit though, last weekend I was in a place where several big RVs were camping and minding their own business. They were so close to what SK described for the traveling Knot! I kept looking at them just wondering, "what if"? This is what SK does to you. He plants seeds in our minds for future fears.
Things that are ordinary and one wouldn't think to be a risk to us are usually fodder to get under our skin and speak to our fears.I am already scared of people in RV's. Haha.
This was just a good story! I felt like it was his best in years and the ending, oh the ending was so satisfying to me. FINALLY! However, The Shining was sheer terror. I adored this book.
I felt that the bad guys were scary, maybe not terrifying, but definitely scary. However I did feel that this was more suspenseful than horror. All in all I enjoyed it though a lot.
