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Has anyone read Doctor Sleep ?

27 replies

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 12/10/2024 15:46

How is it ? Scarier than The Shining ?

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SerafinasGoose · 01/11/2024 19:29

I liked it. It's a very different book from The Shining and should be viewed as separate, but the key themes both books have in common is their oblique references to systemic oppression. In the earlier book, Jack's addiction is only one of the 'ghosts' haunting the Overlook, whereas the two big demons in Doctor Sleep are Dan's alcoholism and the notion of a group of liminal characters with the ability to suck the spirit out of people. You could make this stand in your head for a lot of facets of society; there are enough of them to choose from.

What I found intriguing about The Shining is the way in which it made me, as a reader, want to trace all the ghosts lurking in the empty hotel, just as Jack does in the basement of the Overlook with the scrapbook that's left for him to find. The text is 'haunted' at every turn by Edgar Alan Poe's 'Masque of the Red Death', but the masked ball is no less creepy in King's strange rewriting: who is its elusive host, Horace Derwent, other than than the 'real' villain of the piece? His mask never truly comes off; all we do know is that he's an exemplar of the entrepeneurial US 'gilded age' - apparently modelled on Howard Hughes - and a bisexual man who uses his male lovers as playthings then viciously holds them up for public ridicule. A piece of the puzzle the novel never gives us is the precise nature of Derwent's connection with the other, more shadowy and possibly even more menacing villain: Al Shockley. This is Jack's one-time drinking buddy, who has a definite interrelationship with both Derwent and America's rich and powerful elite, but he declines to enlighten Jack as to its nature or even existence, and neither Jack nor the reader ever find out what this is. The Kubrick film ignores him completely, but IMO a really threatening and ambiguous presence is removed by doing so. Wendy Torrance has a bit of a 'shine' herself therefore she isn't fooled: she hates Shockley from the start.

Then there's the gilded age itself. The Stanley/Overlook is a resort hotel harking back to that era - the rich, exploitative age that made colossal fortunes from the railroad, tobacco, oil and steel industries - and industries like this got fat off the exploitation of others. (Exploitation of America's resources and colonial history is a big theme in King). If anything, the Gilded Age itself is another sinister 'baddie', the very past on which the Overlook and its bloody, chequered history is built. It's strongly implied throughout the course of the novel that the Overlook was tainted from the moment it was built.

The Shining is a really nuanced text, not least in its uncanny aspects which could just as easily be psychological in the model of the classic Gothic tale. Doctor Sleep IMO doesn't replicate this - although oddly enough the film adaptation with its odd blend of the Kubrick predecessor and the book is a pretty decent piece of movie-making. The book is good and stands on its own merit (and may well have lots of similar analogies in it that I've missed), but I find The Shining the superior novel.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 16/10/2024 16:39

FictionalCharacter · 16/10/2024 16:32

I don’t find books like this scary, but disturbing yes. I didn’t like this one because of the torture.

I know it was upsetting to read that

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FictionalCharacter · 16/10/2024 16:32

I don’t find books like this scary, but disturbing yes. I didn’t like this one because of the torture.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 16/10/2024 16:10

I'm almost at the end. The Shining is a lot better in my point of view

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Stradlater · 14/10/2024 22:27

I’ve been to the original Stanley Hotel. And met SK’s son.

crazypiglady · 14/10/2024 19:08

Yes, I loved it. It’s nothing like The Shining, and stands alone on its own strengths I would say, brilliant characters and very creepy, loved it and I’ve read a lot of Stephen King

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 14/10/2024 09:07

Yeah, the box thing is a little disturbing already

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BitzNBobz · 13/10/2024 19:55

I picked up Doctor Sleep in a charity shop a few days ago, it's the first book in a long time that has me wanting to go to bed early so I can continue reading!

I've never seen (nor read) The Shining, but know enough about it for this one to be making sense. Although I hadn't even noticed it was the sequel until I started reading and the Overlook Hotel was mentioned.

I was a massive King fan in my 20s but gave up halfway through Needful Things and never really went back tp him. Rose Madder is still my favourite of his.

I'm just up to where Abra has seen 'Baseball Boy' in the magazine and I feel things are going to get serious now.

I'll be finding the film to watch once I've finished.

HollyGolightly4 · 13/10/2024 14:29

Yep, absolutely loved it!

Might re-read Salem's lot on the back of this!

AlisonWonderbra · 13/10/2024 14:28

Yep. I loved it.

shellyleppard · 13/10/2024 14:20

@Stradlater it helps sometimes though. .....💗

Stradlater · 13/10/2024 14:06

shellyleppard · 13/10/2024 08:49

Huge Stephen king fan and I absolutely loved it. It was good to see what happened to Danny after the overlook hotel. I like dick hallorhans idea about the boxes on shelves, I use that with my teenage sons when they are struggling mentally x

I’ve often said that I have many compartments in my head 😂

Stradlater · 13/10/2024 14:05

YouWouldntKnowWhatIMean · 13/10/2024 06:54

Oh interesting responses! I found it nowhere near as scary as The Shining! I did enjoy it, but there are very few books that creep me out more than The Shining, which I think is his best book.

I lived alone for a few years and was rereading The Shining, having not read it since I was a teenager.
I actually had to stop reading it at night as it creeped me out so much!
The elevators running at night, the animal masks. Scared the bejesus out of me 😂

I LOVED Doctor Sleep and the descriptions of putting things in boxes really unnerved me.
I thought that part was done really well in the film.

I saw it at the cinema with my son and found it really scary tbh 😂
The opening scene with Rose the Hat 🎩 and the little girl was SO creepy!

I’ve been lucky enough to see The Shining at the cinema at it’s so amazing on the big screen. You see things that you just don’t notice before.

I'm seeing it again soon, can’t wait. It’s one of my favourite films and I’ve seen it loads of times.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 13/10/2024 09:01

I tried to read the intro to that once but it felt boring to me at the time

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sashh · 13/10/2024 08:54

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 13/10/2024 08:47

Yeah I know what you mean, he's a bit hit and miss

The stand annoyed me. I was enjoying most of the story but I was so pissed off that not one female in the whole of the USA had ever ridden a motorbike but every male had.

I mean he didn't say that but a man teaching a women to ride kept cropping up.

shellyleppard · 13/10/2024 08:49

Huge Stephen king fan and I absolutely loved it. It was good to see what happened to Danny after the overlook hotel. I like dick hallorhans idea about the boxes on shelves, I use that with my teenage sons when they are struggling mentally x

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 13/10/2024 08:47

sashh · 13/10/2024 08:45

I loved it.

I'm not a huge King fan, I like some of his work but I get annoyed with other books.

Yeah I know what you mean, he's a bit hit and miss

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sashh · 13/10/2024 08:45

I loved it.

I'm not a huge King fan, I like some of his work but I get annoyed with other books.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 13/10/2024 07:06

YouWouldntKnowWhatIMean · 13/10/2024 06:54

Oh interesting responses! I found it nowhere near as scary as The Shining! I did enjoy it, but there are very few books that creep me out more than The Shining, which I think is his best book.

Personally I found it a lot less scarier than the movie. I couldn't bear to finish watching it. It's an excellent story, yeah. I think my favourite of his though is the short story The Boogey-man

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tsmainsqueeze · 13/10/2024 07:00

The shining is very much better written and far more scary for me, I didn't think much of Dr sleep actually.

YouWouldntKnowWhatIMean · 13/10/2024 06:54

Oh interesting responses! I found it nowhere near as scary as The Shining! I did enjoy it, but there are very few books that creep me out more than The Shining, which I think is his best book.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 13/10/2024 06:26

I find Stephen King has a tendency to scare us but not too much, like he doesn't want to scare us as badly as he could and holds back a bit.

So I'm curious to read this book now and compare it to what I've already read of his. I'm glad he does it, his stories are so absorbing and the horror distracts me and gets me out of my head for a while when I'm feeling bad.

I'm excited to receive the book in a few hours and start reading it after these comments. I need to stop being such a scaredy- cat anyway

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Flossi24 · 12/10/2024 16:57

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 12/10/2024 16:11

Oh no ! I ordered it on Amazon already ! It's coming tomorrow ! I'm gonna have to read it regardless, I need to know what happens next in this story. Maybe I'll be sleeping with the light on more often

I think you'll love it. Disturbing more than scary for me but I highly recommend

Stradlater · 12/10/2024 16:13

I found it really scary tbh. The description of the boxes. And what Halloran says.
It’s really good.
Loved the film, too.

ChangedmyMindNotUsingMyRealName · 12/10/2024 16:11

Oh no ! I ordered it on Amazon already ! It's coming tomorrow ! I'm gonna have to read it regardless, I need to know what happens next in this story. Maybe I'll be sleeping with the light on more often

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