Doctor Sleep - finding it difficult to read (WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS!!)

[Bearfrills]

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!

I've started reading Doctor Sleep, I've been really looking forward to it and re-read The Shining so I'd be up to speed :)

I'm just under halfway through, at the bit where the True Knot kill Baseball Boy. I found it really difficult to read (mind you, I am massively hormonal pregnant so I'm really taking things to heart at the minute) and I know he's not a real person, just a character, but that poor boy :(

Did anyone else find certain bits of the book hard-going? Is it worth persisting with it? I do like Stephen King books usually.

It's readable, but not as great as I hoped it would be.

I hate to say it about SK, but this one, it felt like he was writing the book he thought people wanted rather than the book he could have written. Crowd pleasing perhaps.

I've always liked him because he never flinches from the worst of things, but this one felt like he flinched and went nice.

It lacks much of the darkness of the Shining and to me it doesn't feel like a sequel. He's used a couple of the same names and a bit of the location, but it feels far removed to me.

I suspect I'm not making much sense.

If it helps, Baseball Boy gets his revenge. And I know how you feel because it affected me badly as well. And I'm not pregnant, but I do have A Boy and these things get to me now.

Things pick up speed now, to the point of feeling rushed in places. Some parts feel a bit too convenient or easy. Things were not explained, but perhaps there's an explanation to come in another book.

But keep reading. It's not my favourite of his but I love him and I don't think he's written anything that's deserves giving up on. Putting aside for a time, maybe, giving up on for good, no.

It does get better later on. Still, this book is not the best example of SK's talents, imho.

As an aside I have just read 11.22.63. You must read it if you like King.

This will make up for the disappointment.

I loved 11.22.63 :)

DH got my Joyland too when he got me Doctor Sleep, I might switch for a bit.

It's not his best, but I found it perfectly readable and quite enjoyed it. Baseball Boy thing was horrible, yes, but no more than stuff in other of his books. I think that was the worst bit in terms of nastiness iirc, and the pace does pick up in the second half.

Better than Joyland, imho - I liked Joyland but it's pretty lightweight and the ending really annoyed me.

I think Doctor Sleep is worth prevailing with personally. I found the very start the hardest part to read (the toddler and the coke) and thought I might have to stop reading right there and then when the main character did not do the right thing. It was necessary for the story though, and all kind of adds to the depth in the end. The Baseball Boy bit was hard - but I think that is the last hard part before the vengeance begins.

I liked Joyland, as an easy read. It was meant to be a pulp fiction kind of book wasn't it?

Yes, 'Joyland' was him playing with 'traditional pulp' and I did really like the style etc - but I felt cheated by the ending.

Bear my daughter and I both read this book and found the scene of which you talk very very hard to read.

And a few months later it still bothers me. Especially the idea of him losing his voice from screaming . What King doesn't say is more horrible than what he does,

King has a crime novel coming out this Autumn- not Joylands but his first foray into 'proper' crime. Should be interesting.