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Doctor Sleep 💤

Stephen King

Spoiler free review:

A sequel to The Shining, this book gives us a look into Danny (Dan) Torrence’s adult life. Danny finds himself in Alcoholics Anonymous in order to avoid following in his father’s footsteps and lands a job at the local hospice where he earns the nickname “Doctor Sleep” due to his ability to help dying individuals to cross over. The plot focuses mainly on a band of antagonists known as “The True Knot” who feed off of the “steam” produced by those with the shine. Abra, a young girl who shines brighter than Dan himself gets tangled up with ‘The True” and finds herself in danger when they find out just how strong she is.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. Though I did enjoy the read at certain points, I found the action to be a bit lacking. That’s not to say that there isn’t any action; it all just happened very quickly. I found myself struggling to get through some parts and ultimately ended up just wanting to get through it just to say that I finished it. One thing that shook me was the twist toward the end regarding Dan and Abra. I won’t spoil the moment but I was not expecting it AT all and honestly it was probably the part that sucked me in the most out of the entire book. Another thing I liked about this book was all the call backs to The Shining. At one point we get to see Danny’s childhood bedroom at the Overlook again and I got a euphoric, reminiscent feeling being able to re-visualize some of the more positive aspects of a beautiful resort that once was. Overall this wasn’t a bad sequel however I don’t see myself revisiting it in the near future.

I give this one 3/5 hearts

🖤🖤🖤🤍🤍

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Misery 👩🏻‍⚕️🩸💉

Stephen King

Review: WITH SPOILERS

Paul Sheldon, famous author of the “Misery” franchise was in a car accident in the middle of winter and found himself being “rescued” by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. She pulled him from the carnage and took him to her home where he would spend the next several months being held captive. Annie lived alone and was disliked by the neighbors so no one really ever checked in. She had read Paul’s latest work “Misery’s Child” and refused to accept that Misery, the main character whom she had an obsession with had died during child birth. Annie went out and purchased Paul a type writer with the letter “N” missing and a bunch of paper so he could write her a brand new, one of a kind, Annie Wilkes edition “Misery’s Return”. However when Paul suggests that she had purchased the wrong kind of paper, he learns just how sinister and unstable Annie really is, and it only gets worse from there.

This book was great and the way that King writes Annie’s character is absolutely nauseating in the best way. Paul suffers so much physical and emotional pain in this story, it makes you feel a mass amount of empathy for him throughout the entire book. And just when you think he stands a slight chance, the universe gives him a giant middle finger. The way that King writes the things that are happening to Paul makes it difficult to fathom just how much physical pain this man is going through. A couple of things I didn’t like about this book are 1. Very few changes of scenery if any. Obviously I suppose, I mean he’s trapped in the house of his psychotic “number one fan”. 2. (Spoiler alert) I didn’t like how all of a sudden Paul’s thumb was missing like we had missed an entire chapter. I literally had to look up what was going on to make sure I didn’t space out for a scene or two. Turns out we get an explanation later on about how Annie had sliced it off with an electric knife.

The ending to this story is the best part, as everything that Paul endured at the hand of Annie Wilkes ended up making “Misery’s Return” his best seller due to the circumstances in which it was written.

I give this book 4/5 hearts

🖤🖤🖤🤍

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The Shining 🏨👻

Stephen King

Spoiler free review:

Another classic. When most people think of Stephen King, one of the first pieces to come to mind is The Shining. It’s about a young boy named Danny who’s father has a drinking problem and a bit of a temper to follow. Danny has a “special talent” that allows him to see and predict things in a sort of telekinetic manner- the “shining”. His father, Jack gets a new job as the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel after being fired from his teaching job for injuring a student in a fit of rage. After that incident, Jack had been on the wagon for several months. Things take a nightmarish turn when the Overlook decides it wants to get to Danny vicariously through Jack. But things really escalate after Jack finds a stack of papers in the basement and learns of the hotel’s less-than-reputable history. Over time while Danny keeps seeing things beyond his five year old comprehension and Jack is slowly losing his mind, slipping into a more and more violent state, Danny’s mother, Wendy is stuck in the middle of things.

This one is another one of my favorites. I love this book from start to finish. It had its moments when I felt genuinely uneasy, waiting for the next thing to happen, and moments when I felt deeply worried for the characters. I try to stray away from going too in depth about movie interpretations here, however this is such a classic I would like to mention that there are so many differences between the book and the movie including the ending. Don’t jump into this book expecting to see everything that happened in the movie and vice versa. Focusing solely on the book however, this one is a masterpiece. The way King describes the visions that Danny has is grotesque, graphic, and downright disturbing and the spiral into Jack’s impending insanity is ~chef’s kiss~. I would definitely read this one again.

This one gets 5/5 hearts

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

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Salem’s Lot 🧛🏻‍♂️🩸

Stephen King

Spoiler free review

This classic novel by Stephen king is about a small town which includes a house with a morbid history. A couple of new arrivals blow in and purchase the Marsten house and open a furniture store in hopes of bringing some life to Jerusalem’s Lot, however end up doing the exact opposite. Ben Mears, a writer and former resident of “The Lot” makes a return after facing his own tragedies in hopes of writing a book during his stay. Instead he ends up grouping up with several others to fight a blood thirsty evil that no one was prepared for.

This is one of my favorite Stephen King novels of all time. It’s a classic, and you can really get a good feel for his style. If you’re looking for a good starting point to get into King’s books, this is a good one. This book will have you feeling a wide range of emotion. There were points where I felt angry, sad, but most importantly scared for many of the characters. At certain points I literally closed the book, placed my hands on the side of my face and asked myself “what the f*** did I just read?” before proceeding through the pages. If you’re looking for a good, scary, attention grabbing vampire novel, Salem’s Lot is for you. Not only that but the ending will leave you feeling quite satisfied in a dark sort of way.

I give this one 5/5 hearts

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

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The Sun Dog 🌞🐶📸

Stephen King

Spoiler free review:

This book is one of three short stories from Stephen King’s collection “Four Past Midnight”. It’s about a boy named Kevin who gets a Polaroid Sun camera for his 15th birthday, however this dream come true turns into a nightmare as he realizes that this is no ordinary camera. With each photo he takes, there seems to be a murderous looking dog appearing in each one, getting closer and closer with each snap. The boy takes the camera to Pop Merrill down at the Emporium Galorium to see if maybe he could offer any information on the hellish thing. Pop instead decides that there may be a way to make a quick buck off this freak show of an every day device. However, much like the Sun Dog, that ends up biting him in the rear.

I started off with a shorter read to get back in the groove, as this was the first book I’ve read in a while and Stephen King is one of my all time favorites authors. After spending an hour in Books A Million this one finally caught my eye. Short, simple, and to the point. And that’s exactly how it turned out. Boy gets camera. Camera isn’t normal. Greedy shop owner scams a kid and gets his medicine. I will say that I would have liked an explanation as to why the camera was the way it was which we never really received. Overall, This segment of “Four Past Midnight” definitely made me want to jump into the rest of the collection which I have yet to do, but rest assured it’s on my shelf and in my line up.

I give this book 3/5 hearts

🖤🖤🖤🤍🤍