Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

I’m going to say upfront that I love Stephen King, unabashedly and wholeheartedly. I fell in love when I was 11 (with Tommyknockers, of all things), read everything he ever wrote in about a year, and eagerly anticipate new works. My favorite of his novels are the long, meandering ones with a huge cast (extra points for single moms and/or precocious kids!) and a lots of references to other his works– The Stand, It, the Dark Tower novels, Talisman (oh god I need to reread me some Stephen King like right.now.). I like the horror, too, but my favorite part is how he writes his characters. So keep that in mind when I say how much I loved Doctor Sleep. It was unlikely that I wouldn’t love it, and the fact that it’s full of weirdos and a precocious child was icing on the cake (plus in hardcover, it weighed more than my cat).

“The Overlook was still not done with him. Written on the mirror, not in lipstick but in blood, was a single word:

REDRUM”

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining, taking place when little Danny Torrance has all grown up. He’s developed himself a drinking problem in an attempt to smother the shine that he was born with. While drying out, he comes in mental contact with a child much more powerful than he ever was — Abra. Together, they have to take down a roving group of not-quite vampires who hunt shining children and suck them dry.

It’s good — it’s creepy, it’s got connections to the Outlook, I loved Abra, the AA stuff was more powerful than I expected, all good. Overall, a great read and now I have an urge to ignore the 30 books on my to-read shelf and go relive my middle school King marathons…