I really enjoyed this, and like the author, I think it was really interesting to get re-acquainted with Danny Torrence (Who now goes by Dan) and find out what he's been up to all these years. Not surprisingly, he's a womanising alcoholic, just like his father, and his father before him. He also still shines.

I disagree with people who say it's not as good, or not as scary, as [b:The Shining|11588|The Shining (The Shining, #1)|Stephen King|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg|849585]. I think it's on a par. Not that I found The Shining all that scary (it made me feel uneasy and "creeped out" at times, but I didn't lose any sleep). Not nearly as much as [b:It|18342|It|Stephen King|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309376909s/18342.jpg|150259], anyway. But I digress.

I think the fear in Doctor Sleep is a different kind of fear. Firstly, the fear hits you from the very beginning, which is very unlike those of King's other books that I've read, where it builds up slowly. Secondly, it's far more of a "thrilling" type of fear than a "horrific" one; you're more biting your nails because you're worried about what's going to happen next, than you are covering your eyes because you can't bear (and yet you can't bear NOT to) to look at the grotesqueness of what's happening.

People have also been saying that you don't have to have read The Shining to appreciate Doctor Sleep. Well, I DID read The Shining (obviously), and I think you'll probably pick up the story if you hadn't, but there are LOADS of references and in-jokes that are just so satisfying that I strongly recommend you read the prequel.

Doctor Sleep deals with childhood trauma and nature vs nurture a lot. It's about breaking the chains that bind us to the past. It also (like a lot of King's books) touches on the question of life after death. I highly recommend it, and will leave you with a quote from the book that I found particularly powerful:

"Death is just as much of a miracle as birth"