Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yes I'm finally done. =P

The first book of Kings that I read had been Cujo (you can find my review of that here ), and while it was okay, I admit I never liked it as much as I do Doctor Sleep. (Then again, King admitted to writing Cujo while half-drunk and not remembering most of it. )

The only thing I regretted was that I probably should have read The Shining first. Although Doctor Sleep could be read as a standalone novel, there were still bits of references here and there that didn't really 'sink in' with me I think, because I didn't fully understand the references.

Apart from that, you can't help liking Abra, and of course, hating Rose & Crow. I do sympathize somewhat with the others in the True Knot though, in the sense that some of them were literally brainwashed or blackmailed into joining.

That being said, with how powerful the True Knot claimed to be and all, I was eager to see how the final showdown would go. Rose was very smart, strong, and powerful, and her right-hand men & women were, too. And as powerful as Abra is, she's only a teenager after all. The finale ended fairly quick (as compared to other books' climaxes), however the build-up took some time.

Throughout the book, as you find out how scary Rose can be, her little thwarted plans can be extremely satisfying to read about. Just reading about how she panics and freaks out gave me a buzz of excitement, as if I had been watching it all play out right in front of my eyes. Had anyone burst into my room as I was reading the finale, I would have, very literally, jumped out of my skin.
And you know what they say about a book being able to do that to you... It's a damn good one.

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