So.... Nicky?

The usual great characterization and sense of place, and less horror or suspense than I expected. I brought a lot to the story: reading The Shining was one of those incandescent moments in my childhood. I didn't realize then (at 12? 13?) how *young* Danny was in that book; if I read it now, I would be even more terrified for him.

In the bulk of Doctor Sleep, the child with the shining is 13, and more powerful, and in less danger, it felt to me. Plus she has strong allies and supportive parents--she's not being stalked by one of them. But I'm older, too, and less interested in being scared out of my pants, so those changes were fine by me.

What really got me was how King caught the visceral spiral of alcoholism, and how hard it is to get back on track when you've fallen off (with "morning-after junkbelly"). Grown-up Dan's personal problems are tougher than beating up some camper-vampire, and the fear I felt was that he would not overcome them. I've met people just like him who haven't.

He thought: If I drink, the Overlook wins. Even though it burned to the ground when the boiler exploded, it wins. If I don't drink, I go crazy.

I especially liked the townies where Dan finds work, and I hope my end (if in a hospice) is attended by someone like Dan. And all the little details of folks just living their lives. Here's the girl's father, talking distractedly to his wife :

'Oh. Okay. Is that all?'
'No, it is not all!' Nearly shouting at him in that why-are-men-so-stupid voice that he absolutely loathed, the one he told himself was a part of her Italian heritage without ever considering that he might, on occasion, actually be quite stupid.