As King himself mentions at the end of this book, the author of The Shining and the author of Doctor Sleep are so far away from each other, they're basically not even the same person. King's had decades to grow and change and move on from his seminal work in The Shining, but that's what actually what I think makes Doctor Sleep work. Dan Torrance has had decades to grow and change, and his character arc is remarkably similar to King's own life struggles, only King PROBABLY never had to fight life-sucking monsters. 
 This is a thoroughly readable book. King's ability to keep you locked in to characters while not a whole lot is happening to them is remarkable. I found myself constantly picking up the book whenever I had a free moment, continually coming back for more. But, part of that almost feels like a trick in retrospect. Honestly, not very much happens in this book. There's a very interesting and enlightening exploration of AA from Dan's point of view, which I enjoyed. The True Knot, the book's central villains, are just different enough from vampires to feel fairly original. But that didn't stop me from wanting more somehow. 
 I think it's the slow burn. There's some cool stuff here and there expanding the mythos of what the shining is actually capable of. King's ability to maneuver characters to where they need to be, and make everything feel ultimately connected stands out, as well. But the climax is just, well, not enough. After an entire book waiting on the other shoe to drop, I don't feel like it did. The other shoe just kind of fell off. No huge revelations or anything (well, a minor one that didn't really feel like it mattered to me). No big finale. It just kind of felt like everything that was supposed to happen happened and that was it. 
 So, while I did thoroughly enjoy the act of reading this book, the book as an entire piece just didn't really do it for me as much as I'd hoped, and as much as it seemed to promise. Still worth checking out for Shining fans, though, just to check in with Dan Torrance and see what he's been up to.