Joyland Review, Doctor Sleep preview

In honor of Halloween . . .

I loved Stephen King's Joyland, it was a place I wanted to return every time I had to close the book and go away.  It isn't horror.  It is a ghost story.  It is, in my opinion, a character driven ghost story, my favorite kind of tale.  Don't believe me?  Just read my ghost stories starring Jase and Stevie-girl.

Doctor Sleep arrived the day after I finished Joyland (yes, I'm a one-click addict with no plans for rehab), and the moment I read the inscription -- to Warren Zevon -- I knew I was going to like the book.  What I didn't count on was how the very reintroduction of Dick Halloran and Danny Torrance would immediately transport me back to my youth.  (Sidenote here,  thanks to Kimmie Orr, my hubby's cuz, I was able to attend a speech given by Stephen King at George Mason University a while back.  He was receiving an award, but he was also talking about Doctor Sleep, and I will admit, when he described the RV people, I really wondered how they could relate to little Danny Torrance, but guess what?  It all makes sense.  In a twisted, horror-story kind of way, which is the best way, of course).

I was a newlywed ~ 34 years ago ~ when someone gave me The Shining.  I read it almost nonstop in my little Freight Company office amidst the dust motes and cobwebs when I should have been cleaning and typing up way bills on the old Royal typewriter.  But I couldn't tear myself away from The Overlook Hotel, it was just too creepy, too intriguing, and too darn scary.  When the woman in Room 217 grabbed little Danny, I could've sworn the branches scratching on the old corrugated tin siding of the freight dock were her fingernails . . .

Now, back to the long-toothed woman in Doctor Sleep (yes, I could've easily been finished by now, but I'm pacing myself.  In other words, I don't want it to end).  On the other hand, I understand Dean Koontz is joining the .99 club.  I'll be checking out that bargain, too.

Afterthought:
Went to see the movie Rush.  Let me just say, I loved Opie, I loved Richie Cunningham, now I love Ron Howard.  We sort of almost grew up together, didn't we?  And in my humble opinion, he knows how to make an honest film.  He doesn't beat us about the head and shoulders with ideals.  He doesn't feel the need to change our politics. He tells stories.  That's why I will always go to a Ron Howard film.  Just like Stephen King, I simply love the way he tells a story.