10% First Impressions: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

One of the most recent books I borrowed, Doctor Sleep is a book I'd been looking forward to getting. Previously I mentioned I didn't want to see the movie, set to come out next month, before reading the book. Plus with return dates looming and a stack of books, hardcover and paperback, as well as eBooks to read I can't just trudge through one book at a time. I've put down the King book, Mr. Mercedes, for now.

You make plans on top of plans and you do you're best to salvage them, because surely otherwise they'll come to naught. I'd planned to read a chapter of each of the books I've yet to start reading, but alas I settled on 10% of one book, one at a time. The paperback edition of Doctor Sleep I was lucky to snatch has a printed 531 pages. Double checking the page count, I see that includes an author's note. So while I should have counted 528, I counted 531 and set the first 53 pages as my endpoint. Conveniently page 53 is the start of Chapter One.

Preceding that first entry into the main story proper are titled mini-chapters comprising a sort of prologue. Now I'll be the first to say I don't have the best recollection of my read of The Shining. Seems like  doesn't matter because the first part of the prologue, Lockbox, sees literal closure on key figures from the previous novel. We hide that story away and move on with our lives. Being that I am reading Mr. Mercedes concurrently there's no getting away from comparison. A crime thriller, Mr. Mercedes is humanly dark and egregious. Stemming from supernatural horror, Doctor Sleep, so far, focuses on the aftermath of deep trauma. King is able to confidently and independently voice characters who are so different from each other. That's not to say that similarities in character voicing or the trappings innate to the individual style and/or experience of an author don't exist, but they aren't center stage.

The second part of the prologue, Rattlesnake, is a much darker, grittier shift from Lockbox. We go so far away from the existing story. It's here where one gets the sense that the story is setting up for a wild shift and a daring new pacing. From what I've read so far I imagine there's going to be continual shifts in setting. We've already seen rapid progressions through the timeline. Add to that the numerous characters we're going through, we're going on a trip.  And continuing on through the third part of the prologue, Mama, one gets the sense that sexual violence/assault, the trauma it leaves, and how survivors deal with that trauma will shape the characters and thereby the story.

I'm excited for the rest of the book, but I hope it's more standalone and less of another entry into the Dark Tower universe. I mean I know every other King book has a tie-in and I hope that's the case instead of just straight universe involvement, but I'm feeling pretty sure that that's not the case. I don't mind fantasy books, especially when done well. Not too much exposition, but not too little. A solid world-build and well-thought out mechanisms of magic or supernatural phenomena. Still, Mr. Mercedes has me irate. Therefore Mr. Mercedes has more of my attention.