Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining, and while it wasn't on my original list, after starting The Shining and talking to a few people, I decided I definitely needed to read it, and I am so glad I did!

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

After Danny Torrance survived the horrors of the Overlook Hotel, he hoped that the worst of his problems would be over, but he was mistaken. He is not only haunted by the ghosts of the Overlook, but also the troubles of his shining. As a child, he swore he would never drink; but, as an adult, he finds that drinking mutes his shining and makes life easier. Well, easier until he is broke, starting fights, and stealing money from his one night stand. When he finally hits rock bottom, he moves (again) and ends up in the small town of Fraizer, joins AA, and life begins to turn around for the better; he even gets a job in a hospice and has a knack for helping people cross over. And then he starts getting messages from a little girl named Abra. Abra shines brighter than Dan did, even as a child. When Abra's shining pulls the attraction of a mysterious and frightening group called the True Knot, Abra turns to Dan to help her. Helping Abra forces Dan to face the issues of his past; not just the more recent alcoholic past, but the past of a little boy named Danny, who sometimes went by Doc, and the horrible experience he had all those years ago where his father almost took his life.

Part of me loves this book more than The Shining. The overall plot really got to me. I am a sucker for finding out about what happens to the characters after the book, and this book gave me those answers. And, it is a different kind of horror.

(Source: Giphy)

The plot really has you rooting for Dan. I was really upset to learn that he had become an alcoholic, his fathers weakness that almost got him, his mom, and Dick killed, and did kill his father. When Dan stole the money from Deenie, his one night stand who has a kid still in diapers, I was furious with him. Luckily, it haunted him too and helped him get sober. And when he starts to get the messages from Abra, first just him writing her name when she was two months old, I wanted to know how this girl could be so powerful. I loved the relationship that developed between Dan and Abra.

(Source: Giphy)

So many books leave me wanting to know what happens to these people I just spent hundreds of pages reading about. Some authors give you a couple page afterward, but it is not the same. It would have been impossible to sum up what happened to Dan in an afterward. I am sad that his mom and Dick did not play as huge of roles as I would have liked. It does not say when he lost touch with Dick, but he does not learn of Dick's death until years later when he really needs him. Of course, Dick does find a way to reach him from beyond the grave. His mom makes a few more appearances, but just as memories as he describes her battle with cancer. But seeing as both of them were so important to Dan, and in The Shining, it was hard for me to not know more about them between then and their times of death.

And I think that sells me the most on the book is that it is more of a sci-fi horror instead of a supernatural humor. Stephen King does both incredibly well, but I like really like the sci-fi-y horror. While a hotel is scary, technically, they could have just left the hotel and that's that (although King probably could have still written a great story how they were still possessed by the hotel after leaving). But here, the True Knot is actual people, and they look beyond normal.

"How many times have you found yourself behind a lumbering RV, eating exhaust and waiting impatiently for you chance to pass? Creeping along at forty when you could be doing a perfectly legal sixty-five or even seventy?...

Or maybe, you've enchanted them in the turnpike rest areas, when you stop to stretch your legs and maybe drop a few quarters into one of the vending machines....

You hardly see them, right? Why would your They're just the RV People, elderly retirees and a few younger compatriots living their rootless lives on the turnpikes and blue highways, staying at campgrounds where they sit around in their Walmart lawn chairs and cook on their hibachis while they talk about investments and fishing tournaments and hotpot recipes and God knows what. They're the ones who stope at flea markets and yard sales, parking their damn dinosaurs nose-to-tail half on the shoulder and half of the road, so you have to slow to a crawl in order to creep by. They are the opposite of the motorcycle clubs you sometimes see on those same turnpikes and blue highways; the Mild Angels instead of the wild ones." (pp. 176-178)

I have seen these people and I pay very little attention to them. Or, at least, I did. But next time I see people in a group that look like they could be filming the new Cocoon movie, I will definitely keep my distance.

(Source: Giphy)

I will say though, the final battle is much more intense in The Shining. In that one, I could not put down the book from when Wendy locks Jack in the pantry to when the boiler explodes. There are three "battle" scenes in Doctor Sleep. First is when Dan, Dave, and John attack the members of the True Knot. Second is when Dan, controlling Abra's mind, attacks Crow in the car. And the final major battle is when Dan, this time with Abra running as mental co-pilot, fights Rose in the location of the Overlook. While it was good, it wasn't the boiler exploding. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am glad I read it after The Shining.

Rating: 9/10
Author: Stephen King
Book in series: 2 of 2 (The Shining)
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fantasy
Dates Read: July 5-9, 2018