This review contains spoilers!
On September 24th, at long last Doctor Sleep was released to Stephen King fans. The sequel to The Shining was a long time coming, what
with the original being released in 1977!
The story kicks back just a couple of years from where we
left off. Danny is now eight years old. He and his mother (who has recovered
from her injuries but still suffers from chronic pain) live in Florida. As a
child, it is evident Danny does not blame his father for the events of The Shining, if anything he misses him
deeply. Danny is also still tormented by the ghosts of The Overlook Hotel. Dick
Hallorann, also gifted with the shining and returning from the first novel, teaches
Danny how to lock the ghosts away in his mind.
We then fast forward to Danny, all grown up. He has
succumbed to the same addiction that aided in the destruction of his father:
alcoholism. In an attempt to get his life together, Danny begins attending
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly and secures employment in a hospice.
This is where the title of the novel comes in. Danny is coined "Doctor
Sleep" because he uses his shining talent to aid patients into an easy and
fulfilling cross over to the other side.
Danny ends up meeting Abra, a 12 year old girl with an even
stronger shining ability than himself. She is in danger of Rose The Hat, leader
of the True Knots. The True Knots are a group of sub-humans living a nomadic
lifestyle that wish to drink in the "steam" of those with paranormal
gifts. The "steam" sustains their extremely long lives --- hence the
sub-human reference --- and is most effective when the victims they take it
from are tortured to death. Many of these victims are children, since the
shining is always stronger in younger people than older people.
Danny and Abra begin communicating, bonding over their
shared gifts. And none too soon as Rose The Hat has named Abra her next target; not only that, she has labeled Abra the ULTIMATE target. Danny dedicates
himself to protecting Abra, and being unable to seek out the help of the
police, he enlists his friends from the local AA chapter to help battle it out
against the True Knots.
I won't spoil the actual ending for you, you can read that
much for yourself. I will tell you it was less than satisfying.
Overall, I didn't really care for the novel. I read the
first one as well and I definitely feel it is the better of the two. Not that
the novel wasn't well written, it definitely was. And it supplied some chills
but not the same hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck reaction I had with The Shining. It was more of an anxious,
disturbed feeling. This is probably because literally five pages into the book
we get a detailed description of Dick Hollaran's sexual and physical abuse at
the hands of his evil grandfather. The book is not for the faint of heart: the
torture of innocent children, both mind and body, is a central plot line in the
story.
I also found the approach of the True Knots strange and not
really all that scary. The things they did were evil and sinister, but the general concept of their existence just seemed kind of silly to me. They breathe in
their victims "steam" which is apparently really painful and usually left
the victim dead. Does this not remind anybody else of Disney's 1993 film Hocus Pocus? The witches breathed in the
souls of children to remain alive and beautiful. The only difference is that
when the True Knots took their victims, nothing was left behind except for
their clothing (oooh, I get it...it's the rapture!)
Maybe I feel the way I do about the novel because I was
expecting something with the same tone
as The Shining and got something
completely different.
What I will say is that I found it interesting that at the
time that Stephen King wrote The Shining,
he was an alcoholic, writing about an alcoholic. In Doctor Sleep, Stephen King is a recovering alcoholic, writing about
a recovering alcoholic. AA is the acknowledgement and treatment of addiction.
The True Knots are a group of beings that feed off their addiction, and enable
each other. So with that said, King more than likely released a lot of his own
personal demons in writing this novel and for that the book has earned my
respect. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
Danielle Beaudin-Lawrence
Twitter: @daniellebeaudin
Twitter: @daniellebeaudin