Doctor Sleep Book Review

Emotional Impact 5

A BANGER A SEQUEL TO THE SHINING. All over the place, just amazing. Loved this.

Characters 5

WOW. These CHARACTERS ARE DEEP! Even with The Shining starting this story, just wow. Dan = amazing, Abra = amazing, Rose = amazing!

Plot 5

Wow, wow. Just, wow. Magic, the Shine. Holy cow. Just absolutely awesome!

Prose 5

Stephen King, whoa. I'm constantly impressed by Stephen King and how he writes magic, how he writes dialogue, how he writes action. AHHH IT IS SO GOOD.

Worldbuilding 5

Yep, wow. Amazing. Magic, world, sequel to the Shining. HOLY COW.

Total Score 5/5

GOOD GRIEF STEPHEN KING, GO OFF!

I loved this book. Truly.

As a Sequel to The Shining

This was amazing a sequel to The Shining. I was happy to be back in this world and as I said, this was an excellently matured story too.

They Call it Steam

Now, Steam and Shine. I think this was okay, I wasn't taken completely out of the story because they called it Steam instead of Shine. Ah, it was good.

Dan

An excellent example of character growth and character exploration.

Abra

AWESOME example of the new pupil who is more powerful, yes a trope, but I loved this addition of Abra to Dan.

Rose

AMAZING ANTAGONIST. Strong, smart, quick.

The True Knot

I loved the history and all the different aspects and talents of each characters. Great!

Dan's Half Sister

This was not important at all, I believe. I don't think this was very impactful for the story and not something that I was looking out for. I did notice the wiping of the mouth, but I think this story would've been fine without this addition.

Summary

Following the events of The Shining, after receiving a settlement from the owners of the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance remains psychologically traumatized as his mother Wendy slowly recovers from her injuries. The two are living in Florida, but angry ghosts from the Overlook, including Mrs. Massey, the woman from Room 217, still want to find Danny and eventually consume his phenomenal "shining" power. Dick Hallorann, the Overlook's former chef, teaches Danny to create mental lockboxes to contain the ghosts, including that of former Overlook owner Horace Derwent.

As an adult, Danny (now going by Dan) takes up his father's legacy of anger and alcoholism. Dan spends years drifting across the United States, but he eventually makes his way to New Hampshire and decides to give up drinking. He settles in the small town of Frazier on a psychic hunch, working first for the Frazier municipal department and then at the local hospice, and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. His psychic abilities, long suppressed by his drinking, re-emerge and allow him to provide comfort to dying patients. Aided by a cat, "Azzie", that can sense when someone is about to die, Dan acquires the nickname "Doctor Sleep".

In the meantime, Abra Stone, a baby girl born in 2001, begins to manifest psychic powers of her own when she seemingly predicts the 9/11 attacks. She slowly and unintentionally establishes a telepathic bond with Dan through Tony, Dan's childhood "imaginary friend".

As she grows, the contact becomes more conscious and voluntary, and her shining grows stronger than even his. One night, Abra psychically witnesses the ritual torture and murder of a young boy, Bradley Trevor, by the True Knot, a group of quasi-immortal nomads who possess their own psychic abilities. The True Knot members wander across the United States and periodically feed on "steam", a psychic essence produced when people who possess the shining die in pain. They refer to their victims as Rubes. The True Knot's leader, Rose the Hat, becomes aware of Abra's existence and formulates a plan to kidnap Abra and keep her alive, making her produce a limitless supply of steam.

The True Knot begin to die off from measles contracted from Bradley Trevor; they believe that Abra's steam can cure them. Abra asks for Dan's help, and he reveals his connection with Abra to her father David and their family doctor, John Dalton. Though angry and skeptical, David agrees to go along with Dan's plan to save Abra. With the help of Billy Freeman, a friend of Dan, they foil and kill a raiding party led by Crow Daddy, Rose's second-in-command. However, Dan realizes that Rose will relentlessly hunt Abra for revenge. He visits Abra's great-grandmother Concetta, who is dying of cancer at the Frazier hospice, and telepathically learns from her that he and Abra's mother, Lucy, are half-siblings with the same father: Jack Torrance. As Concetta dies, Dan takes her diseased steam into himself. Meanwhile, dissension among the True Knot, along with Rose's obsession with Abra, leads to the group splitting up, leaving Rose with even fewer followers.

Following another kidnapping attempt that Abra foils with Dan's telepathic help, she baits Rose into confronting her at the location where the Overlook Hotel once stood in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, now home to a campsite owned by the True Knot. Dan and Billy travel to the site while Abra helps them by using her astral projection. Lying in wait, Dan releases the steam collected from Concetta to the remaining group of True Knot members, killing all of them. He also frees the ghost of Horace Derwent to kill the last member, Silent Sarey, waiting to ambush him and Abra, and the two fight Rose in a long psychic struggle. With help from Billy and the ghost of Dan's father, Jack Torrance, they push Rose off an observation platform so she falls to the ground, breaking her neck and dying. Before leaving the campsite, Dan sees his father wave goodbye, having finally found peace.

In the epilogue, Dan celebrates 15 years of sobriety and attends Abra's 15th birthday party. He tells her about the patterns of alcoholism and violent behavior that run in his family and warns her not to repeat them by starting to drink or submitting to rage. Abra agrees that she will behave, but before they can finish the conversation, Dan is called back to his hospice, where he comforts a dying colleague who had antagonized him in the past.