Doctor Sleep: A Novel

First off: I promise, NO SPOILERS. I apologize if there is some vagueness as a result. I'd like to write two reviews for Dr. Sleep: one on its stand-alone merits, and as a continuation of the story of the Shining, and one on its success as a continuation of the brilliance of The Shining. I'd give the first 5 stars, but the second only...3. Which is unfair, I guess, especially in light of Stephen King's afterward ("...people change. The man who wrote Doctor Sleep is very different from the well-meaning alcoholic who wrote The Shining, but both remain interested in the same thing: telling a kickass story. I enjoyed finding Danny Torrance again and following his adventures. I hope you did, too. If that's the case, Constant Reader, we're all good.")--which seems to say that my first 5 star review is the one King would care about, if I were to presume he cares what I have to say. And since I love Stephen King, that's what I gave it, officially, and that's the one I'll start with. This book is SUCH a fun read! The best kind of King book, the kind that leaves you hungover in the morning because you were up much too late reading, and almost makes you miss your bus to work because you get engrossed in it again while you brush your teeth. Several times I got a big giddy grin on my face and even laughed aloud with ridiculous delight at a super stephenkingy turn of phrase, words I imagined gave him a similar satisfaction as they left his fingers for the page. Some of these were even scary-creepy things, but they were so perfectly done, they were thrilling on that second level, too. It felt to me like King had a lot of fun with a lot of this book, just reveling in his own GoodAtItNess, long passages spooling out with gleeful sprezzatura. The story runs smoothly along, suspenseful questions answered with perfect timing, never leaving so much unknown at once that the complications are impossible to follow. The central characters are excellent. Grownup Dan surprisingly unlike 5 year old Dan in the way my own grownup children are surprisingly unlike their 5 year old selves--something of the little boy remains, but he didn't just stretch to man-size, he's a fully realized person, very changed. Abra is a great character on her own, and her relationships with Dan, her parents, and her friends, are all truthful and nuanced. Good on whoever talked King through the markers of early adolescent girlness that pepper her believability. The scary creepy horrors are scary, creepy, and horrible; turning off the light when I finally forced myself every night was just as unpleasant as it had been when I read The Shining. Loose strings of the original plot are nicely knotted up. I'd have maybe liked to know more about Wendy, but real grown men--as Dan is, in this novel--don't have the kind of insight or, frankly, interest, in their mothers' inner lives. Even if they're psychic. So it works, as a function of Grownup Dan being well done. Less likely, I thought, was the way Dick was written out of Dan's life, but I have to admit that works too, in the sense that Dan grew up in ways that were unpredictable when he was five. Expository backstory from the first book doesn't get the clumsy treatment it normally does in sequels, but is dropped in usefully and gracefully throughout the plot. It was very satisfying to have some things I thought I understood about the Overlook, and Dan, and Jack, confirmed, and equally satisfying to have some new details mixed in to deepen and thicken that foundation of the story. The final revisitation from The Shining gets a muted, subtle treatment in the narrative, and I hope it's not just sentimental over-imagination on my part to think King let it be so simple because it might have been unbearably moving otherwise. Five stars! Buy it, read it, you'll enjoy it! Now then. The Shining is one of my all-time favorite books. It's the one I wax rhapsodic about when I'm making an obnoxiously over-thought case for Stephen King as an underrated capital G genius of American capital L literature. It's the one I compare to Dickens and the one I compare to Steinbeck and the one I say doesn't need to lean on those comparisons because it's capital G greatness all by itself. I like to make people listen to me say that the only reason The Shining is not a genuine masterpiece, recognized or not, is that King was young and still growing as a writer. And still not so market-proven that his (now routinely over-indulgent) editors gave him free reign. I have always assumed those factors caused the flaws (I apologize for my cheek, Mr. King; I know I'm unworthy, but for lack of a better, more obsequious term, I have to go with flaws) in The Shining, and I was unrestrainedly thrilled to hear a sequel unaffected by those was in the works. I refused to entertain fears that I wouldn't like it as much as the original, the way absolutely everyone likes the sequel less than the original; when the first reviews came out and I read that Barbara Kingsolver loved Dr. Sleep, I went directly to Kindle, did not pass go, and Amazon collected my seven dollars. And it was, as I've already said, money well and unregrettedly spent. But this book isn't anything like The Shining. Not as a literary feat. Both books tell, as King says he intended, kickass stories. The Shining, though, spent its first half telling a fascinatingly ambiguous story, too. The Shining is about a man with demons we all recognize, and a lot of us live with intimately. For a good chunk of the beginning of the book, it is impossible to determine from the text alone whether or not those demons are the only demons in the Torrance family's life. The interplay between Jack and his family and the things in Jack's head is fantastic, and the aforementioned flaw is that the transition between "Is This Real or Is Jack Just Crazy" to "Oh, yeah, it's real. Jack's crazy, too, but that's secondary" is less smoothly done than the writing on either side of the divide. And Dr. Sleep has nothing at all like that. The kickass story is all out in the open and straightforwardly linear, as is the development of all the characters and the reader's understanding of who they are and what they're doing. Dr. Sleep is extragood pop culture writing. The Shining was that, with unrecognized actual literature icing its cake. Without the icing, I give it three stars.

I would give this great story 4.5 stars. I savored the book throughout and didn't want it to end. I actually rationed it so that I wouldn't finish it too quickly! I love Stephen King, but not everything he writes. I adore his early and mid-career horror novels, but I got turned off by a lot of his newer works starting with The Green Mile. Under the Dome gave me renewed hope, and Dr. Sleep shows that he's definitely still got it after all these years. This is a very different book than The Shining. While there is some overlap, this has nothing much to do with what happened when Dan was a little boy at the Overlook Hotel (even though the Overlook ruins feature prominently here, as do some memories about the malevolent creatures that lurked inside). This is instead a story about Dan and a new, charming main character, a young girl named Abra. Abra has "the shining" even more strongly than Dan ever did. Unfortunately, we come to learn that there is a group of very evil vampire-like creatures called The True Knot that murders children with the shining to "suck out their steam" (their shining) after slowly torturing them to death (torturing them "purified the steam"). Disguised as benevolent senior citizens in RVs, the True Knot wanders America's highways looking for "steamhead" children to kill. They use their steam as a fountain of youth, keeping themselves alive for thousands of years. Led by a stunningly beautiful woman called Rose the Hat (the members of the tribe use mobster names), these villains are very interesting and scary. As I said, I loved this book. The ending, however, slightly disappointed me. The book builds up to a spectacular showdown between Abra and Dan versus the True Knot. I was so excited for it, turning the pages on my Kindle with great anticipation. I was looking forward to a huge good vs. evil battle that King does so well (as in The Stand, for example, which had an ending I loved). I won't write any spoilers here, but I was disappointed. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it did leave me saying "That's it? Seriously?" At the same time, I went back and re-read the climax several times, proving it was still enjoyable. I also would have liked more history about the True Knot members. The story about their murder of the baseball boy was horrific and terrifying. It almost crossed the line into being "too much" (I am not a fan of torture porn horror stories), but in the end it thankfully gave us a break from that. Still, I wanted more! I wanted to know about each member of the tribe, where they came from, their history, and more stories about their murders and their victims. Aside from the baseball boy and their desire to harm Abra, however, we didn't get to know very much. Some people say in their reviews that they thought the True Knot members were too hammy. I disagree. I enjoyed their quips and didn't mind them being a little bit over the top sometimes. These weren't crude caricatures of villains. They had a softer side although it was never really explored. They loved each other and sometimes tried to justify their murders by saying they have to do it to live. I would have liked learning more about them. I guess something had to be cut from this already quite lengthy novel, but I absolutely didn't find the book too long as it was at all. I do agree with some of the reviews that say they got tired of all the AA sayings and focus on alcohol abuse and sobriety. Honestly, it got old. That said, I recognize this came from King's personal experience and heart, so I didn't mind it as much as I otherwise might. I just don't want to hear about it again in future King novels. All in all, I highly recommend the book without any hesitation. It isn't King's best, but in my opinion it is in his top 5. That's quite a compliment. I sincerely hope King keeps on writing these horror novels. If you're looking for a scary story, get ready for Dr. Sleep.

A fantastic continuation of Danny’s story! Simply could not put this down, do your self a favour and read the shinning first.

If you’re thinking about buying it go for it. It’s a pretty good price and much more interesting than The Shining. Buy it besties

Dan Torrence ist inzwischen 40 Jahre alt und muss sich dreier mächtiger Gegner stellen: seiner Vergangenheit, seiner Trunksucht und dem True Knot. Letzteres ist eine Gruppierung vampirähnlicher und fast unsterblicher Wesen, die sich vom „Steam“ derer ernähren, die das Shining haben. Um an den „Steam“ zu kommen, quälen und töten sie vorzugsweise Kinder, da bei diesen das Shining deutlich stärker ausgeprägt ist als bei Erwachsenen und der „Steam“ entsprechend nahrhafter. Neben Dan Torrence, der inzwischen seinen Lebensunterhalt als Doctor Sleep verdient, indem er in einem Hospiz Sterbenskranken ihre Reise in eine hoffentlich bessere Welt erleichtert, begegnet uns in einer Hauptrolle die 12-jährige Abra Stone, die aufgrund ihrer extrem stark ausgeprägten paranormalen Fähigkeiten die Aufmerksamkeit des „True Knot“ erregt und von deren superböser Chefin Rose prompt auf den Speiseplan gesetzt wird. Keine Frage, dass Dan alles dran setzen wird, der kleinen Abra zur Seite zu stehen und wenn möglich ihr Leben zu retten. DOCTOR SLEEP hat mir insofern ausgesprochen gut gefallen, dass es Stephen King gelingt, die Hauptfiguren lebendig und interessant zu beschreiben, vor allem auch vielschichtig und mit Stärken und Schwächen. Es handelt sich nicht um die genreübliche Abziehbilder, die nur die Handlung befördern sollen, sondern um Charaktere, die der Leser mit der Zeit tatsächlich kennen zu lernen glaubt. Interessant, dass auch die „Erzbösewichtin“ Rose und die meiner Meinung nach interessanteste Nebenfigur Snakebite Andi nicht nur oberflächlich und als das personifizierte Böse dargestellt werden, sondern ihre eigene Geschichte haben und wie jeder andere auch ihre Bürde tragen müssen. Eine mindestens so Prominente Rolle wie die einzelnen Charaktere nimmt das Thema Alkoholismus in DOCTOR SLEEP ein, das Stephen King nie loslässt, aber selten so zentral und ausführlich behandelt wurde. Dieser Kampf wird (auch) Dan sein Leben lang begleiten, einen echten Sieg kann es nicht geben, nur einen Waffenstillstand. Dieses macht King deutlich, und da es ihm eine Herzensangelegenheit ist, kann der Leser sich nicht entziehen. Und auch die Abhängigkeit der Kinder von ihren Eltern, wie einige unter schlechten Vorbildern leiden, andere misshandelt und missbraucht werden, und wie das eine wie das andere die Lebensläufe bestimmt, ist ein wiederkehrendes Thema, dass King in DOCTOR SLEEP in vielen Passagen aufnimmt und bewegend gestaltet. Erzähltechnisch ist King für meinen Geschmack absolut auf der Höhe, er erzählt witzig und anspielungsreich, bewegend die vor allem spannende Geschichte vom ewigen Kampf des Guten gegen das Böse. Einen Kritikpunkt muss ich aber doch ansprechen, und auch dieser ist meiner Meinung nach für King typisch: die Architektur seiner Romane weist oft Schwächen auf. Viele seiner Romane sind mir zu lang und King erzählt oft sehr umschweifig , kommt nicht auf den Punkt und erzählt gelegentlich am Höhepunkt der Handlung vorbei oder erschöpft sich und den Leser im Vorfeld. Bei DOCTOR SLEEP ist nun ironischer Weise das Gegenteil der Fall. Die ersten 450 Seiten bereiten den Leser auf ein unheimliches Showdown vor, doch dann geht plötzlich alles sehr schnell und ist vorbei, fast ehe man sich's versieht. Ich war ob des Tempos und der Geradlinigkeit, mit der die Handlung schließlich zum Ende kommt, ein wenig enttäuscht. Andererseits, auch ein Western endet mit einem Showdown, bei dem sogar ein einziger Schuss ausreichen kann, um alles zu entscheiden. Doch wer den Roman selbst gelesen hat, wird mir vielleicht Recht geben, wenn ich sage, dass King erzählerisch nicht ökonomisch mit den eingeführten Figuren umgeht. Insbesondere für Snakebite Andi hätte ich mir mehr Raum gewünscht (vielleicht sogar ein anderes Ende). Fazit: Sehr gut erzählter, spannender Roman. Dan Torrence als Hauptfigur überzeugt, ansonsten wirken die Bezüge zum Overlook Hotel aber etwas aufgesetzt. Abra wird in Erinnerung bleiben, auch viele der anderen Charaktere. Leichte Abzüge gibt es für Schwächen im Romanaufbau. 4 '1/2 Sterne und für King-Fans eine klare Leseempfehlung.

Dan Torrance has become an adult. He can help the shining Abra now.

Stephen King knows how to tell relevant stories, in which the horror device is used to show the mechanism in action when it comes to violence, addiction, guilt, trauma and its overcoming. Dan Torrance will face the ghosts he encountered for the first time at the overlook hotel when he was a kid. It'll be a painful path to walk, but also a redemtpion one.