I just wanted to make a note here that the following review contains information about the book that may serve as a spoiler to anyone who wants to read the book on their own. I will not give away the ending or anything, but in describing the book, much about it is revealed that the reader may want to steer clear of, if you want to rely on your own impressions as you progress through it with your own reading. So, read the review if you like (and I certainly hope you will), but if you feel at the end that too much seems revealed here, don't say I didn't tell you so!
Stephen King returned to the world of Danny Torrance, the young child of Jack and Wendy Torrance, the parents in "The Shining", which might just be King's seminal work.
In the process, he returns to the theme of the actual shining abilities. The novel begins with Danny, now an alcoholic yet years away from being able to admit that he has a problem getting in all sorts of trouble. He gets into bar room fights, finds himself waking up in strange places, with strange women, and not having used any kind of protection. Mostly, though, he finds himself completely under the control of his alcohol addiction. He is a slave to the bottle, and it has controlled his life, which is spiraling out of control. We even see him reaching rock bottom.
Dan (he is a grown man now, and no longer called Danny) wonders from place to place, and is all over the map. He has no roots, and so he has found no real place that he can call home. Eventually, however, he finds a small town in New Hampshire that he gets a certain feeling about, and decides to stay a while longer than usual.
It is here that he finally admits to a drinking problem, and joins the local Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which commits him to the town for a while. There is one strange thing about the place, however. Perhaps a part of it is giving up the sauce, but he has begun to experience certain elements of the shining, the first time, really, since he was a teenager. Of course, this has ramifications later on, for various reasons. One of them is that later on, when he has stayed in this New Hampshire town long enough (and remained dry enough), to more or less be considered a pillar of the community, he has established a reputation for helping people "go to sleep" - which is to say, die in peace. Working now officially as an orderly, and unofficially as almost a doctor in all but name only, he is called on whenever one of the elderly patients is dying, in order to allay their fears, and see them off to a peaceful death. He gets a new nickname, "Doctor Sleep", from which the book gets the title.
There is someone else fairly close who also has this shining ability - a little girl named Abra. Danny begins to receive messages from her. They are brief and mysterious at first, but as the girl gets older, and her ability to communicate to him through the shining strengthens, they begin to actually get to know one another more seriously. The strength of her shining is incredible. She has some abilities that puzzles everyone around her, and which Dan recognizes as far stronger than his own abilities ever were.
One day, this not so little girl senses something with her shining. Something horrific. What she sees is not just a crime, but actually a torture session. There are other people, if people are what they actually are, who also have abilities within the shining. They call themselves the True Knot, and they are almost like vampires, however, living a very long time, and continuing to look and appear young and strong, even when they are unnaturally old. What gives them this power is the "steam" that comes off of people when they experience pain and intense feelings, and they particularly need this from young children. So, they have made a habit of kidnapping children, and then essentially torturing them to death in order to gain strength from their steam, and remain seemingly young and strong. This is a requirement in order to stay the way that they are, although what they are in actuality can be classified as monsters, as vampires. And for their home base? They have chosen none other than the site of the former Overlook Hotel, where Dan certainly has memories.
When the girl, Abra, is able to see what they are doing to another young, talented child (this one is a baseball star for his local community), she grows horrified. Also, she is spotted, in a way. The leader of the vampire group (her name is Rose the Hat, for the hat that she constantly wears and almost seems to draw power from) understands through her strong mind-reading abilities that someone is prying. Little by little, she will learn more about the girl, until eventually, she will know enough about her to become a threat. This woman, Rose, eventually becomes completely obsessed with capturing Abra and getting her steam, which will be the best and purest (and the most, for that matter) steam that the True Knot will ever have had for sustenance.
Abra is very strong, however, and she is able to push Rose at first. But Rose is relentless, and Abra is still just a girl. She is able to forget the nightmarish peek at the torture session of the "baseball boy", as she refers to him. But one day, she sees his picture, and uses her abilities to remember, as well as to learn more about him, another amazing ability that she has. She is also able to acquire the location of the torture session that she witnessed, through those same inexplicable talents. It is then that she gets into contact with Dan, seeking help.
The battle lines are drawn, even if the True Knot do not quite know it yet. They see ordinary people as "rubes", and obviously do not think very highly of them. To that end, Rose herself constantly finds herself underestimating the girl, Abra. This becomes a running theme, and Abra's abilities to disguise her true intentions keeps the True Knot blind to the involvement of Dan, as well as a band of adult friends, who by now, understand that the True Knot is and does, and actively work to make sure they never lay hands on Abra. Yet, they find out for themselves that the True Knot also are very crafty, and not to be underestimated. It becomes a battle of wills, more than anything else.
Dan Torrance, Abra, and the group eventually come to understand that they need to not only make sure that they never gain full possession of Abra, but that the True Knot needs to be destroyed outright, so that they never pose such a threat again, and can never abduct and torture little children again. That is where the real battle will be.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! Almost every book that I ever picked up from Stephen King has been captivating, but some possess that certain extra something, and this one falls into that category. It was a real pleasure to read this one, and to inhabit this world, if even for just a little while. So far this year, I have read three Stephen King novels - Doctor Sleep, Joyland, and The Talisman (which he wrote with Peter Straub). Both Joyland and Doctor Sleep were very absorbing, although for whatever the reason, I struggled through The Talisman. There were moments where it almost took off for me, which is something that I have come to expect when reading Stephen King novels, that point where you almost forget that you are reading printed words, and instead feel like you are living the experiences being described. But The Talisman never really did for me. This one and Joyland, both written this year, definitely did, which would suggest that Stephen King, far from losing his touch, is actually getting better as a writer. That is a scary thought, given that he has written over fifty of them!
Doctor Sleep is a return to a world that Stephen King has already written about. Thus, there are allusions and reminders of that other novel everywhere in this book. Some characters (not just little Danny Torrance) return or make appearances here, although I will not get into that too much, so as not to give it away. All I will say is that there are pleasant surprises in this one. If you liked that book, you should enjoy this one not just on it's own, but also for the reminders of The Shining. Personally, I really enjoyed some of the ideas in this one, including the steam, and Dan's ability to see people off to the "sleep" of death, and his glimpse into their world, as their lives flashed before their eyes (and his).
When I saw him in New York City last month, Stephen King described The Shining as centering around the not quite dead. This latest book, Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, is more about coming to terms with dying. It is a book that is often dark and depressing, but which shines through with a genuine warmth and humanity around the major characters that pulls you in. This is one of Stephen King's strongest abilities as a writer, and I suspect it is the major reason that his very loyal fans (which I count myself as) keep returning to his works, and keep getting drawn back in to the world that Stephen King masterfully paints with his words. The strength of his novels is captivating, and it is a testament to his writing abilities that the reader almost hesitates to actually finish the book, not wanting to leave that world. I have always compared it with being on a vacation from myself, and this particular vacation was very enjoyable, and ranks among my favorite of Stephen King books. Give it a read, and see if you don't say the same by the end of it!
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