Reading The Shining about five years ago set me down the path to my recent obsession with Stephen King. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read Doctor Sleep. Reading the whole Dark Tower series may have had something to do with it. But with the Doctor Sleep movie coming out soon I figured it was finally time. And I loved it. It's a different sort of book than The Shining (less visceral but more reflective, less traditional horror and more weird fantasy). Nonetheless, it's a worthy sequel precisely because it adds to rather than rehashes the original.
We meet Danny Torrance at a few stages of his adult life long after the events of The Shining (readers should be aware that this is a sequel to King's novel and not the Kubrick adaptation). In his 20's it's not looking good for Danny, who is an alcoholic like dear old Dad. Around age 40 he's cleaned up and going to AA meetings. He works at a hospice with a cat named Azrael (the Angel of Death), who sits near people before it is their time. Danny also sits with them using his shine abilities to make their passing easier, thus earning the nickname Dr. Sleep.
Into the mix, we add Abra, a 13-year-old girl with a shining even stronger than Danny's (they originally get in touch telepathically). They live in New Hampshire, but King fans will be relieved they live close enough to Maine that Castle Rock is mentioned a few times.
But the coolest thing in the book in my opinion is the True Knot, a gang of... psychic vampires (I guess?) with old timey gangster/pirate names who roam the country in a pack of recreational vehicles. From now on I will always suppress a shiver when I see Winnebagos rolling leisurely down the right lane. So, thanks for that, Stephen King!
Of course, the True Knot, with their fearless leader Rose the Hat (a great King antagonist!), are after Abra in a big way because they need the "steam" from people with the shine to live (remember when I said they were psychic vampires?). I loved the whole mythology behind the True Knot: King gave enough details to keep me going, but left enough to the imagination to make them creepy.
The novel takes a leisurely pace setting up the confrontation between Rose and Abra with Dan's assist, but it didn't feel slow. But I won't say more about the plot to avoid spoilers. (There are a couple very light Dark Tower references, but nothing like direct connections).
Philosophically, there's a lot going on with trauma and personal identity as well as some interesting ethical issues.
If you've read The Shining (or seen one of the film adaptations) you know that Dan had a lot of childhood trauma, even before the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel got involved. How to acknowledge this trauma without letting it define him? How do you move on from something like that? Can you? To what extent are people in the grip of addiction responsible for who they are? Or for that matter, how much are any of us responsible for that? Can adult children love parents who hurt them? Should they? These are just some of the interesting questions Doctor Sleep poses.
One intriguing ethical issue shows up in the novel, and I think I can discuss it without spoiling exactly how it comes up (but it is explicitly raised at one or two points). Given that the True Knot need "steam" to survive, how can we really blame them for killing humans with the shine? They're just trying to survive, after all! Should they try to find a way to make ethically sourced steam? Is there some value in terms of cultural or species memory in the True Knot? Turning this the other way: are Abra and Dan justified in killing the True Knot members in self-defense even if the True Knot has a sympathetic claim? Is this a genuine case of a zero-sum game in ethics? Or is there some way to accommodate both sides? To make this a bit broader, what and how much are we justified in doing to defend ourselves from those who want to harm us? Can one find common ground with people who wish you and people like you harm?
Obviously Stephen King doesn't solve all of these questions, but I found myself thinking about them as I read this engrossing and entertaining novel. I am also excited to see how the movie adaptation goes, particularly how it navigates the discrepancies between King's novels and the iconic Kubrick film.
See my Goodreads review.
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