Doctor Sleep and a much needed return to The Shining’s world

The movie is on its way and it just felt right to write my own review about Doctor Sleep (or The Shining 2), by the one and only Stephen King. If you are not a fan, it certainly is a good story. And if you are, indeed, a lover of his work and have read The Shining, this one is a must. Because of what it means, because it fills some plot gaps, because at some point along the way everyone wants to know “what happened to the kid from The Shining” (as King writes himself in the book), Doctor Sleep is a much needed return to that world.

The novel starts answering that question of what happened to Dan Torrance, son of Jack Torrance (the one who goes crazy at the Overlook Hotel), and has developed his “shining” power. As his father before him he has drinking problems. Alcohol is the one solution he found to fight the dark side of his unusual power, because there is always a B-side to psychic abilities in King’s novels. However, unlike his father, Dan does attend AA meetings and tries to control somehow the shining. 

If he manages to beat it or if he ends up going crazy like his dad, that’s something you are gonna have to find out for yourselves. What I can tell you is that this book has definitely that Stephen King vibe. That same vibe that it took me by the hand along the corridors of the Overlook Hotel almost ten years ago and made me pay attention to every little sound my house made at night. Maybe it isn’t as frightening as it was the first one because now you already have some insight and the shining thing is like a good old pal. But there is a great reminiscence that makes you go back to those moments and enjoy every single connection to The Shining. 

It is a chilling novel, an irresistible page-turner, I recommend it for sure if you are looking for suspense, fantasy, a touch of horror and a cliffhanger plot. Stephen King is not all bloody killing clowns. It’s so much more than that. For example, along the story Dan Torrance meets a twelve-year-old girl, Abra Stone, who mysteriously masters the art of the shining way better than our dear main character. But how is that even possible? Well, you are gonna have to read the book on that one.

Being that said, there are some minor plot holes. Being a fan of King it hurts to say it, but I’m trying to be objective here. On the one hand, the villains. There is this group of shining sucking sort of vampires who kidnap little kids with shining abilities (yes, there are more powerful children across the country and with different levels of it). They are called the True Knot and they disguise as old people, moving in RVs. The author keeps describing them as extremely dangerous and powerful, they have been walking the face of the earth for centuries, and yet they end up being a pretty easy fight for a little kid. They make stupid mistakes. It feels that here the book falls short of what it could have been. 

And on the other hand, the next flaw I found, or at least I consider it is one, is the way that Abra ends up being related to Dan. More than anything else, it seems like it was an easy turn of events to finish the book quickly, like something you would expect from most of Argentine TV soup operas. But not from King. 

To compensate, there are some discreete and at the same time marvellous nods to The Dark Tower series that leave you in awe as you find them. You know, maybe the members of the True Knot are demons from Roland Deschain’s world, and maybe “there are other worlds than these”, or one more subtle “life is a wheel, and it keeps turning”.

All in all, Doctor Sleep is a well deserved sequel to The Shining. It combines all its elements and it introduces some new ideas which are a perfect fit to the story. King rises up to the challenge and comes out unharmed from that tricky sequels universe, a place where many authors have horribly failed before; and considering it is not something usual in him (to write unplanned sequels), that’s a well earned point. My advice to you: read it. And if you think that King is just another horror novel writer: read it. It’s never too late to start appreciating his work and losing some prejudice.

My rating for the book: 4 stars (and 3 if you haven’t read The Shining). Very good.

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