Doctor Sleep

Image credit: Amazon

Sequels. A funny thing they are. Sometimes they work out super well and then at other times not so much. I suppose the risk with sequels, particularly books, is the time they take to form and solidify into their final shape; time that changes the tastes and opinions of the reader whom so loved the original.

This philosophical train of thought has come from my turning the final page of Stephen King’s ‘sequel’ to The Shining, Doctor Sleep.

The book tells the story of a grown up Daniel Torrance who has sadly tread life in his father’s footsteps and become a raging alcoholic. Upon wandering the country he comes to New Hampshire and while trying to get sober, his dormant ‘shining’ re-emerges telling him that this is a place that needs him. Dan soon discovers the existence of a little girl named Abra who is like him, and who is being hunted by a group of merciless psychic vampires called the True Knot. In order to save Abra, Dan must get back in touch with his powers, even if that means digging up some ghosts from his past.

It’s been a decade or thereabouts since I read The Shining. Of course I remember absolutely loving it, being scared and compelled to keep reading. So there were some strong feelings fuelling my hand as it reached to the shelf for Doctor Sleep just over a week ago. I can’t honestly say whether or not I actually liked this book though. 

King’s exploration into addiction and overcoming it; the guilt, regrets, bad decisions, and even worse outcomes works excellently hand in hand with the horror story of a little girl being chased by terrible monsters. Riddled with child abduction, murder, and sadism the horror of King’s ‘monsters’ in this book are ones that can be found in our own backyard, which gives Doctor Sleep a much more disturbing edge to its horror aspect than its predecessor’s ghosts and mind-destroying entity of the Overlook.

Image credit: Goodreads

However where the book stumbles a little is in its classic King tendency of delicately creating characters, histories, and a world that take up the majority of the pages, leaving practically no room for the conflicts that they have been slowly and painfully building up to. The exciting moments of battle and climax felt a little short, soft, and deflated with no real payoff for the hours of reading time spend getting there. One or two other twists of the plot, which I believe were meant to blow a little bit of a mind-fuse, seemed to be carelessly thrown into the mix, not even achieving a minor short of the circuits. Rather, they left me feeling confused as to whether they were even all that necessary to the story.

Doctor Sleep definitely has some good points, but there are some flimsy ones also however, with the film now out starring Ewan McGregor I would recommend that you familiarise yourself with the original content and I believe Mr. King would say the same.

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining (1977) written by Stephen King and published in 2013 by Hodder & Stoughton.