Book review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
32) Doctor Sleep, Stephen King
Sometimes (most times, in fact) being a librarian means you're last in line to get great new books. That's OK, because encouraging people to read is what we do. No surprise, then, that it took quite a while for Stephen King's sequel to one of his masterworks, The Shining, to become available. There was quite a long list. But I'm glad I stuck around long enough to read this. It's Stephen King at his best.
When we last saw Danny Torrence, he was leaving The Overlook hotel in Colorado with his mother. Now Dan is passing middle age and living up to his father's legacy of being a fall-down drunk unable to keep a steady job. Dan gets booted from a touring country band he's been playing with, and hits rock-bottom soon after -- stealing money from a woman he'd hooked up with, knowing he was leaving her and her unsupervised toddler penniless. Dan lands back in New England, doing something he's quite good at: working at a hostel where his special talent lets him comfort the elderly who are dying. Like his father, Dan has the shining. But he's not alone. So does Abra, a sassy young woman with a strong dose of the shining who introduces herself telepathically at one of Dan's first AA meetings. Dan doesn't know until years later that she was still a newborn at the time; when their paths do eventually cross, Abra is being hunted by a band of ancient RV driving vampires called the True Knot who feed on children who have the shining. Teen readers might not have read the original; if not, that's a good starting place. Doctor Sleep can stand on its own. But Stephen King rarely writes sequels, so this is a chance for high schoolers to read the original and the sequel without the 37 year gap between. Doctor Sleep isn't as scary as The Shining, in part because of the spunky and vengeful young Abra Stone. It's also intended for an adult audience, and like many King novels, there are parts that might offend sensitive readers. Recommended for upper high school and up.
Sometimes (most times, in fact) being a librarian means you're last in line to get great new books. That's OK, because encouraging people to read is what we do. No surprise, then, that it took quite a while for Stephen King's sequel to one of his masterworks, The Shining, to become available. There was quite a long list. But I'm glad I stuck around long enough to read this. It's Stephen King at his best.
When we last saw Danny Torrence, he was leaving The Overlook hotel in Colorado with his mother. Now Dan is passing middle age and living up to his father's legacy of being a fall-down drunk unable to keep a steady job. Dan gets booted from a touring country band he's been playing with, and hits rock-bottom soon after -- stealing money from a woman he'd hooked up with, knowing he was leaving her and her unsupervised toddler penniless. Dan lands back in New England, doing something he's quite good at: working at a hostel where his special talent lets him comfort the elderly who are dying. Like his father, Dan has the shining. But he's not alone. So does Abra, a sassy young woman with a strong dose of the shining who introduces herself telepathically at one of Dan's first AA meetings. Dan doesn't know until years later that she was still a newborn at the time; when their paths do eventually cross, Abra is being hunted by a band of ancient RV driving vampires called the True Knot who feed on children who have the shining. Teen readers might not have read the original; if not, that's a good starting place. Doctor Sleep can stand on its own. But Stephen King rarely writes sequels, so this is a chance for high schoolers to read the original and the sequel without the 37 year gap between. Doctor Sleep isn't as scary as The Shining, in part because of the spunky and vengeful young Abra Stone. It's also intended for an adult audience, and like many King novels, there are parts that might offend sensitive readers. Recommended for upper high school and up.
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