[books 2013] Doctor Sleep
Nov. 1st, 2013 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro64. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
This is the sequel to The Shining.
Some years ago on a signing tour, King was asked "whatever happened to the kid from The Shining?" and he got thinking.
It's nowhere near as scary as The Shining (which scared the crap out of me when I was about 14), but it's probably a better book (see the bit about being 14 - I would need to re-read the original to make a fair comparison).
Dan Torrance has grown up to become an alcoholic drifter, because being drunk takes the edge off his psychic abilities. But eventually he has enough and settles down and gets clean. He gets a job in a hospice where, in addition to his contractual duties, he is known as "Doctor Sleep" because he sits with people in their last moments and helps them on their way (in a good way, not in a killing them off way). The one really frustrating thing about this book is that King never goes into detail about this - which I kind of get, but I found it frustrating.
Meanwile, there are a group of monsters who are most analagous to vampires but aren't, who feed off the energy of children with "the shining" (the powers wear off as they grow up). There is a girl with such powers living near Dan, who has attracted their attention...
I say it's not as scary as The Shining, but will never see tops hats or retired people in RVs in the same way again.
This is the sequel to The Shining.
Some years ago on a signing tour, King was asked "whatever happened to the kid from The Shining?" and he got thinking.
It's nowhere near as scary as The Shining (which scared the crap out of me when I was about 14), but it's probably a better book (see the bit about being 14 - I would need to re-read the original to make a fair comparison).
Dan Torrance has grown up to become an alcoholic drifter, because being drunk takes the edge off his psychic abilities. But eventually he has enough and settles down and gets clean. He gets a job in a hospice where, in addition to his contractual duties, he is known as "Doctor Sleep" because he sits with people in their last moments and helps them on their way (in a good way, not in a killing them off way). The one really frustrating thing about this book is that King never goes into detail about this - which I kind of get, but I found it frustrating.
Meanwile, there are a group of monsters who are most analagous to vampires but aren't, who feed off the energy of children with "the shining" (the powers wear off as they grow up). There is a girl with such powers living near Dan, who has attracted their attention...
I say it's not as scary as The Shining, but will never see tops hats or retired people in RVs in the same way again.
