Doctor Sleep
A Novel
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4.4, 3.1K Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor!
From master storyteller Stephen King, his unforgettable and terrifying sequel to The Shining—an instant #1 New York Times bestseller that is “[a] vivid frightscape” (The New York Times).
On highways across America, a tribe of people called the True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, the True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the steam that children with the shining produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel, where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant shining power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory and glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to this icon in the Stephen King canon.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You don’t have to be a fan of horror to appreciate Stephen King’s masterful new novel. Dr. Sleep is exceptionally scary, but it’s also a brilliantly paced and moving redemption story. Billed as the sequel to The Shining, the book hones in on Danny Torrance, once a little boy who discovered the Overlook Hotel’s demonic secrets. Dan's now an adult, a recovering alcoholic who—after hitting rock bottom—becomes a self-contained hospice orderly known as Dr. Sleep. But when Dan befriends a young girl who shares his psychic abilities, that so-called “shining,” he’s pulled into an epic battle between good and evil. King has perfected his gift for taking the sordid, nightmarish realities of American life—seedy roadside bars, desolate trailer parks, front-page child abduction stories—and infusing them with supernatural elements to make them truly horrific. But what makes Dr. Sleep shine is its fully realized heroes, whose inherent decency makes you believe there’s hope for the good guys after all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Iconic horror author King (Joyland) picks up the narrative threads of The Shining many years on. Young psychic Danny Torrance has become a middle-aged alcoholic (he now goes by Dan ), bearing his powers and his guilt as equal burdens. A lucky break gets him a job in a hospice in a small New England town. Using his abilities to ease the passing of the terminally ill, he remains blissfully unaware of the actions of the True Knot, a caravan of human parasites crisscrossing the map in their RVs as they search for children with the shining (psychic abilities of the kind that Dan possesses), upon whom they feed. When a girl named Abra Stone is born with powers that dwarf Dan s, she attracts the attention of the True Knot s leader the predatory Rose the Hat. Dan is forced to help Abra confront the Knot, and face his own lingering demons. Less terrifying than its famous predecessor, perhaps because of the author s obvious affection for even the most repellant characters, King s latest is still a gripping, taut read that provides a satisfying conclusion to Danny Torrance s story.
Customer Reviews
Back with an old friend
I anticipated loving this book as I have been a fan of Stephen King since I read "Carrie" when it first came out, even though some of his books have been somewhat disappointing. I loved this book! Danny Torrance has grown up since his father tried to kill him at the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining". Unfortunately that experience has left him a nomadic alcoholic with not much redeemable in his life. Until a bus (and his friend, Tony) take him to New Hampshire and a girl named Abra Stone. And Abra, too, has the shine. Abra and Dan find out that that quality in other children has led to their deaths at the hands of an evil group of people called the True Knot. These people live on the "steam" given off when children, with the shine, die. The connection between Dan and Abra is at the heart of this story.
Stephen King makes his characters real and the stories believable. If you loved "The Shining" or "The Stand" you will love this story!
Enjoyed it from beginning to end
Few things get better with age and some that are noted to often do not. The finest wine will turn to vinegar if not properly shelved and that hand crafted cheese will indeed stand alone if not consumed humans before it is consumed by Leeuwenhoeck's "wee little beasties".
The mind, at least my own, does not perform as nimbly as it once did and in some ways perhaps it's just been jaded by too many feedings of the things it likes. Yet in face of all evidence, Stephen King's works continue to improve.
Dr. Sleep snatches the coat tails of the Shining and does not let go as King leads us through an adventure of a different type. There are monsters and then there are monsters. Dr. Sleep introduces us to a new breed with very old roots. I know that I will be a little more observant while wandering America's asphalt arteries. Perhaps I'll give a little more room to the next convoy of retirees I meet on the road. You never know, right?
He did it again, of course
A great sequel to my favorite book. Thanks SK for all the years of frights.
