Now 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). Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance’s sanity, as his paranormal gift known as “the shining” opened a door straight … paranormal gift known as “the shining” opened a door straight into hell. And even though Dan is all grown up, the ghosts of the Overlook–and his father’s legacy of alcoholism and violence–kept him drifting aimlessly for most of his life. Now, Dan has finally found some order in the chaos by working in a local hospice, earning the nickname “Doctor Sleep” by secretly using his special abilities to comfort the dying and prepare them for the afterlife. But when he unexpectedly meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone–who possesses an even more powerful manifestation of the shining–the two find their lives in sudden jeopardy at the hands of the ageless and murderous nomadic tribe known as the True Knot, reigniting Dan’s own demons and summoning him to battle for this young girl’s soul and survival…
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I had no idea, until I started reading this book, that Dr. Sleep is the sequel to The Shining! I was a little worried that King had waited so long to revisit Danny Torrance’s life, but I was soon completely wrapped up in this story. It’s dark, it’s twisted, it’s macabre, but always shining is a light of hope and redemption throughout. Loved it.
I love this book. Until now, it never occurred to me to fear top hats. Why should I be afraid of a top hat, after all? They always make Stevie Nicks look kinda cute. But alas, now I suddenly see what’s been hiding in plain sight all this time: Tops hats are scary.
Thank you, Stephen King, for adding one more irrational fear in a very long list…
Little Danny Torrance of “The Shining” fame is all grown up, and still “Shines” into his adulthood. He helps those crossing over into a peaceful rest, and has tried to forget his past, however, that past creeps up on him and takes him on another journey to protect another shine persona into the horrors of their talent. His return to that world takes him places he really, really did not want to go back to, but he manages to keep himself and his charge one step ahead of the horrors that follow them and wish to make them give up the life force within them. Another wonderful creepy ride with the master storyteller of your deepest fears come alive in the tail of supernatural events.
An absolute must-read before you see the movie! A sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep follows Danny into adult life. This book was so good that I had a hard time putting it down!!
I was so happy when I found out there was a sequel to The Shining that I ordered the book 6 months before it was out and re-read The Shining during that time. This book tells us what happened to Danny after his families tragic stay at the Overlook Hotel and where his life took him. I was a little concerned that the book wouldn’t hold a candle to the original but it did and then some. One of the best books I have ever read. Definitely one of the few that I could read over and over again.
I never read “The Shinning” but did see the movie (Jack Nicholson) and honestly I loved it. Years later seeing the remake (rather more faithful adaptation) I wasn’t crazy about it due to the impression Jack left on me.
“BUT” having just read this great story I am going to get “The Shinning” and read it, then give the adaptation a real chance. “Doctor Sleep” is a great story filled with wonderful characters (both good guys and bad). I really enjoyed reading about the man that Danny turned out to be. His trial, tribulations, awakenings, revelations and the drive to make something more of himself. The secondary character (and not by much) is Abra, who seemed so real to me I was floored. She had to deal with all the things kids deal with daily and on top of that she was special. I thought she dealt with being special the way a real kid her age would deal with it and a few times came to close to the edge for comfort.
A great read a fun ride, filled with plenty of suspense, danger and (the occasional “really”) funny one-liners, as Billy would say “the best thing about growing old, is you don’t have to worry about dying young” …
100% recommendable to readers in any genre across the board …
Doctor Sleep is one of S.K.’s better books, in my opinion. As we find out what happened to that little boy from The Shining, S.K. tells his story with plenty of suspense, thriller, and on a foundation of Dan’s guilt combined with everyone’s rage. All the while, death and how we approach it is a reoccurring theme in this book. That is what is scary in Doctor Sleep, not the monsters.
Rose is a beautiful villain that I liked. She sees what she wants and uses her rage to go after it. She manipulates others to her own purpose, and feels justified in doing so. Along side this selfish behavior, I believe that she really does care about and loves her True Knot. I especially liked how S.K. described how they take steam and how they cycle. That is creepy & can be a bit scary for some I bet.
I don’t know how long it will take me to get over that night of the toddler in the sagging diaper reaching out for candy. Because, besides the feeling of S.K. ripping out my heart from my chest & grounding it under his boot like a cigarette butt, this scene made Dan real for me and not just a character I’m reading about.
The Overlook Hotel is as much of a returning character as Dan and Dick Hallorann.
There are other secrets revealed about Dan and his family that I did not see coming. But I will let you discover these as the constant reader. Just know that I liked the reveal. Some may say that this and others are the slow parts, or spots where there isn’t much going on. This isn’t the case for me.
Doctor Sleep is well worth the 2nd read. I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I read it for the first time. It’s even sweeter when read right after reading The Shining. (The movie will be harshly judged against the book that it’s based from.)
It has been way to long since I read a Stephen King book, so I was way overdue. I loved the Shining and figured I dive back into the world of King with this sequel to The Shining.
To read this book, you don’t need to read The shining but some basic knowledge doesn’t hurt of the previous book.
In this book we meet Danny again but he now is grown –up and of course goes by Dan.
Early on it is clear that the Overlook Hotel left some scars with him and he still has the shining as well. But he has not dealt with it very well and fallen down the path of an alcoholic. He arrives in a small town (King and small towns…..lol ) and life is starting to look better once he meets people and he gets a job and makes friends. He also is been told that life will come to a full circle and so it really all begins………
We meet Abra as soon as she is born and it is very clear that she is a very special little girl, but in the beginning we have no clue how truly special she is and how it will all tie together.
It took me a couple chapters to get into it but once there and was a nice flow and the writing was great. It was very fast paced but and followed multiple characters but yet was easy to follow.
It was not really as scary as The Shining, it was more creepy and gave me goosebumps more than once but not really scary. The main bad guy or guys in this case was also a bit of a letdown I thought. Not scary and overall I was kind of bored with The True Knot thing after a while. In the beginning I was confused over them, then we knew more and it was sort of interesting but after a while it just got too long for me with the True Knot group.
I really enjoyed Dan and Abra, both were great , even funny at times. I loved the bond they shared. Abra had spunk and I wouldn’t have minded fast forward to when she is an adult but I have a feeling that in one way or another it just comes back to a full circle.
The end was pretty good and almost peaceful, which I enjoyed.
Overall I thought it was a great book and I’m glad that I read it, while not as scary as some of his books, this is still an awesome book and I recommend it to any Stephen King fan.
I rate it 4
I need to reread this one.
Although I have to admit to enjoying The Shining more than this sequel, it was pretty amazing to have a follow up on Danny, and one which shows his transition to helper for another shining child in need. With quite a time gap between The Shining and Doctor Sleep, Danny is now a full-grown man and the family dynamics of the Torrance family are still present as the cycle of addiction sadly makes it way down the generational pipeline. But the creepy/thriller factor in Doctor Sleep is on a whole other level. It was great, but uncomfortable as all the best are. Stephen King certainly doesn’t shy away from tormenting kids in his fiction, and this one takes the cake. Despite having a new and heavily gifted shining child in the mix, my book love still went to Danny. He’s one of my all-time favorite fictional characters just making the best out of all the good and bad he was given and trying to survive like us all. I’m so glad King moved forward with Doctor Sleep, and I’m even more glad I finally read it. Check it out!
My favorite quote:
“Life was a wheel, its only job was to turn, and it always came back to where it started.”
Really excellent sequel, could easily be a standalone without the original. But of course if you have read the shining you will enjoy this book all the more. It was great to find out about the characters from where the last book left off. Also truly terrifying read.
The Shining was one of my first exposures to Stephen King, and still remains one of my favorite books. I didn’t read Doctor Sleep for several years after its release because I was worried it wouldn’t hold a flame to The Shining, but I’m happy to report that it was incredibly enjoyable — independent of its predecessor.
Danny Torrance is only six years old in The Shining, but, based on the horrors that befall him throughout, it’s inevitable that readers walk away from the 1977 novel thinking, “wow, that kid is going to be scarred for life.” King himself acknowledges this in the Author’s Note preceding Doctor Sleep, and I so appreciate that Danny stayed with him in the same way that he stayed with many readers.
As the protagonist of Doctor Sleep, Danny is in many ways a spitting image of his father at the outset of the novel — a raging alcoholic with a temper. We learn very quickly that Dan has real, tangible, residue-leaving demons, and his life is one focused on pain, death, and regret. He remains an interesting character throughout, and his character arc and overall development are incredible. (Small spoiler: he’s a much more likable guy by the end of the book.)
Apart from Dan, we’re introduced to Abra, who is older and spunkier than Danny was in The Shining, but is a firm reminder of his character. (The parallel between Dick Hallorann : Danny and Dan : Abra is one The Shining readers will really appreciate.) Abra has an incredibly strong supernatural power that even Dan has never witnessed before, and when she reaches out to him he can’t not help her.
The True Knot, the novel’s villain(s), was an interesting addition to the story that has no comparable aspect in The Shining, but is reminiscent of supernatural entities in King’s other works (i.e. Gage Creed, Pennywise, and the vamps in ’Salem’s Lot).
While nothing will top The Shining in my book, I really appreciated that King didn’t attempt to simply give readers more of what they loved from the Torrances and instead took Doctor Sleep, in typical King fashion, in its own frightening and memorable direction.
A great book to read when going to bed a great book
Honestly, I thought even Stephen King couldn’t write a sequel to the creepiest book of all time (The Shining) – at least, not a sequel that had that almost unbearable skin-crawling, frantic page-turning, want-to-cover-your-eyes-while-still-reading, yet still incredibly plot- and character-driven story quality that so personified TS for me… But, of course, he could. And did. And this is the result.
Doctor Sleep picks up the tale of poor wretched cursed Danny Torrance – he’s about as scarred as you’d expect, yet (in the indomitable spirit of the great Dick Hallorann, who is also back, hooray!) STILL manages to pull it all together enough to help the latest victim of The Shine, the unique and charming Abra Stone. It’s an epic battle between good and evil, King-style – full of piss and vinegar and enough crazy creepy crap to guarantee you won’t want to read it at night… This was a surprisingly great sequel. I wonder if King will take us back to some of his other fantastically horrifying original novels to show us the What Comes Next – there’s a lot of cool potential in his back catalog, extensive and awesome as it is!
So … what happens to a child with the “shining” like Danny Torrance as he grows up? This book answers that question and gives you a whole lot more! This sequel to The Shining absolutely “outshines” (pardon the pun) its predecessor. Once again, Stephen King weaves a page-turning story that will most definitely sate his fans and readers of The Shining, as well as those who never read the first book. Also, watch for the surprise at the end – readers of the first book will absolutely love it!! A must read for all King fans!
One of the strange ones he has done
This is an awesome book. It kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. There are some sad parts and some extremely interesting parts. I can’t wait to see the movie.
This was a great read, now no other books can compare!
One of Stephen King’s best works.
it’s a good book but the ending is sad