Doctor Sleep: A Novel
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Audie Award Winner, Fiction, 2014
Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration – Male, 2014
Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.
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 12-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, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Customers say
Customers find the book satisfying and entertaining with an intriguing plot. They describe it as a great sequel to The Shining, with compelling characters and well-developed villains. Readers praise the writing quality as well-crafted and nuanced. Overall, they consider the book a superb work by Stephen King.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
FredReadIt –
Whatever Happened to…
When I was a hyperactive and slightly crazed child I learned to read by reading comic books. And yes I’ll admit that at first all I did was look at the pictures, but eventually I found myself running in to my parents to try and figure out what exactly Spiderman, The Hulk, The Avengers, and the X-Men were saying. The comic books instilled within me the desire to learn because I found them vastly entertaining and interesting. At the same time as this I was living out in the country and we only had four TV channels, ABC, NBC, CBS, and KTVU Channel 2 out of San Francisco. I know in this age where we have hundreds, upon hundreds of channels to choose from, that its hard to imagine just having four TV channels, but that’s what I grew up with. One of my favorite TV Channels outs, of the big four I had to choose from, was the independent KTVU Ch.2 and the reason I liked it more than the others was that on Friday Nights they would have Creature Feature movies, which were hosted by a dude named Bob Wilkins, who had a great sense of humor and always had great intros to the movies he’d play like, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, and a whole bunch of other great black and white horror films. I thought these films were just great because they opened me up to the wild world of horror.And then somewhere around the seventh grade I discovered Stephen King and everything changed…Stephen King took the horror that I saw on Creature Features and made it scary. The Stephen King novels were the first full length books that I read for pleasure. At the time I would have told you that it was the subject matter that drew me to the books, but as I look back now, I think it was more the way he told his stories. The Creature Feature Movies and the Comic Books were aimed at a more innocent audience, but the Stephen King books were aimed at scaring the hell out of adults, and as I was reading them, not completely understanding all of what was being said, I was thinking that I was being let into the world of adults, like I was pulling back a door and looking into a world I was not yet a part of. Stephen King wrote in such a way that it drew me in and made me a part of that horrific event at the center of each novel and in doing so he personalized it, he humanized the horrible, and that he made you feel each and every action that was perpetrated on his characters.I wasn’t alone in feeling like this, because at that time Stephen King was the absolute Rock Star of writing, every single one of his novels was a blockbuster success, and they were all being made into movies, one right after the other. So it’s fair to say that what I was feeling as a reader was what other were feeling too. But really when you look at what he was producing at that time, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, and Pet Sematary and you realize it is a succession of great books that tap into some of our deepest fears. I’m not sure which book I started with, but I think it was The Dead Zone. Today I understand politics, and how the wrong person in office can have dire consequences, but at the time I had absolutely no idea what any of that stuff meant, all I knew was that Stephen King made it scary as all hell and totally engrossing to read about. And from that point I was hooked. I went racing through the books as fast as my little mind would allow me to read. I remember it got so bad my mother would take the bulb out of my light at night so I wouldn’t stay up reading too late, but I couldn’t be thwarted, I got a flashlight and a bunch of batteries and just kept reading. King had that kind of effect on me, I felt compelled to keep turning the pages until I reached the cataclysmic conclusions of his books.And then came The Shining…Of all the books I read by Stephen King The Shining is the one book that made me sleep with a light on at night after I read it because it just terrified me. The Overlook Hotel, the snow, the moving hedge animals outside, the little girls, Room 217, all combined together in a nightmarish vision that frightened me half to death. I mean they were stuck, miles away from anything and anyone else, in a hotel filled with horrifying things, and that had this strangulating feel to it, like there was no possible way out, and everyone was going to get killed. Of all the books I’ve ever read that one made one of the deepest impression Ive ever felt.It was hard to top The Shining. The Kubrick Movie left a bad taste. I started college. I moved on to Clive Barker, and I didn’t read anything else from Stephen King…And then came Doctor Sleep.Doctor Sleep was the first Stephen King book I’ve bought since my last year of high school in 1984. It wasn’t as good as The Shining, but it was still a pretty damn good book. More than anything, for me, it was like meeting up with a good friend, where you find yourself falling into the same patterns, and memories, and you walk away with a smile on your face because you remember just how much that friend meant to you. Stephen King ushered me from my childhood into the adult world of reading for enjoyment. He taught me that a writer could be a superstar, that his books could be made into a massive succession of movies and TV shows, and that a writer could have a deep influence on a persons life. Doctor Sleep brought me back to those thoughts. It gave me an idea what actually happened to Danny Torrence and his mother. It gave me new creatures to hate and fear. It gave me a new hero to cheer for. King gave me a story I could deeply enjoy like a fine wine that’s been aged to perfection and is filled with all of those tastes that remind you of where the grapes were grown, what barrel it was aged in, and the person who made it. The story wasn’t deeply original, and borrowed from a lot of sources, but it was very Stephen King and that was greatly satisfying for me.As I begin my own writing career I’ve had a lot of influences in my life, my parents, Mr. Murphy in high school english, too many movies to name, a whole bunch of books, and Stephen King. I don’t think my head would be filled with all the thoughts I have of writing glory if I hadn’t started reading that first Stephen King book. If I hadn’t watched Stephen king become a household name. If I hadn’t read The Shining. As I went through college as an English Lit Major I remember teachers looking down their noses at what they called “populist writer” like Stephen King as they tried to get me interested in all of the greatest literature, and yes some of those books and plays were very good, but it was very wrong of them to do that. I don’t care if it’s Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or Stephanie Meyer, if the books get people excited and make them want to read, then teachers should encourage that and they should embrace it. You never know where the next writer is going to come from or what is going to influence along the way.Doctor Sleep is a very good followup to The Shining. I couldn’t recommend it higher. But I make that recommendation with one piece of advice, read The Shining first, and make sure all the lights work in your house, because you might need to keep a few of them on.
Leslie Truver –
I loved it! Almost perfect.
First off: I promise, NO SPOILERS. I apologize if there is some vagueness as a result.I’d like to write two reviews for Dr. Sleep: one on its stand-alone merits, and as a continuation of the story of the Shining, and one on its success as a continuation of the brilliance of The Shining. I’d give the first 5 stars, but the second only…3. Which is unfair, I guess, especially in light of Stephen King’s afterward (“…people change. The man who wrote Doctor Sleep is very different from the well-meaning alcoholic who wrote The Shining, but both remain interested in the same thing: telling a kickass story. I enjoyed finding Danny Torrance again and following his adventures. I hope you did, too. If that’s the case, Constant Reader, we’re all good.”)–which seems to say that my first 5 star review is the one King would care about, if I were to presume he cares what I have to say. And since I love Stephen King, that’s what I gave it, officially, and that’s the one I’ll start with.This book is SUCH a fun read! The best kind of King book, the kind that leaves you hungover in the morning because you were up much too late reading, and almost makes you miss your bus to work because you get engrossed in it again while you brush your teeth. Several times I got a big giddy grin on my face and even laughed aloud with ridiculous delight at a super stephenkingy turn of phrase, words I imagined gave him a similar satisfaction as they left his fingers for the page. Some of these were even scary-creepy things, but they were so perfectly done, they were thrilling on that second level, too. It felt to me like King had a lot of fun with a lot of this book, just reveling in his own GoodAtItNess, long passages spooling out with gleeful sprezzatura.The story runs smoothly along, suspenseful questions answered with perfect timing, never leaving so much unknown at once that the complications are impossible to follow. The central characters are excellent. Grownup Dan surprisingly unlike 5 year old Dan in the way my own grownup children are surprisingly unlike their 5 year old selves–something of the little boy remains, but he didn’t just stretch to man-size, he’s a fully realized person, very changed. Abra is a great character on her own, and her relationships with Dan, her parents, and her friends, are all truthful and nuanced. Good on whoever talked King through the markers of early adolescent girlness that pepper her believability. The scary creepy horrors are scary, creepy, and horrible; turning off the light when I finally forced myself every night was just as unpleasant as it had been when I read The Shining.Loose strings of the original plot are nicely knotted up. I’d have maybe liked to know more about Wendy, but real grown men–as Dan is, in this novel–don’t have the kind of insight or, frankly, interest, in their mothers’ inner lives. Even if they’re psychic. So it works, as a function of Grownup Dan being well done. Less likely, I thought, was the way Dick was written out of Dan’s life, but I have to admit that works too, in the sense that Dan grew up in ways that were unpredictable when he was five. Expository backstory from the first book doesn’t get the clumsy treatment it normally does in sequels, but is dropped in usefully and gracefully throughout the plot. It was very satisfying to have some things I thought I understood about the Overlook, and Dan, and Jack, confirmed, and equally satisfying to have some new details mixed in to deepen and thicken that foundation of the story. The final revisitation from The Shining gets a muted, subtle treatment in the narrative, and I hope it’s not just sentimental over-imagination on my part to think King let it be so simple because it might have been unbearably moving otherwise.Five stars! Buy it, read it, you’ll enjoy it!Now then. The Shining is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s the one I wax rhapsodic about when I’m making an obnoxiously over-thought case for Stephen King as an underrated capital G genius of American capital L literature. It’s the one I compare to Dickens and the one I compare to Steinbeck and the one I say doesn’t need to lean on those comparisons because it’s capital G greatness all by itself. I like to make people listen to me say that the only reason The Shining is not a genuine masterpiece, recognized or not, is that King was young and still growing as a writer. And still not so market-proven that his (now routinely over-indulgent) editors gave him free reign. I have always assumed those factors caused the flaws (I apologize for my cheek, Mr. King; I know I’m unworthy, but for lack of a better, more obsequious term, I have to go with flaws) in The Shining, and I was unrestrainedly thrilled to hear a sequel unaffected by those was in the works. I refused to entertain fears that I wouldn’t like it as much as the original, the way absolutely everyone likes the sequel less than the original; when the first reviews came out and I read that Barbara Kingsolver loved Dr. Sleep, I went directly to Kindle, did not pass go, and Amazon collected my seven dollars. And it was, as I’ve already said, money well and unregrettedly spent.But this book isn’t anything like The Shining. Not as a literary feat. Both books tell, as King says he intended, kickass stories. The Shining, though, spent its first half telling a fascinatingly ambiguous story, too. The Shining is about a man with demons we all recognize, and a lot of us live with intimately. For a good chunk of the beginning of the book, it is impossible to determine from the text alone whether or not those demons are the only demons in the Torrance family’s life. The interplay between Jack and his family and the things in Jack’s head is fantastic, and the aforementioned flaw is that the transition between “Is This Real or Is Jack Just Crazy” to “Oh, yeah, it’s real. Jack’s crazy, too, but that’s secondary” is less smoothly done than the writing on either side of the divide. And Dr. Sleep has nothing at all like that. The kickass story is all out in the open and straightforwardly linear, as is the development of all the characters and the reader’s understanding of who they are and what they’re doing.Dr. Sleep is extragood pop culture writing. The Shining was that, with unrecognized actual literature icing its cake. Without the icing, I give it three stars.
Ana –
Llegó bien empacado y en excelente estado.
Lara Byanca –
O produto nao é novo, mas está em ótimas condições, o livro nao chegou amassado, mas algumas paginas estão velhinhas, mas em ótimas condições. Comprarei novamente, eu amei mesmo gente, chegou antes do prazo especificado. Era tudo o que eu queria pra estudar!
Monica A –
What stands out is Kingâs exploration of redemption and the complexities of healing. The interplay between Dannyâs past and present adds emotional weight, making his battle against both inner demons and external threats compelling. Overall, “Doctor Sleep” is a thoughtful, chilling, and satisfying continuation of the “Shining” saga, showcasing King’s talent for blending horror with profound human experiences.
Anne –
J’avais adoré Shining (livre et film) et j’attendais cette suite avec impatience. Je n’ai pas été déçue même si l’action est un peu longue à démarrer. On retrouve Danny des années plus tard, qui est un peu porté sur la boisson d’où le ton assez déprimant. Excellents personnages, rythme soutenu, suspense à couper le souffle. Je recommande vivement ce roman.
Keeper of Pages –
Just the other day, I was saying that sequels are not normally as good as the first book, well, Doctor Sleep completely disproved that theory. It far exceeded The Shining, in my opinion, and has become one of my favourite King novels!King has taken the best parts of The Shining, and carried them into Doctor Sleep. Not only did he keep the best bits, but he enhanced them. Dannyâs âshiningâ is brilliant, but Abraâs is next level, the extent of her abilities were so interesting to read about, simple and complex at the same time â simple in that you could easily read and understand it, but complex in that when you really think about it, itâs some next level stuff! What was fantastic was this novel comes with a range of supernatural abilities, varying in strength and wonder; the paranormal aspects of this novel were amazing!As a sequel, this far exceeds its predecessor, and thatâs no small praise, because The Shining was very good! To enhance your enjoyment of this novel, you should read The Shining first, so, not only can you pick up on elements that have been carried over, but you understand the mention of previous events and past characters. There are some really clever things in this novel that you will miss out on if you donât know the beginning of the story.âBecause that was then and this is now. Because the past is gone, even though it defines the present.âDoctor Sleep joins Danny as a middle-aged man working in a hospice, and let me tell you, I adore Danny. His character was one you believe in with your whole heart, you can see that he is the boy you met in The Shining all grown up now; surviving his demons and ready to fight for Abra. And Abra is up against some tough adversaries, one being Rose âthe hatâ OâHara who has some telepathic abilities of her own. You witness some real battles of will power in this novel, psychological warfare. One thing King has mastered is his ability to create amazing antagonists, ones that, while you donât like their characters, you appreciate what they do for the story.Abra is a brilliant protagonist, and it was interesting to see how she coped/lived with her âshiningâ compared to how a younger Danny did. The relationship between Abra and Danny was so well done, they were both such endearing characters; to see Danny guiding Abra as best he could just warmed my heart, because I remember the trauma Danny experienced in The Shining and how he struggled with his âshiningâ initially. Seeing Abra come to embrace hers, and test the extent of her abilities made for great reading.âThe shining. It was a good name, a comforting name, because she had always thought of it as a dark thing.âDoctor Sleep is an addictive read, with some great characters â everyone that made up The True Knot were interesting in their own right. The suspense was felt, the plot intensified when it needed to, but most importantly this novel has so much heart, you become emotionally attached to some of the characters and this guarantees youâre invested in the plot and fearful for their survival, because we all know King has no issue killing-off his characters, whether they are main characters or secondary ones!I could talk about this book all day, I loved every aspect of it; without fail, itâs one of my favourite books of the year!