"You shine on, boy. Harder than anyone I ever met in my life, and I'm sixty years old this January."
~Dick Halloran to Danny Torrence ("The Shining" (1977))
And shine, Danny does.
It is now 20 years after the events at The Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies and Danny -- now Dan -- Torrence is suppressing his shine more than ever with the help of alcohol. Following in his father's footsteps, he travels around, working oddjobs to pay his drinking habit.
Eventually, Danny arrives in New Hampshire, deciding to settle down and get help with his alcoholism, depsite the ghosts from his past creeping back to life. Despite the past, he is connected to an infant who possesses an even greater shining talent, Abra Stone. While he is wonderfully drawn to Abra, one lone thought haunts him from his ability to shine... "Stay away from the woman in the hat."
Abra is an extremely normal 13-year-old...minus the inexplicable ability to not only read minds and see behind locked doors, but the power of suggestion and telekinesis is strong with her. She is a Shiner times 10. And she can contact Danny through their ability to shine.
But Dan soon realizes they aren't the only ones in the world...but they may be one of the lasts. A group known as the True Knot, a murderous "tribe" who moves around in RVs and motorhomes, has become aware of Abra's extreme Shine and the leader of the tribe, Rose the Hat, wants nothing more than to steal Abra and use her as The Knot's true source of life.
Dan, realizing Abra is quite possibly the only one who can understand him but she is in danger, puts aside everything that has happened at the Overlook and all his own ghosts to battle for Abra's life...and he is willing to risk EVERYTHING to make sure she lives a better life than he did -- filled with happiness rather than hauntings.
Many authors have said some sequels should not be made, and I agree with them. However "The Shining" left readers -- including myself -- wondering what happened to Danny after he grew up and the King of Horror obliged us. With some sequels, they are much worse than the original stories and we can do without. However, "Doctor Sleep" pulls you back into the world of the Torrence bloodline and what it truly means to be haunted by your past. King did not disappoint with "Doctor Sleep" at all; he made me want more. Give me another book of Abra being full-grown and having to deal with remnants of her past. Give me old Danny, being a wise mentor to Abra.
"Doctor Sleep" is one for every King fan out there. He couldn't have given us a better update on Danny Torrence. When I finished, I was missing Danny and Abra and wanting to delve back into their world of shining. If anyone can give us a much-loved sequel, it's Stephen King himself.
Click the link here for my review on "The Shining," which happened almost a full year to the read of "Doctor Sleep." I do recommend reading "The Shining" first, as "Doctor Sleep" references quite a bit the happenings in the original story.
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