Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Series: The Shining
The Shining is a horror classic, and there is no question about it. The book scared the bejesus out of me. It’s definitely a tough act to follow, even if you are the King-Of-Horror.
Doctor Sleep starts right after The Shining ends. Danny survived the Overlook, but the ghosts of his past haven’t left him alone. “The shining” is a bitch he can’t get past. And it takes him to the path which he promised never to take – alcoholism. After hitting rock-bottom, Danny joins a hospice and uses shining to help people to die peacefully. It is where he comes in contact with a little girl named Abra, who shares the same gift. But she’s is much more powerful. Together they fight a new evil in the form of True Knot, a nomadic group of beings who feed on the Shining.
Okay, so let’s give credit where credit is due. Stephen King has a rare talent to get into the minds of his characters. He meticulously describes the agony and the turbulent emotions they are going through. He lets his readers experience what his characters are experiencing. It is particularly visible when Danny falls into drinking and drugs. It all happens in the first few chapters, and these are another highlight of the book. King starts where he left off in The Shining. He takes his time and with patience, creates an eerie environment. These few chapters are chilling and seem right out of the pages of The Shining.
But unfortunately, once we get past the initial phase, the story starts losing the appeal. The story is not that bad, but the execution definitely wasn’t up to the mark. Firstly the biggest turn off was the lack of scare factor. Honestly, there is not much in the book to give you creeps or keep you awake at night. It shouldn’t even be in the horror genre; at best, it’s a supernatural adventure(though I might have a higher threshold for horror :)). The most significant contributor to this was the lack of strong antagonists. The True Knot, as a group, don’t pose a substantial threat to our protagonists. Rose, who’s the leader of the group is supposed to be the main antagonist, but even at her best (or I should say worst), she wasn’t a match for Abra. And, that’s the age-old problem of having a super-strong hero. Ask Superman; he is troubling with the same problem for quite sometime :P. Another annoying aspect was, the author spends a significant amount of time on Danny’s past, how he locks ghosts from the Overlook in his mind, and when he steals from Deenie(a girl he hooked up with). These plot points keep lingering throughout the story, yet never fully materialize. If the ghosts, that Danny locked up, had comeback, that could have added some scare and excitement in the climax. And talking about the climax, the most unpredictable thing about it was, how uneventful and predictable it was. You expect the final showdown might have some significant payoffs, but it’s just stodgy and convenient. Abra suddenly develops new power where she can manifest herself in some astral form, just so that she could have a presence during the final showdown. There wasn’t much action, and the lack of consequences for the protagonists was a turn off for me. Tragedy lingers, but never strikes.
I love Stephen King; IT and The Shining are two of my favorite books. I wanted to like this book, and throughout the book, I kept looking for a reason to like it. But, apart from the first few chapters, the book fell flat for me. The story had the potential, but the execution could have been much better. A touch of Stephen King’s signature creepy and chilling writing and stronger villains could have made this an enjoyable read.
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