Revisiting "The Shining"

Throughout his 64 novels, Stephen King has tackled a great many monsters, ghosts, and demons, but in his newest novel “Doctor Sleep,” King takes on his greatest feat yet: the sequel. “Sequel” is always a dangerous word, but when the sequel’s predecessor is as widely acclaimed as “The Shining”—King’s 1977 novel of which the horrific pages and subsequent movie adaptation still haunt fans—the peril intensifies. King has a lot to live up to in “Doctor Sleep.” Luckily for his fans, King, for the most part, delivers. However, “Doctor Sleep” takes on a far different feel from “The Shining” as it veers from King’s usual sense of pure dread and instead tells a redemptive fantasy. “The past is gone,” a grown-up Dan Torrance thinks as he is forced to mentally revisit The Overlook, the Colorado resort that he had escaped from 36 years ago in “The Shining.” However, despite the decades separating a 40-something Dan from the destruction of both the haunted lodge and his possessed father, Jack Torrance, that past continues to define Dan’s present in the pages of “Doctor Sleep.”

Though it picks up years after the reader was last with young Danny, watching The Overlook go down in flames at the end of “The Shining,” “Doctor Sleep” is quick to catch up on the life of the uniquely gifted Dan after being freed from the demons of his childhood. Unfortunately, Dan Torrance’s adult life is far from demon-free, as he has adopted his father’s vice: alcoholism. Dan finds that drunkenness is the only way to dim his supernatural powers—the ability to read minds and see dead spirits still roaming on Earth, more commonly known as “the shining.”

Just as the hopeless tone of “Doctor Sleep” starts becoming monotonous, the pace changes after Dan hits his ultimate low, stealing from a broke, drug-addicted single mother after a long night at a bar and in her bed. Seeing the true “scumbag” he has become, Dan decides to leave his apartment and quit drinking. The storyline thus far sounds incredibly cliché, especially for Stephen King, an author who is known for avoiding the norm. However, King himself suffered alcoholism and drug addiction, becoming sober in the 80s through rehab and family support. Therefore, King’s ability to describe Dan’s struggle for sobriety has a realistic rawness, one that allows King to depict an apparently banal life in language that feels fresh. While Dan may not have the family support of King, it is through AA meetings and a hospice job that utilizes his unworldly talent that he establishes the closest thing he has had to a “normal” life since his time at The Overlook. But this normal life only lasts so long, as Dan is sought out by Abra, a young girl who “shines exceptionally bright.”

Abra’s shining leads her not only to get in telepathic contact with Dan but also into serious danger as she touches the mind of the leader of the True Knot, a group of psychic “vampires.” While the prospects of yet another vampire book may seem vexing, do not cast aside “Doctor Sleep,” for the vampires King creates are not the conventional bloodsucking type; rather, the True Knot feeds off of “steam,” or the life force that leaves young children with the shining as they are tortured to death. Their leader Rose sees Abra’s unequivocally powerful steam as the True Knot’s only chance for survival. With this desperation, the hunt for little Abra becomes both a chase across the country and a chilling battle between minds—a battle that “Uncle” Dan will not let Abra face alone.

Reading Stephen King is a unique experience. With each turning page a sense of doom grows, making the reader terrified to see what happens next, yet unable to set the book down. “The Shining” is a classic example of the spell King casts through his writing. In its pages, one can feel the silent yet blood-chilling tension between the supernatural and real worlds in the countless rooms and halls of The Overlook. This tension is lacking in “Doctor Sleep.” While action builds throughout the novel in the form of kidnappings and gunfights, the busyness of the book detracts from any sense of creeping dread rather than adding to it.

The transparency of “Doctor Sleep” takes it yet another step farther from its prequel. Unusual for King, the motives of his characters in “Doctor Sleep” are as clear as black and white. The vampires are evil and want food and power. Abra is good and wishes to put an end to the killing of children, saving her own life in the process. This missing air of mystery, paired with the already lacking tension and a whole lot of vampires, causes “Doctor Sleep” to lose any fearsome unknowns, lose the goosebump-inducing chapters traditional to King, and essentially to tell an action-packed fantasy story instead of a horror one.

Ironically, the redeeming quality of “Doctor Sleep” is its theme of redemption. Danny Torrance was a greatly beloved character in “The Shining,” and despite his ugly introduction in King’s newest novel, one once again cannot help but fall in love with Dan. King weaves a web of words that can explain both the supernatural struggles of his protagonist and the dark, complex ones rooted in the world we live in. Through his personal experiences with alcoholism and his mastery of language, King is able to depict a very real, raw man in Dan Torrance despite the character’s fantastical surroundings. Dan’s internal battle with and triumph over addiction makes “Doctor Sleep” a testament to King’s message that men can overcome their demons—a message portrayed so craftily and grippingly that “Doctor Sleep,” while perhaps not of the same caliber as “The Shining,” makes a name of its own.