Book Review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Hardcover, 531 pages

Published September 2013 by Scribner

Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel (2013)

Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (2014)

ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Best Hardcover Novel (2014)

Audie Award for Fiction (2014)

Goodreads Choice Award for Horror (2013)

This is Horror Award for Novel (2013)

Well, I reviewed this novel the year it came out and it is tempting to go back and look at what I said, but I am not going to do that. My first experience with this book was listening to an audiobook. At the time that was the quickest way to get it from the library, and I couldn't afford to drop $30 bucks. This experience might have put me off audio books forever as I retained very little of the story.

This time I read the paperback in the most ideal of situations. A flight from Indiana to San Diego. This meant despite the 640 pages of mass market paperback I was able to digest the first half of this massive book in one sitting stuffed next to a snoring married couple on a southwest airlines plane.

I have been hit or miss with Stephen King. I am a huge fan of the person and the industry that is Stephen King. I have massive respect for him, but I am not the biggest fan of his novels in this century. Most of my favorites include The Dead Zone, The Shining and The Stand. I have liked some of his 21st-century output like Bag of Bones and most of all I loved his four novella collection Full Dark No stars. That said many of the last few novels like The Outsider just didn't work for me. As brilliant as King is he can't put out that many books without a few stinkers.

That said Doctor Sleep to me is his best work since this century took over. The stakes have not been this high for King since early in his career with exception of maybe The Dark Tower sequels. SK has been aware that many of his readers would buy the phone book if his name was on it. There has not been much fall-out for the books that were less well received. Being that he was writing a sequel to one of his most beloved books The Shining after decades it was quite a risk. No one would be surprised if he didn't do it and when the rumors slipped out that he was working on it the excitement level was huge.

I am not sure everyone felt that Doctor Sleep was a worthy sequel or a good answer to what became of Dan Torrance after surviving the events of the book. I for one thought it was perfect. On the surface, The Shining is a Haunted House novel but it is equally about alcoholism. Doctor Sleep is a worthy sequel because it is on the surface it is a monster novel but it is equally about recovery. The parallels to the author's life are obvious and the key to what makes this novel a powerful and logical follow up.

There are almost two novels here and it is possible that SK could have split this into a trilogy. The first half is a creepy but subtle tale of Dan's recovery and follows him working as an orderly at a hospice. There are excellent and heartbreaking moments where Dan reaches rock bottom and then we see him use his shine to comfort the dying. Some of these moments are the most affecting of the novel. I really felt for the characters who at the end of a long life get visits from a cat (who always knows when someone is about to die) and provides Dan the knowledge to help the dying to Sleep. To me, this could've been a novel itself.

The second half is where the monsters get involved. Dan connects with a young woman strong in the shine. He fulfills his promise to Dick Holleran to return the favor of mentoring a young person with the shine. She has accidentally caught the attention of a tribe of monsters who steal the "steam" or lifeforce of those with the shine to never die and stay young. While this part was not as powerful to me I enjoyed every page of it. It was also more connected to the events or at least the locations of the Shining and thus made this novel really work.

With the release of the Doctor Sleep Trailer (I saw it when I was 435 pages into it), there were are many "hot" takes. Most of which I found interesting but disagreed with. Many SK Constant readers seem to object that the movie is a sequel to the Kubrick movie and not the book. I think this is silly. The King novel is the sequel to the novel. It makes creative and commercial sense to make the film a sequel to the film. Keep in mind I prefer the novel, and actually think the Kubrick movie is over-rated. None the less I would do the same if I was making a Doctor Sleep movie.

I saw a tweet that said this was insulting to King and his readers. Really? Come on. That is as silly to me as the tweet I saw saying director Mike Flanagan was brave for connecting it to the film? What? Nothing brave about making the smartest commercial decsion. I listened to the director on a Q and A and he said they had to go with the end of the film. SK approved Flanagan going with sequelizing the movie it appears.

Doctor Sleep is a true masterpiece as a stand-alone novel, and as a sequel. I think it is the best novel SK has done in decades.