Staff Pick
In this exciting and frightening follow-up to The Shining, Stephen King brings back the gifted young Danny Torrance, now a troubled adult. His encounter with a young girl who has an even greater gift sends them both into battle against a powerful evil. King fans won't be disappointed. Recommended By Doug C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Stephen King returns to the character and territory of one of his most popular novels ever,
The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance and the very special twelve-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 twelve-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 devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to this icon in the King canon.
Review
"King's inventiveness and skill show no signs of slacking: Doctor Sleep has all the virtues of his best work." Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Mr. King's earlier books were full of phantasms and demons, but he grows ever more adept at rooting his dark thoughts and toughest struggles in reality....He remains amazingly resourceful. He's so good at scaring that he can even raise goose bumps when he writes about the measles." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"Satisfying at every level. King even leaves room for a follow-up, should he choose to write one — and with luck, sooner than three decades hence." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This is vintage King, a classic good-vs.-evil tale that will keep readers turning the pages late into the night. His many fans won't be disappointed." Library Journal
Synopsis
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor From master storyteller Stephen King, his unforgettable and terrifying sequel to The Shining--an instant #1 New York Times bestseller that is " a] vivid frightscape" (The New York Times).
Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance's sanity, as his paranormal gift known as "the shining" opened a door straight into hell. And even though Dan is all grown up, the ghosts of the Overlook--and his father's legacy of alcoholism and violence--kept him drifting aimlessly for most of his life. Now, Dan has finally found some order in the chaos by working in a local hospice, earning the nickname "Doctor Sleep" by secretly using his special abilities to comfort the dying and prepare them for the afterlife. But when he unexpectedly meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone--who possesses an even more powerful manifestation of the shining--the two find their lives in sudden jeopardy at the hands of the ageless and murderous nomadic tribe known as the True Knot, reigniting Dan's own demons and summoning him to battle for this young girl's soul and survival...
About the Author
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by the New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller as well as the Best Hardcover Book Award from the International Thriller Writers Association. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.