Musings in the Dark: Horror 101: Doctor Sleep

10/10/2019

Horror 101: Doctor Sleep


Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep was published in 2013.  It is a sequel to The Shining and it follows the character of Danny Torrance—now called Dan—who works in a hospice and uses his psychic gift to comfort dying patients.  Dan has followed in his father’s footsteps in that he has become an alcoholic, but when he relocates and begins working at the hospice, he stops drinking.  

Abra Stone is a little girl who has an extremely powerful psychic gift—stronger than Dan’s—and she unintentionally forms a bond with him that grows as she gets older.  Abra’s gift puts her on the radar of the True Knot, a wandering group of quasi-immortals led by Rose the Hat who feed on the essence of individuals with psychic powers.  The essence is called “steam” and Rose the Hat is convinced that she can kidnap Abra and she and the Knot can feed off of what she considers to be an unlimited supply of Abra’s steam. Shenanigans ensue.

As I’ve said before, I’m a SK stan and for the most part, I love his work.  Doctor Sleep is no different.  I read it on a train ride to Beijing in 2014.  It’s a fast read and an engaging story.  King said in his notes about the novel that he got the idea of the True Knot—a very nasty group of individuals—from being on the road and seeing a procession of RVs at random points on the trip.  That stuck with me.  When I come home during the summer, I go on road trips and ever since reading Doctor Sleep, I’m wary of any RV I see. Seeing a group of them traveling the interstate I’m on makes me outright nervous.  If I see a cluster of RVs at a rest stop, I keep on driving whether or not I need to stop.  I’m not psychic and I don’t believe I possess any gifts that would be of interest to anyone, least of all psychic vampires, but I’m not about to take that chance.

Love this book.  Check it out.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! what a retard I am. I hit the sign out button instead of the publish button.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stop being paranoid. HAHAHA!!!

    Last night the electricity came off. I was sitting in my bedroom and I could see all the way into the kitchen. It felt real creepy to me because of the moonlight shining through the window. I never closed my bedroom door so fast.

    ReplyDelete

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