I can’t begin to tell you how pleased as punch I was that so many of you were intrigued by my review of The Shining by Stephen King. In case you didn’t know, King wrote a sequel to that classic 1977 novel, but waited until 2013 before it was time for Doctor Sleep. I actually enjoyed the characters and tension even more that the first novel.

Danny Torrance is all grown up, and unfortunately, he’s suffering from alcoholism like his father and grandfather. After avoiding helping a toddler, he learns from his special ability, “the shining,” that the child died. This sends Dan even further to the bottom. He moves to a small town and is taken in by some locals, who get Dan connected with Alcoholics Anonymous and a job in a hospice. Dan’s ability to help patients who are dying cross over peacefully earns him the nickname “Doctor Sleep.”

Meanwhile, a little girl named Abra is showing signs of having the shining herself, but her abilities make Dan’s look weak by comparison. She even becomes aware of Dan, though they’ve never met, and leaves him childish notes like “HELLO” and a smiley face in his apartment on a chalk board. Years pass as Dan maintains his sobriety and job, and Abra gets older, learning to keep her shining to herself to avoid worrying her parents. She still checks in to say hi to Dan on his chalkboard.

Meanwhile, readers meet the True Knot, a group of people who look like your average Midwestern, middle-age tourists wearing fanny packs and socks with sandals, traveling America in RVs. In reality, they travel to find children who have the shining and steal their “steam” — what you might call essence or soul — to remain young and sharpen their powers. When their leader, Rose the Hat, becomes aware of Abra, Rose is hellbent on getting the biggest steam score in the centuries-long existence of their group. Although Abra is powerful, she’s still just a tween, so a collaboration with Dan, plus convincing some of the trusted people in their lives that the shining is real and the True Knot aren’t really humans, leads to a showdown to destroy the True Knot and stop them from murdering children.

There is so much going on in Doctor Sleep, and I found it compelling. Notoriously, Stephen King was an alcoholic when he wrote The Shining and sober when he wrote Doctor Sleep, giving the novels a personal touch that lends authenticity. We read Dan facing his grief, using alcohol to mask his problems, attending meetings to get sober, participating in the AA community, and struggling with avoiding habits that lead to drinking. The monster in The Shining — Danny’s father — could have been King himself. Now, it’s as if the author shifted and put himself in the role of Danny.

While I might be reading into it too much, Abra reminded me of something I keep hearing about: masking, especially for people with autism. Knowing her shining abilities worry her parents, Abra notices, “… she had gotten good at putting on happy faces until someone told her out loud that it was time to put on a sad one. She wondered if her new friend Dan had learned about the happy-face thing as a kid. She bet he had.” On the other hand, Abra may not represent masking in the autism community, but children being “good” so they don’t upset the adults in their lives, a survival mechanism for children in dangerous situations. Abra’s parents are both loving, but her behavior can be applied to real life in interesting ways.

The villains in Doctor Sleep were unique and well written. They aren’t ghosts or vampires; they’re like humans that found a loophole for death and have varying special abilities. Snakebite Andi can put people to sleep. Grampa Flick can home in on children with the shining. Rose the Hat can enter a person’s mind and convince them of things. But they aren’t invincible, so I was delighted when a strange “visitor” infiltrates the True Knot, making it even more dire for Rose the Hat to find Abra.

I was absolutely riveted by Doctor Sleep and plan to rewatch the movie soon, which I haven’t seen since it came out in cinemas in 2019.