Stephen King’s latest novel, Doctor Sleep, answers the question, Whatever happened to that little kid from The Shining?
Well—spoiler alert—Danny Torrance grew up to be an alcoholic, just like his dad. He wanders around from town to town, until he finally settles down, sobers up (thanks to the Higher Powers of AA) and finds a job at a hospice, where his remnant Shining-power helps people pass over to clearing at the end of the road. If it do ya fine.
Sure, there’s some spooky stuff too. There’s the True Knot, who are some sort of Shining-sucking vampires. They get their sights on a young girl with a very great Shining. Which means trouble. And of course, there’s the obligatory and slightly rushed happy ending.
So, yeah, Doctor Sleep is a sequel of The Shining. But I would guess that this one might even work better if you don’t get too hung up about that. You see, The Shining is an undisputed classic, and there’s just no way that any sequel to it can live up to the hype. So just enjoy it for what it is: a fast-paced, fun yarn. And King spins it well.
- Book read
- Stephen King — Doctor Sleep
- First Line
- On the second day of December in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado’s great resort hotels burned to the ground.