Shine on...

Here at IRR, we are gearing up for my favorite holiday, Halloween! To start the scary book parade off, here's a review of the Master, Stephen King's latest offering, a long-anticipated sequel to his classic, The Shining!

Stepping in to guest review is my amazingly talented husband, Kevin. I always said I'd only marry someone who read more than me and I'm so happy I found that guy!

I have been reading Stephen King a long time.  After watching the “Salem’s Lot” miniseries in November 1979, I went to the local bookstore and immediately bought and read the book.  And by this time King had already published such classics as “The Shining” and “The Stand,” so I had more books to obsessively read during the remainder of 1979 when I should have been studying for finals and writing term papers like a Good English Major.  I still haven’t recovered from those initial reads: I can’t look out a darkened window without seeing the Glick boy’s floating body scraping his fingernails against the glass and asking me to let him in.  And I NEVER use a bathroom without first opening the shower curtain and making sure the bathtub is empty.  The dark is not and never will be my friend.

But I approached the sequel to “The Shining:” “Doctor Sleep” with some trepidation.  I have kept up with King in the decades since I first read him, but ran hot and cold with his novels.  Some I loved, some I liked, and some I didn’t even finish.

And a few of the early reviews made me wary.  “The Guardian,” for instance, praised the novel but also noted that unlike the first book it was just “not scary.”

And I have to agree that “Doctor Sleep” is not a particularly scary book.  Sure, it has moments that got the blood running a little cold – in particular when some of the less pleasant guests of the Overlook Hotel come south and visit Danny in his new home in Florida - but this novel is more thriller than horror story.

In the book’s Afterword, King does an excellent job of summing up his own trepidation about revisiting the character  from “The Shining” as well as the task of writing a sequel:

“I like to think I’m still pretty good at what I do, but nothing can live up to he memory of a good scare, and I meannothing, especially if administered to one who is young and impressionable.”

However, King is a better writer than he was back in the 1970’s and he knows how to tell a story and move a plot.  And this is a good one.  In the early section, as noted, he revisits the events of  “The Shining” and in doing so brings us up to date.  Danny Torrance has grown into Dan Torrance, and like his father (and King) he has grown into an alcoholic.  In an effective but mercifully short section, we see Dan hit rock bottom.  Living with his unique powers turns out to be bearable only when those powers are dulled by drugs and alcohol.

But then Dan has the opportunity to use his “Shine” to help a young girl in need, much like he was helped by an Overlook Hotel cook with a special gift named Dick Hallorann.  As it turns out, there are a group of unpleasant individuals called “The True Knot” who gain strength and a form of immortality from the suffering and death of people and in particular those with the Shine.  This young girl, Abra Stone, has an unusually strong Shine and has attracted the attention of the True Knot.

The meeting with Abra happens after Dan’s travels take him to New England to a post card pretty town where he takes up residence and works as an orderly at a local hospice.  King borrows the recent headline-grabbing story of the cat that seemed to know when patients are going to die and would crawl into bed with them.  In “Doctor Sleep” the cat is named Azzie, and works as kind of a partner to Dan.  Azzie gets in bed with those about to pass and waits for Dan to arrive.  Azzie then hops off and leaves Dan to help the dying pass peacefully into whatever it is that comes next by sending them to a peaceful and final sleep.  Sounds trite but King handles this with a deft hand that doesn’t feel sentimental or contrived.  He also handles the relationship between Dan and Abra Stone with a nice touch.  King does coming of age and the growth of the young from innocence into experience particularly well and that is evident here.

Battles between good and evil can be trite, but King deftly handles this battle by creating three-dimensional characters that have shades of gray.  Even the members of the True Knot have bits of humanity compassion – if only for each other.  One of the things I like most about King is his basic humanity and that shines through in this book.  We see the dark side but also on display is the better side of humanity.  And this book contains a spirituality that even an agnostic like myself can feel comfortable with experiencing.

There is also a good bit of humor here.  Making the True Knot into members of an RV Camping club – retirees driving around the country in their Winnebago’s and Bounders while killing children and living off the pain and suffering of the people (who they derisively refer to as “rubes”) - has a dark humorous irony to it.

Ultimately, I think readers who enjoy King the writer who gave us “Joyland” or the earlier novels and stories such as “The Dead Zone” or “The Green Mile” or “Hearts in Atlantis,” will find much to like here.

Well done, Kev!  The only way I could think of to improve The Shining would have been to add a cat and I'm thrilled that King has covered that element in the sequel.  King fans, have you read Dr. Sleep?  What did you think?  

Look for more horror book reviews in the next week as we gear up for All Hallow's Eve!  Got a spooky book suggestion? Please leave it in the comments, I'm always looking for my next good scare!