Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rating: 4.8 stars
Eerie meets fun.
King’s strength – I believe – lies in his engaging storytelling. The particular way in which he narrates Doctor Sleep is on of the best aspects of the book itself. His voice holds your attention.
Doctor Sleep tells of a supernatural tale: Dan, previously known as Danny in The Shining, is a recovering alcoholic who first started drinking because of his psychic abilities, his ‘shining’; the True Knot is a group of quasi-immortal ‘people’ who survive through ‘feeding off’ the shining of children; and finally we have young Abra Stone, whose shining is incredibly powerful, so much so that she is able to reach Dan trough a psychic link.
We follow these characters journeying through America: King has a knack for depicting small towns. He captures the ‘vibe’ of certain places and the people from these places.
Using plenty of references, from books to music, he makes his story one that is filled with relatable things. He counteracts this with an abundance of the uncanny. From Dan’s and Abra’s shining to the True Knot’s peculiar ways, King offers plenty in terms of the supernatural.
Dan is perfectly unperfect. He is shown to us at his worst and at his best. Dan, to me, is a realistically flawed main character, who I liked, and rooted for in spite of some of his past actions. Abra reads faithfully as a child, someone full of possibility and unaware of things that older characters take for granted. She was a real breath of fresh air. The True Knot is made of despicable yet somehow humane individuals: I hated them but, when certain scenes where from their POVs I couldn’t stop myself from liking them.
I eagerly followed Dan and Abra during their creepy and suspenseful adventures. Whit a plot that is somehow quiet yet intense, Doctor Sleep, is a compelling novel.
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