Stephen King returns to some well-known characters in his latest outing: Dan Torrance, Dick Halloran ... and even Mrs. Massey and Mr. Derwent, straight from the Overlook. If these names are not familiar to you, you clearly have not read The Shining.
Dan Torrance is an adult now, and he uses his gift of "the shining" to help hospice patients cross over painlessly. He is the titular Doctor Sleep. But he's starting to see things from his childhood again ... and not in a good way ... as a group of people calling themselves the True Knot go about killing children who also have the shining so that they can steal their energy. One of those kids is communicating with Dan via a chalkboard, and he decides he needs to help her.
"The Shining" scared the crap out of me when I read it as a teen, and the film was almost as disturbing as the book. This tale, on the other hand, is not so much scary as it is about the psychology of child predators (at least, that's how I see it), as well as the difficulties inherent in being the kid who sticks out for being different and the great desire to conform.
I enjoyed the book, but it's just not as good as its predecessor.
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