Doctor Sleep is Stephen King's official sequel to The Shining. It chronicles Danny Torrance's adult years as he grapples with his psychic powers and the responsibility they bring.
Summary[]
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and devoted to their comfortable Recreational Vehicles. But they live off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce.
Following a childhood haunted by the time he spent with his parents at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacyof despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles into a job where his emnant "shining" power provides comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat Dan becomes "Doctor Sleep".
The Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest "shining" ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battel for Abra's soul and survival...
Plot[]
Three years after the events of The Shining, Dan Torrance has started seeing Mrs Massey, the dead woman from the Overlook Hotel in his bathroom. His mother calls Dick Halloran to talk to Danny about this. Halloran tells Danny about his abusive grandfather who kept tormenting him long after he died. Halloran managed to stop his grandfather once and for all by mentally encasing him in a box in his mind. Danny uses this technique on Mrs. Massey and is able to rest easy. It's implied that spirits trapped this way eventually die for good.
Elsewhere, a group of people called the True Knot bring a woman into their camp. They put her through an initiation test that would either kill her or make her into a vampire-like being that feeds on people to stay young and live forever.
Years later, a twenty-something Dan Torrance has become an alcoholic drifter. After sleeping with a single mother who spent the last of his savings on cocaine, he decides to rob her while she sleeps. As he's about to leave, he sees her baby try to eat some leftover cocaine. Dan grabs the baby and puts the cocaine out of reach. He has a vision of the woman's brother beating her and the baby, but thinks nothing of it. The visions keep haunting him.
Dan travels the country, doing various menial jobs which he keeps losing due to his alcoholism. Dan eventually finds a job at a tourist attraction after befriending Billy Freeman, a senior worker who possesses a small amount of the shining, the psychic force that Dan and Dick Halloran also possess. Their employer suspects that Dan alcoholism might be a problem and has him go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It's here that Dan meets a former alcoholic and doctor called John Dalton. When Dalton discovers Dan's shining ability, he helps Dan get a second job as an orderly at the local nursing home, where Dan is able to communicate with the lingering spirits of the recently departed. Dan gets a reputation because of this and is nicknamed "Doctor Sleep".
John Dalton performs a delivery for a couple named David and Lucy Stone. Their child is a girl they name Abra. Within the first year, the Stones notice that Abra has supernatural abilities such as telekinesis. They tell Dalton and Lucy's grandmother about this but keep it a secret from everybody else. As Abra matures, she learns to hide her powers and acts as if they faded with age in order to give her parents some peace of mind. Secretly, she's been using her telepathic ability to contact anyone out there who might also be like her. This leads her to Dan and they form a friendship.
The True Knot travel across America feeding on the life force (which they call steam) of children who possess the shining. When they feed on a boy who happens to be a measles carrier, the illness spreads throughout the True Knot. Since none of them possess any immunity, due to most turning long before a treatment could be developed, they all begin to succumb to the illness. Their leader, a youthful-looking woman called Rose the Hat, orders them to search for another child who has both a measles immunity and enough steam to feed them all.
No 13, Abra senses that someone is coming for her after having visions of Rose trying to probe her mind. She asks Dan to meet her in person. Dan and Abra meet up but discreetly so as not to alarm her parents or raise any suspicion. Dan teaches Abra how to form mental traps and shields similar to the ones Halloran taught him to make. Abra does so and manages to both physically and mentally attack Rose when she tries to get information on Abra's whereabouts. Rose has the True Knot members track Abra down, having caught a glimpse of her face from their encounter. They manage to narrow their search down to the area in which Abra lives and slowly creep in. Dan recruits Billy, John and David and they lay a trap for the search parties. Dan teaches Abra how to switch minds so that all of Abra's thoughts will come from Dan's location. When a True Knot search party homes in on Abra's thought waves, they instead fall into the trap Dan and the others laid out for them. The search party is shot down.
Meanwhile, Rose's second-in-command and lover Crow Daddy figures out where Abra lives and kidnaps her as soon as she reverts back to her body. Billy, who was watching over Abra was drugged by Crow Daddy and taken with them. Dan and Abra switch places and Dan forces Crow Daddy to kill himself by taking over his mind. Angered to the point of insanity, Rose orders the rest of the True Knot to lauch a full-scale assault on Abra and her allies. Abra calls Rose and taunts her about her failure before giving Rose a time and place to meet for their showdown.
Dan meets Abra's great-grandmother who is dying in hospital. With her dying breath, she gives Dan some steam of her own, which is so potent it begins to eat away at Dan the longer he holds onto it. Abra's mother Lucy arrives too late to witness her grandmother's final moments. Dan then talks with Lucy and reveals that they're actually half-brother and sister. Dan mentions that his father was unfaithful while his mother was pregnant with him and the woman he cheated with became Lucy's mother.
Rose arrives at the place formerly known as the Overlook Hotel, the place where the events of The Shining took place. The Overlook has since been replaced by a small inn and a wooden watchtower called Roof O' the World. Rose plants the remaining members of the True Knot both within and around the inn and positions herself at the top of Roof O' the World. Abra stays at home but has her consciousness go with Dan to the Overlook. The steam Dan is carrying is at a critical stage now. He sneaks into the inn where most of the True Knot are and unleashes it all on them. The diseased steam kills them all while the survivors are attacked by the Overlook spirits. Dan and Abra's consciousness meet Rose. Rose tries to control Dan's mind, but Billy rams his truck into one of the tower's posts, knocking Rose down and shaking her hold on Dan. Abra then invades Rose's mind and pushes her off the edge, killing Rose as soon as she hits the ground.
Two years later, Dan attends Abra's 15th birthday party and they talk about how their powers have gotten them into trouble from time to time. Dan tell Abra that whenever she feels frustrated with the world, she just has to vent her powers in a place where she can't do any harm. At that moment, Dan's phone rings and he finds out that one of his co-workers is dying. Dan arrives at the hospital and spends some time with the man, making his final moments peaceful ones.