Doctor Sleep by Stephen King | Audiobook Review

(What a delightfully creepy cover!)

Doctor Sleep answers the question: "whatever happened to Danny after the incidents at the Overlook Hotel?"  In Doctor Sleep, Danny is now a middle-aged man who uses his talent, or shining, for good.  He works in a hospice and helps ease patients into their final sleep.  He's a recovering alcoholic, clean for over ten years.  He thinks he's past all the mess with the Overlook, until he meets a very special little girl.

At the same time, a group of folks in RVs roam the country.  They call themselves The True Knot.  To you and I, they look like a group of retired folks traveling the country and seeing the sights.  But to those with the shining, they represent quite a threat.  The True Knot subsist on Steam, which they draw from those with the shining via torture and, ultimately, death.  The steam allows them to live nearly forever.  That is, until one of them contracts the measles.

Rose, the leader of the True Knot catches wind of Abra, the strongest case of the shining to date.  She figures that taking Abra's steam will help buoy the group for months, and her measles vaccination will pass to the group via taking her steam.  Can Abra and Dan team up in time to save her life and stop The True Knot?

I LOVED THIS BOOK!  I can't recommend it highly enough.  I think you could even read it without having read The Shining.  You might miss a few references, but you could still enjoy it.  

Stephen King just has such a great way with words.  The reader is totally transported into the story.  It's often tense!  This was a long audiobook; 23 CDs; and I was never bored for a second.  I never zoned out.  There isn't a single wasted word.

And the narration!  The narrator was fantastic.  Great cadence and tone.  I didn't have to work at listening at all.  And a bonus: there's an introduction and a prologue, both read by Stephen King himself!  Yay.  :)

If you haven't already, go read these books!