Stephen King Reads First Chapter of His SHINING Sequel, DR. SLEEP

Last year it was announced that Stephen King was writing Dr. Sleep, a sequel to his classic horror novel The Shining. The story has an unexpected twist that involves a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe. King explained in a previous interview,

This is an idea that I’ve had for some time. I wrote a novel in the ’70s called The shining… I always wondered what happened to that kid, Danny Torrance, when he grew up… and this story started to form. The book isn’t finished yet, it’s called Dr. Sleep. This kinda goes back to... what’s the worst thing you can think of? I knew that there were bad people in this story that were like vampires, only that what they sucked out was not blood, but psychic energy from special people like Danny Torrance. And I came to realize that these people were called The Tribe and that they move around a lot. Their leader is a woman called Rose [unintelligible] they all have these kinda pirate names, because pirates is sort of what they are.

King recently made an appearance at the Savannah Book Festival where he ended up reading the first chapter of his new book. The book starts off by giving us details of what happened to Wendy and Danny Torrance after their horrific ordeal at the Overlook Hotel. It's really cool to listen to King read this first chapter, and it got me very excited about reading the rest of the book!

We previously reported that the story would focus on what happened to Danny Torrance after the crazy winter vacation he had up at the Overlook Hotel. "The last time readers saw Danny he was recovering from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel at a resort in Maine with fellow survivors Wendy Torrance and chef Dick Halloran (who dies in the Kubrick film version). King remarked that though he ended his 1977 novel on a positive note, the Overlook was bound to have left young Danny with a lifetime’s worth of emotional scars. What Danny made of those traumatic experiences, and with the psychic powers that saved him from his father at the Overlook, is a question that King believes might make a damn fine sequel. In King’s still tentative plan for the novel, Danny is now 40 years old and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann."

Check it out below and let us know what you think about how the book starts out!

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