Doctor Sleep

Why do you think Stephen King begins Doctor Sleep with a flashback to the destruction of the Overlook Hotel?

The first ghost we encounter in Doctor Sleep is Mrs Massey, the monstrous dead woman from Room

This haunting is not just a vision – it is extremely physical. Why do you think Stephen King decided to resurrect this particular ghost, and how does this haunting foreshadow what is to come?

What is a lockbox? What purpose does it serve? Who gives one to young Danny? Is this significant? When you first learned about lockboxes, did you foresee any dangers in their use? Did you think that they might provide plot twists later in the story?

The first time we see the adult Danny Torrance he steals money from a young woman and leaves her toddler there, though he knows the child is being abused. Authors usually want us to identify with and like their main characters. Why does King purposefully present Danny in this way? How does it tie in to the end of the novel?

Why is it so significant that Danny sees his old friend Tony as soon as he enters the town of Frazier?

In what ways does the story of Doctor Sleep constantly echo The Shining? What flashbacks, visions, or characters repeat? In what ways does it radically diverge from the earlier novel?

Who is Rose the Hat? When do we first hear about her? Why is this significant?

In The Shining we learn that Danny Torrance was born with a caul. In Doctor Sleep, we learn that Abra was born with a caul as well. How does this connect the two of them? What is the magical significance of the name Abra?

Once we meet Abra and the True Knot, a powerful dichotomy between good and evil is set up. How does Stephen King create the tension between these two forces?

What is steam? How does the True Knot extract steam?

What is the relationship between the Overlook, the Blue Bell Campground, and The True Knot?

When you learned that Lucy Stone and Dan Torrance are half-siblings, did it change the way you viewed the relationship between Dan and Abra? How?

In what ways is Dan determined NOT to be like his father? How does this work through the novel’s plot and climax?

What role does AA play in the plot of the story?

At the end of Doctor Sleep, we’re told that ‘Life was a wheel, its one purpose was to turn, and it always came back to