Talk Stephen King: Doctor Sleep Journal #5: They Ate The Shining

I got to go running alone last night, which meant a sweet return to Doctor Sleep.

When Danny finally meets up with Abra, some serious Shining goes down. These two are able to talk to each other simply by thinking the conversation back and forth. What's more, sometimes Abra can pick up on more than just what Dan sends her way.

In discussing a boy who was killed by the True Knot, note this snippet of conversation:

Recovering alcoholics strove for “complete honesty in all our affairs,” but rarely achieved it; he and Abra could not avoid it.
(food)
She stared at him, aghast. “They ate his shining?”
(I think so)
(they’re VAMPIRES?)
Then, aloud: “Like in Twilight?”
“Not like them,” Dan said.

Several things to note:

1. Danny can't hide things from Abra the way he does with his AA sponsor.

2. I like the line, "they ate his shining." The True Knot are some of King's most evil villains. They're child killers. They don't see anything wrong in what they do -- everyone has to eat, right? We eat lamb and chicken and turkey; and the True Knot has reduced the rest of humanity to food.

3. The Twilight reference is kind of fun for a lot of reasons. First, we all know King hates Twilight! So he sets out to make it clear that his vampires are NOT like that. Now she could have said, "Like in Salem's Lot?" But she wouldn't have reason to really know about Salem's Lot. Besides, Vampires in Salem's Lot really are naughty, naughty, naughty.

4. The writing here is worth note. I would have been unsure how to write this portion. How do you communicate unspoken dialogue between two people? I think I would have assumed you have to italicize. But King uses a bolder approach, blocking the thoughts in in parentheses.

All interesting, but I'm still stuck on the thought . . . THEY ATE HIS SHINING!