Redrum and ha loo sin nations in the ultimate mountain resort

books:


	• The Shining Stephen King Pocket, 2001 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 612 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Shining

I'm glad I read it. From page one, I was hooked on this novel. It's just the kind of book that you cannot put down. I liked Danny and Wendy and I wanted them to be ok. Having seen the film so many times, I know what happens but the book was excellent. It scared me. The thought alone of being stranded in a large hotel for months in the dead of winter scares me. And poor Wendy and Danny, they are supposed to be able to trust Jack to take care of them.

The way King describes the hotel, it's corridors and sordid past, the hotel becomes a living thing, a main character in the story. Then Jacks anger issues and Danny's premonitions, the way Wendy slowly comes to realize her husband has gone insane...all of that makes for an amazing and terrifying story. This book is on my top five favs read this year, and one of my favorite books now.

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Absolutely enjoyable!

I just happen to finish this book today, which I just found out is Mr. King's birthday (Sept. 21st). After reading King's The Tommyknockers and Lisey's Story, which were exasperatingly wordy, I found The Shining a real treat to read. The novel has a richness that Kubrick's film lacked completely. King has a superb talent for creating characters that seem unbelievably real. You really get to know the characters inside and out - especially Jack. He's a good, highly intelligent educated father that loves his family and tries really hard to do good for them (like giving up alcohol) but he just has a real bad temper (he bites his tongue and restrains his fists throughout most of the story). Unable to find work, his friend hires him to take care of The Overlook Hotel during the winter season. From the very beginning, Jack and his family have to contend with the dark supernatural forces that live within the hotel. Not only does Jack have to battle against his constant craving for a drink, the hotel's evil forces play on his temperament and drudges up his past; namely, his relationship with his abusive father when Jack was a young boy himself. He starts to feel that his struggles to provide for his family go unappreciated, and he ultimately ends up personifying his father and the Overlook itself, sending him off into a murderous rage.

Blessed (or cursed) with the shining, Jack's son, Danny, seems to suffer the most. Not only does he have to endure terrifying encounters with ghouls and ghosts, his sixth sense does not spare him the terror of what's to come.

And poor Wendy.......

There are many scenes in the novel that the movie did not have, and many scenes in the movie that the novel did not have. The climax and ending were completely different. So just because you saw the movie, doesn't mean you won't enjoy this riveting story all over again in book form. If you get your hands on this book, just make sure you have plenty of free time planned ahead because once you pick it up you're not going to want to put it down.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mr. King! :) You truly are a genius in every sense of the word.

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Redrum and ha loo sin nations in the ultimate mountain resort

After reviewing a nice little Swiss thriller set in a Swiss mountain resort (Deal with the Devil), I thought I might visit the mother of all mountain resort horror stories, and pay a tribute to the king of popular literature. The man knows his craft. I have not read much by him, previously only Carrie, which is a small first novel, but a good basis for a strong movie, and Lisa's Story, at the time his latest publication, which I liked a lot, but which disappointed the fan club.
My main encounters with SK happen through the many movies made after his many stories. The Shining was one of the best of those movies, though it appears from SK's introduction to this 2001 reprint that he had some reservations about Kubrick's version. I ought to watch it again. I have a faint recollection that I found Jack Nicholson's acting overdone, long time ago.
The novel is a marvel of efficient storytelling. SK says it was his 'crossroad' novel. At that time, i.e. the early 70s, he decided to branch out from the pure horror approach and weave in a 'real' theme, which is the story of a troubled man and his struggles against his worldly demons: alcohol and violence. The hero Jack, best known with Nicholson's face, has a tendency to 'lose his temper'. In the process he loses his teaching job and his home and nearly loses his family. The road downhill leads up to a Colorado mountain, where he gets hired as a winter caretaker in a monster of a hotel, the Outlook. SK prepares us for all kinds of horrors: ghosts of dead hotel guests, a malfunctioning and possibly dangerous heating and plumbing system, the prospects of being snowed in for a long time, a predecessor who couldn't take it and killed his wife and daughters, a little son with supernatural abilities who can read his father's mind and can see the word 'suicide' there, which he does not understand ... Enough for today. Go and read it, if only in the interest of a balanced diet.

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Intense and frightening

Great Stephen King novel. It is different from the (excellent) Kubrick film-- more character development, alcoholism, and abuse. My only complaint is it is a little bit long.

Classic King!

Very good read ... Great story of supernatural terror and suspense. Enjoyable characters, too! This is classic King! Highly recommended.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Overlook Hotel is more than just a home-away-from-home for the Torrance family. For Jack, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, it is a place where past horrors come to life. And where those gifted with the shining do battle with the darkest evils. Stephen King's classic thriller is one of the most powerfully imagined novels of our time.

The Shining

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