The Shining

Title: The Shining

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Pages: 659

Synopsis:

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote…and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

This book is often considered a classic, and one of, if not the best Stephen King novels ever made. It’s for good reason as I really enjoyed this book. I found myself unable to put it down, and if that happens to me then in my opinion it’s a great book.

One of the greatest strengths of this book is its characters. I just love how we dive into the minds of each of the main characters, we learn what and how they are thinking, their feelings, their past and we learn who they are as people. Jack in particular is a very complex character, we don’t know whether to sympathize with him or not. His descent into madness was terrifying.

Also, let me ask you this: Have you been stuck in one place for a long time and you can’t go out for a very long time, and you are stuck only with your family or sometimes all alone? Does this sound familiar to you at all? The fact that there is a pandemic going on and with stay at home orders going on, really helped me relate to the situation this family is going through. Well that and it’s winter here in Canada, and we can have some really bad winters here.

I’ve always believed that the best horror stories are the one’s that has a message behind it. I don’t just want to be scared for the sake of it, I want there to be a deeper meaning behind it too. The Shining is one of those books as it tackles the problem of Alcoholism and Domestic Violence. It explores the effects of Alcoholism on the Alcoholic and everyone around that person in a very effective way.

My only real problem with this book is more nitpicks. I didn’t quite get the musical references in the party scene. I had to look them up just to understand the musical reference. The Giant hedge animals coming to life and trying to kill people was pretty laughable. Giant hedge animals are not scary.

This is definitely my favourite Stephen King novel that I have read (and I’ve read a few of them) and I probably will reread the book in the future.

Rating: