The Shining

Who would have thought that one of Stephen King's most horrifying novels could have been inspired by a simple John Lennon song? Actually, the lyric, "We all shine on..." only inspired the title, The Shining. Stephen King has yet to not amaze me with his works of writing and his ability to captivate me with suspense from start to finish of his books.

Jack Torrance, a recently fired English teacher and former alcoholic, gets the perfect opportunity to work on writing his new novel when he is offered a job at the Overlook Hotel, an isolated hotel located in Colorado, as the caretaker. Jack's wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, immediately move to the Overlook Hotel. Danny has the ability to get information about objects, people, locations, or physical events through means other than the known human senses, making him sensitive to supernatural forces. Not long after the family's arrival to the hotel, Danny meets Dick Halloran, who shares Danny's ability. Before Dick's departure, the two talk about their power and the hotel's chilling history. Dick warns Danny of the dangers of room 217. What happens from then on only gets eerier as Danny finds out through his premonitions about the dangers of the hotel. He sees ghosts and life-scaring visions, but assures himself that they are not dangerous in the present. He cannot tell his parents about it, because he knows how important the job is to his dad. The house tries, but fails to posses little Danny, so who does the house go to next?

The characters, though they have names similar to that of a children's book, seem very real because of their struggles, such as being an alcoholic. The Torrance family seems real to the readers with the recovering-alcoholic father with a scary temper, the determined mother that would do anything for her family, and the strange child with the imaginary friend.

King's writing style from Carrie portrays in the Shining. He still puts the character's thoughts into parenthesis, though the story is written in third person. This time, however, seems to be in a different tone than Carrie. Instead of a vengeful tone, I feel anger through out the whole book (I have been reading many angry books lately). Stephen King remains keen with his detail usage.

This book has a lot of suspense, especially during the last few chapters, so I recommend this for suspense-lovers and horror gurus. This belongs on my list of favorite books of all time, so I will read this novel numerous times.

*447 pages*