All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
This is my all time favorite Stephen King novel... and I really love a bunch of his novels.
This is one of the scariest books I've read and I've read this one several times in the last 25 years.
Watching Jack descend into madness is fascinating and heartbreaking!
This is the story of the Torrance Family. Father, Jack, mother, Wendy and their five year old son, Danny. Jack is an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic with much remorse and regret in his past. After being fired from a teaching position and getting sober, Jack take on a position at a massive hotel resort in the Colorado mountains called "The Overlook". He will be working as the off-season caretaker, living on it's grounds with his family for the winter months. This hotel is completely isolated during once the snow falls, and he believes the seclusion will be a good way to focus on his writing and rediscover the love and trust of his family.
However, this is no ordinary hotel. It is the location of years and years worth of tragedies, sadness, murders, natural deaths, horror and loss. The previous caretaker murdered his entire family before commiting suicide.
When the Torrance family arrives on the closing day of the season, they are given a tour of The Overlook and it's grounds by the chef, Dick Hallorann, who notices that little Danny has the "Shining". The shining is a term his grandmother used for the ability to read minds, see things that have yet to happen, see things from the past and the ability to gain information about people, places or things using extrasensory perception. Dick can recognize this because he, too, has the shining, and is worried for the small boy, giving him advice on how to ignore the scary things that the hotel might "show" him. (Redrum!!!)
As winter descends, so does Jacks mental health...and the hotel uses this to its advantage.
From haunted hedge animals, creepy little twin ghost girls, an empty ballroom suddenly filled with hundreds of 1020's ghosts celebrating the New Year to a scary man dressed as a giant furry dog roaming the empty hallways to a lovelorn woman commiting suicide and forever haunting a claw foot bathtub... this novel has all things creepy.
Stephen King visited the real life "Stanley Hotel" (pictured below) located in Estes Park, CO in 1974 which served as the inspiration for "The Overlook". It's on my bucket list to visit this hotel someday!
While The Shining was originally published in 1977, in 2013, King wrote "Doctor Sleep", which continues the story of little Danny AFTER "The Shining" concluded. It too was very good.
I highly recommend The Shining!
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