Full disclosure: Until this book I have never, ever read a Stephen King book, or watched a movie made from one of his books before. This month a read The Shining by Stephen King. Now I did have a rough idea of the movie just from being a human in the world. This book and movie are a huge part of pop-culture so there are things I did associate with the movie before reading.
Before reading this book everything I “knew” was from things I associated with the movie. I knew that Jack Nicholson played a character in the movie. I knew it was set in a hotel. And I knew it was scary. That is the extent of my pre-reading knowledge.
The Shining was written by Stephen King in January of 1977. It’s about a family who are in a rough patch and trying to sort their way out of that rough patch. The family consists of Jack and Wendy Torrance and their son Danny. It’s set in a couple of different places but what I would call the “main” setting would be The Overlook Hotel outside of Sidewinder, Colorado.
The book is beautifully written and easy to read. There was no complicated language or phrasing. It was written in a way that is was easy for your mind to make a mental picture or everything going on. The one thing that I never ever questioned before I read the book was, “Why is it called The Shining?” It never occurred to me that it was an unusual title. It wasn’t very long into the book that the title is explained. The “shining” refers to Danny’s psychic abilities. Danny, the Torrance’s son, had the psychic gift of claircognizance, which is psychic “knowing.” Danny, nor his parents, knew this is what he had, until they moved to The Overlook.
The Torrences story begins in New England, where Jack is a recently fired teacher from an elite prep school. He is let go from his job after many issues of his alcoholism bleeding over into the school day and effected his work, and eventually culminated in Jack assaulting a student, who was vandalizing his car. Wendy was a home maker. She seemed to suffer from anxiety and depression even though it is never said. Danny was preparing for his first year in school.
After Jack is let go from teaching, his drinking buddy, the school’s headmaster, passes his name along to an associate who is looking for a care taker for his hotel over the winter season. Jack takes the job and moves the family across the country to Colorado. The Overlook Hotel has a long troubled history. There are starts and stops in construction, the ownership has passed through many hands, there are rumors of gangster affiliations, and murders. And the hotel seems to have a “mind” of it’s own.
Poor little Danny starts experiencing things before the welcome tour has even ended. And that’s only the beginning, no pun intended. Danny never stops having supernatural experiences, and the just keep getting more and more often, and more and more frightening. As time passes Wendy begins to have “feelings” or experiences, but talks herself out of it, with logic and reasoning, but she does keep a mental tab running in the back of her mind of the experiences. Even Jack begins to have experiences with the supernatural but refuses to believe them. He just tells himself that he’s losing his mind, because that is just easier to believe.
The hotel uses Danny’s “shine” to grow more and more powerful and wants to keep him forever so that it can grow stronger still. The hotel uses ghosts to convince Jack he’s lost his mind and then takes him over completely. Once Jack is possessed by the “spirit” of the hotel his/it’s only goal is to kill Wendy and Danny to keep them all there forever. Luckily Danny uses his “shine” to call for help and between his own strength, the sheer willpower of his mother, and the help he called for they are able to escape Jack/the hotel, while Jack is killed when the hotel explodes due to neglecting the hotels old, faulty furnace.
This book is full of great foreshadowing; and the foreshadowing doesn’t give away the future to easily, and ruin the surprise. It’s a very relatable book, when thinking about the internal and mental fear and reasoning of the characters. It’s so easy to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective and also consider what you would do if you were in there position. I’m the first one to admit that I’m a ‘fraidy cat, and I really enjoyed this book. I can’t tell you how many times I told myself I would have “noped” out of there so damn fast! The way this book was written give you a “good” creepy feeling of “is this when it gets scary” or “is this when I lose my mind.”
My favorite character isn’t exactly a main character, but one that becomes very important in the end. His name is Richard “Dick” Hallorann. He is the Overlook’s cook during the open season. He’s an older black man who has “lived a life” of many adventures. Hallorann also has the “shine” and he uses it to communicate with Danny. He also explains the shining to Danny in a way that he can understand. He is also the help that Danny calls in his time of great need. And good ol’ Hallorann comes as fast as he can;literally across the country, to try to help Danny. The book just would not be the same with out him.
I still haven’t seen the movie yet, but now I really want to! I love doing mental comparison and contrasting when I watch movies that I’ve read the books that they were adapted from. Have you read this book, or seen the movie? Let me know and what you thought about it!
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