This was most excellent; I can 100% see why this is many readers favorite Stephen King novel. Heck, it's my favorite novel of his to date, although I have a good number of his books to catch up on. I've found myself overly critical of his work in the past, possibly due to the fact that he's so well known, but I feel it's more been a fault on my end. Previously I've picked up one of his doorstops at a time I wasn't prepared to fully invest in the time and energy it takes to immerse oneself into h...

Is this horror? I'm genuinely asking here because I'm not a horror aficionado, so I don't know what all constitutes that genre. To a layman like myself, IT was horror because it scared the piss out of me and I couldn't sleep without the lights on for a while. The Shining is more like a Spooky Family Drama. Yeah, yeah, there at the end things got a little hairy, but it was still mostly a human trotting around getting all stabby.Now, I say mostly because good old Jack is getting some help from a c...

And just like that, another journey into the heart of The Overlook Hotel has come to an end...Words can't express how much this story means to me, but I've tried over the years to capture some of my thoughts on it. I'm quite proud of a few of those reviews I've written before, so I will leave those up below if you're interested.Each time I reread this story, I pick up finer details and begin to care more and more deeply for this cast of fantastically-developed characters.This time around, I had ...

“The thought rose from nowhere, naked and unadorned. The urge to tumble her out of bed, naked, bewildered, just beginning to wake up; to pounce on her, seize her neck like the green limb of a young aspen and to throttle her, thumbs on windpipe, fingers pressing against the top of her spine, jerking her head up and ramming it back down against the floorboards, again and again, whamming, whacking, smashing, crashing. Jitter and jive, baby. Shake, rattle, and roll. He would make her take her medici...

Quite simply put, The Shining is the best horror story I have ever read. It scared the hell out of me.Over a period of time, I have noticed certain standard "motifs" in horror stories. One of these I call "The Lost Child". Such stories will typically involve a child, who can see what the silly grownups cannot see (or, even if they do see, don't acknowledge because it goes against reason and logic): and who fights, however high the odds stacked against him/ her are. Danny Torrance is such a boy.D...

If you had not read The Shining already, the 2013 publication of Doctor Sleep, the sequel, presented an opportunity to revisit one of the best ghost stories of our time, a perfect justification for stepping through those bat-wing doors for the first time. 1st Edition cover – Published January 28, 1977 – 447 pps It has been a lifetime since I read The Shining for the first time, over thirty years ago. I enjoyed it then for its effectiveness in telling a scary, no, a very scary story. Reading it n...

This scene from Friends pretty much sums up my feelings about this book:"Rachel: Hmm. (she opens the freezer) Umm, why do you have a copy of The Shining in your freezer?Joey: Oh, I was reading it last night, and I got scared, so.Rachel: But ah, you’re safe from it if it’s in the freezer?Joey: Well, safer. Y'know, I mean I never start reading The Shining, without making sure we’ve got plenty of room in the freezer, y'know.Rachel: How often do you read it?Joey: Haven’t you ever read the same book ...

4.5!!

3.5 stars “Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.” The Overlook Hotel - gorgeous and isolated - is in need of a winter caretaker. Jack and his family are in need of an income and a place to stay.Months alone, trapped by snow, with only the family by their sides. What could go wrong? “Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in.” So this one was pretty dang good but gosh-dang did I get lost at times.I think it was cause I watched th...

About as perfect a haunted house story as can be, King was at his best here. It's as though he built a haunted house and then filled every nook and cranny with detail. King is also at his best in regard to characterization, all well rounded and complete, we know family relationships, group dynamics, all the old hidden buried fears. King touches base with psychological elements, theological, metaphysical, spiritual, and cryptic aspects of a ghost story to wrap the reader in a blanket of horror.**...