Tim's Reviews > The Shining

I was recently reminded by a goodreads friend that, despite being a Stephen King fan, I have never actually read The Shining. I have no proper justification of this. I’ve seen the movie before, and I guess I just didn’t feel like reading 600+ pages of three people stuck in a hotel during the winter. The setting just didn’t appeal that much… but as a Stephen King fan, I had to make myself read it eventually, so now was as good of a time as any.

Now, before I continue on, I should stress this; I’m not new to King’s novels. I’ve read through quite a few of them (and enjoyed almost everything I’ve read), and with zero exceptions, none of them bothered me. I did not once feel afraid because of his books, get goose bumps, paranoia or even a slight shudder. Yeah… you can guess where this is going. The Shining scared the living hell out of me.

Seriously, King made a fire hose unnerve me. A freaking fire hose.

Now, while I may call this King’s scariest novel, I don’t consider it his best novel. Nor is it the greatest haunted house novel (I would personally give that to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which also creeped me the hell out). King in my opinion has written better novels, but the sense of unease and creeping dread here really does stand out as a remarkable achievement.

In terms of complaints, I would say that it is a bit overlong... but, eh, it's not that bad. It’s a slow burner, yeah, but I don’t feel that I should complain, as I loved the research aspect of Jack’s storyline. The slow understanding of the hotel’s history and how absolutely... wrong it is. There does seem to be some aspects of the haunting that could have been expanded upon perhaps, but the mysterious nature of the place add a bit of charm for it. Fairly small complaints when compared to all the good here.

Jack is one of King’s more interesting characters, and the alcoholism tie to the haunting is a stroke of pure genius. He’s the heart of this story in my opinion; a struggle with inner demons in a place that is unaccommodating with composing oneself. The setting is great and despite my initial hesitation of a 600 page book involving 3 people pretty much stuck in one setting, the Overlook is so well designed that it didn't bother me in the slightest (also the fact that the first hundred pages take place outside for the most part help).

As a side note, it was a bit surprising as someone who had seen the movie, how many of the iconic scenes are not even in the book. (view spoiler)[While I knew there was no "Here's Johnny" scene (as it's one of the more famous film ad-libs) I was surprised by the lack of twins in the corridor, no hedge maze or the famous "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy"... which is still written on the side of my paperback copy of the book. (hide spoiler)]

In closing, a solid King novel, creepy as hell, perhaps a bit too long, but well worth a read.