The Shining by Stephen King

Horror. Adult. Survival. 

Read on recommendation from Uncle Larry. 

Rating: 4/5

Pages:

Started: 8 October 2022

Finished: 15 October 2022

Summary:

    The Overlook Hotel wants him to stay. Jack, Danny's father, got a job as the isolated hotel's caretaker over the winter, and though Danny--who, at five, can feel people's thoughts and see things before they happen--is scared of the hotel, he knows it's his Daddy's last chance. So despite the dead woman who tried to kill him in room 217, despite the fact that his daddy is starting to scare him more and more, Danny stays quiet. 

    Jack just needs some peace and quiet to finish his play. Without any idiot students to lie to him or frame him, without the incompetent school board who fired him--for getting rightfully angry!--staring over his shoulder. He'll finish his play, get closer to his wife and son. And since he didn't bring any alcohol up to the hotel, he can't fall off the wagon while he's there. But he can feel the hotel calling to him. From its records in the dingy basement to the voice whispering in his ear, he can feel the hotel wanting him. And oh, does he want to be wanted. 

Thoughts: 

    I really enjoyed reading this. I didn't think it was super scary (although I may be scared of my bathroom at night for the next few weeks) but I did think it was fascinating. Since I wasn't super connected to any of the characters, maybe since I didn't see myself in any of them, the book read more like eerie, suspenseful action than horror. But suspenseful it was: I was as much on the edge of my seat as one can be while lying in bed during the last hundred or so pages. 

    The writing was amazing. I especially liked all of the parenthesis in parentheses that got it's own line; it added a lot to the otherworldliness of the book. The gore and horror elements were also super cool. I liked the ghostly party, the clock, and how unrepentantly violent the final scenes in the hotel were to both Jack and Wendy. 

    Though I didn't get attached to any of the characters, the ways in which King commented on the human condition through their actions was fascinating enough that I'd happily read the sequel (about grown-up Danny) or other books by King. 

Words:

    Abrogated (v) repeal or do away with 

    Lassitudinous (adj) languid, or apt to be languid

    Fusillade (n) a series of shots fired or missiles launched all at the same time or in quick succession