I was looking for a good thriller to read, and Stephen King delivered with "The Shining". This book is about Danny Torrence and his parents Jack and Wendy who move into the Overlook Hotel to care for it over the winter. However, Danny's "invisible friend" Tony keeps warning him not to go, but he ignores Tony because his dad needs this job. The events that begin taking place during their stay at the Overlook were crazy. It definitely kept me turning the pages for more. This is a good choice if you are looking for a supernatural/phycological thriller.

If Stephen King is going to be remembered for anything, it is going to be for this book. One of the cornerstones of horror fiction and popular culture.

The Shining, Stephen King’s most popular and most defining work, has paved the way for his other novels and the entire horror genre as a whole. It tells the story of Jack, an alcoholic father, Wendy, a conflicted mother, and Danny, their uniquely “gifted” son staying at the Overlook Hotel near Boulder, Colorado in order to take care of it over the harsh winter. As the plot thickens, the horrors at the Overlook begin to manifest themselves to the family in the form of past events that Danny’s parents blame on their newfound cabin fever; but Danny knows better than to blame the horrors they’ve experienced on the forthcomings of their own minds.
I would give The Shining 5 stars out of 5 due to its perfectly cohesive plot, beautifully crafted characters, and compelling narrative that only deepens with interest with every turn of the page. I would recommend it to a more mature audience (15 years and older) as it does deal with sensitive topics such as domestic violence, drinking addictions, and some racism.

The Shining is a book about a family of three caretaking an isolated hotel with a gruesome past during the winter. Jack, the father of the family uses the isolation as time to work on his novel while Wendy, his wife, and Danny, his kid, explore the hotel. Danny realizes he has a gift to be able to see the past horrors of the hotel as they reach out to him. The gift, called the Shining, allows him to communicate and interact with the many long past visitors of the hotel. As Danny explores this power, his father starts to get influenced by the hotel's mysterious ways. This book explores the working of the human mind, it allows for suspense and thrill as the reader progresses through the book and sees the influence of isolation on the Torrance family. I would give this book a 5 out of 5, it is intense and gory but still finds subtle ways to engage the reader. The plotline can feel slow at times but is worth the wait since the slow speed of the book all adds to the suspense the author intended. The age I’d recommend this book to is 16+ because the vocabulary and writing style is very mature, making it more difficult for younger readers to understand. The Shining also does not shy away from gore.

Good
Scary

This was finally a good book from king, nice dialogue, nice building of tension. Subtle writing. No anti-religious undertones. What a change. This is a mediocre book for me, there was an obsession towards saying "breasts" instead of chest which made most moments awkward. This book is weirdly overly sexual. It's like smut. Like Danny pressing his crying face deeper "into his mother's breasts". Ew. Took me out of it towards the end. On a positive note, the book made me scared about what kind of parent I might be. Which is some good food for thought.

RED RUM......Creepy good.

The book went quite in depth into what was going on inside Jack's head as well as Danny's. The reader is able to clearly see the stages in which the hotel became one with Jack. Stephen King has a way of getting into the head of the reader, allowing them to empathize with the characters and what they're going through, thus making this reading experience much more terrifying. The book is a fairly easy read with concepts that aren't too difficult to understand. I also really enjoyed the way King used Mr. Hallorann to build suspense. As the only outside being that was aware of the situation at the hotel it instantly made him an ally to Danny and the Torrance's. This came in handy later once Danny is able to call for help. The rush and panic of Mr. Hallorann attempting to help them alongside the events at the hotel set up a beautiful opportunity for suspense that kept the reader on the edge of their seat.

A fantastic novel. My favourite by Stephen King. Also... all the people that said this book should be for 18 and over haven't read it.

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