The Shining

The Shining is one of my favorite books to read this time of year. It was my first Stephen King novel and one of the earlier books that got me hooked on reading spooky stories.

Jack Torrence is a frustrated writer who takes on the job of winter custodian at the Overlook Hotel, bringing his wife and five-year-old son Danny with him. Danny is a special boy who has what King has deemed "the shining" - a psychic condition that gives him visions and allows him to read minds. When Danny arrives at the Overlook Hotel with his family, his visions become more frequent and more terrifying.

This story is filled with ghosts in more than one sense. The Overlook Hotel is said to be haunted, and the previous winter caretaker went crazy and murdered his whole family with an axe. But there are other ghosts as well. Jack is a recovering alcoholic with a bad temper. When his son Danny was younger, he got upset and broke his arm which was partially an accident and partially out of rage.

As the winter goes on, Jack starts losing control and letting his old demons in, and Danny is struggling with the terror of his visions and the idea that the hotel is trying to kill him and house his ghost. The knowledge that the previous caretaker's all died in the hotel does not help the tension either.

Stephen King does an incredible job of creating a horror story that is not all blood and gore, but more psychological. The Shining is not a book that will make you jump at every page turn, but it will haunt you and bring you to a deeper sense of fright than a more gory novel would. I think that is the power of King's books. He doesn't need to create a crazy slasher character. Jack Torrence is a very real person and one that is dealing with something that so many other people have dealt with before. It is actually a pretty ordinary thing that leads Jack to be sucked in by the hotel and lose control. King creates powerful characters that the reader can relate to at least in the beginning of the story. The Shining is a great read, I highly recommend it!