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The Shining (The Shining, #1)

Stephen King

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Nov 28, 2020 Owen DeVries rated it it was amazing

This novel is one that honest-to-God terrifies me.

Not because of the ghosts or hallucinations that the family experiences, but because of my own personal experience with familial abuse. That's what this book is really about: abuse and addiction. King himself has said that he wrote this book because he was scared of the things he thought about his children. Anyway, the reason this book scares me so much is really down to two factors: My father and my family's history of alcoholism. My father is This novel is one that honest-to-God terrifies me.

Not because of the ghosts or hallucinations that the family experiences, but because of my own personal experience with familial abuse. That's what this book is really about: abuse and addiction. King himself has said that he wrote this book because he was scared of the things he thought about his children. Anyway, the reason this book scares me so much is really down to two factors: My father and my family's history of alcoholism. My father is a sociopath and a narcissist. And he was also an alcoholic.

When I still lived with him, he would constantly emotionally abuse my mother, sister, and I. My mother eventually saw reason and divorced him. This lead to a bunch of custody disputes which lead to my sister and I staying with him every other week. This is where my fear of this book comes into play. I happened to be in my room one night just chillaxing, yah know? Then he barges into my room and starts yelling at me for apparent reason I could deduce.

I could see in his eyes that he was mighty drunk and I got scared because I knew what happened when he was drunk. I went into my closet and hid while he had his back turned yelling about what a useless piece of crap I was. Needless to say, I think at this point you can see why I sorta related to Danny. Not in a "we're the same age" type of way but a "holy shit, my father is crazy" type of way. It was this encounter that made me decide to side with my mom in the court case for custody over us. This went on for YEARS.

Now a couple years later when I was 16, I used my birthday money to buy this book and it's sequel *Doctor Sleep*. At this point, I was living with my mother full time and everything seemed to be settling down. The book arrived in the mail, and I sat down and began reading. Needless to say, this book got under my skin in a way no book before that ever had. Nowadays, the books that scares me the most is *Pet Sematary* but that doesn't change my underlying fears of this book. *The Shining* is one of those rare cases where a horror novel struck all the right strings for me.

The isolation, the loneliness, the family drama, and of course, the abuse. I can honestly say that after finishing it, I was overcome by a sense of inevitability. That I was doomed to repeat my father's downward spiral and end up a useless drunk. I still have that fear. That what-if whispering in my ears. It fucking terrifies me to this day.

In conclusion, I give *The Shining* five of out five stars.

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