The Shining (The Shining, #1) in Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime

Oct 02, 2015 Maida rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, substance-abuse, mystery-thriller, disturbing, maida-s-honorable-mentions, socio-political, socio-psychology, dysfunctional-individuals-families, paranormal, trauma

Fantastic! Extremely well written w/ great character development. The novel is much better than the movie, IMO. Highly recommended!

*4.5/5 stars*

Thank you to Amber for the buddy-read! <3 xoxo

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Oct 02, 2015 Amber rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, all-time-favorites

4.5 stars- Okay, so I finished this book almost a week ago, and I kept thinking how I was going to come on here and write this amazing review about all of the reasons I loved this book. The problem is, I keep thinking about it, but I can't come up with the words I have been hoping would come to me.

This book, however, was fantastic. I came in thinking it was going to scare the crap out of me, and it DID, but not in obvious ways like I thought. King builds the tension in layers, which in my opini 4.5 stars- Okay, so I finished this book almost a week ago, and I kept thinking how I was going to come on here and write this amazing review about all of the reasons I loved this book. The problem is, I keep thinking about it, but I can't come up with the words I have been hoping would come to me.

This book, however, was fantastic. I came in thinking it was going to scare the crap out of me, and it DID, but not in obvious ways like I thought. King builds the tension in layers, which in my opinion is brilliance. He gives you a little bit at the beginning, enough to keep going, but then a little at a time he layers everything. He gives the characters more depth, makes the hotel more ominous, and it goes on and on. It's all very subtle, until it's not. I never thought I would ever be petrified of seeing animal topiaries, or playing on a deserted playground, but guess what? King has done that. I won't ever look at them the same. This book is way different from the movie, but I think infinitely better.

Probably one of the scariest aspects of this story, for me, came with the scenes with Danny. He is the son of Jack and Wendy and has a 6th sense or second sight. The problem is, he is only 5 years old. So when he gets a vision, more often than not he doesn't understand what he is seeing, and often forgets the visions right after they occur. However, you as the reader understand what is going on and know that if you could only make him understand perhaps he might be able to make things turn out differently. There were also a few twists that I didn't see coming in terms with Danny and his ability. The most surprising for me was (view spoiler)

King is brilliant. I loved the subtlety in which he slowly gave us everything until you realized all of a sudden that you were completely terrified. Totally enthralling. The only bad thing for me is that while I was reading this book I couldn't even go to the bathroom by myself. After room 217 there was no FREAKING way I was going in there alone. My poor husband, and then my dog was dragged in there more than once so I could find relief without being scared to death. Now THAT is good writing. Loved this book. LOVED it.