From the Bookshelf of Crazy Challenge Connection…

The Shining (The Shining, #1)

Stephen King

Why we're reading this: I was real young when the movie came out and only recently started reading some of his books. I LOVED it.
[close] I was real young when the movie came out and only recently started reading some of his books. I LOVED it.

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Aug 14, 2012 Steven rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, read-in-2019, read-in-2013, horror, he-s-the-king-and-he-needs-hailing

Reread Oct 2019, loved it just as much
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Wow. Where do I even begin? I now understand the world's obsession with Stephen King. Why did I wait until 2013 to start reading him? I'm not sure now. I've loved most of the movies as long as I can remember. I love horror stories. What's wrong with me? Haha.

RECAP: Danny Torrance is a special boy. He's touched, has a gift, the ability to see things he shouldn't -- like into people's minds, into the future, things from the past.

Jack Torrance is a strugglin Reread Oct 2019, loved it just as much
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Wow. Where do I even begin? I now understand the world's obsession with Stephen King. Why did I wait until 2013 to start reading him? I'm not sure now. I've loved most of the movies as long as I can remember. I love horror stories. What's wrong with me? Haha.

RECAP: Danny Torrance is a special boy. He's touched, has a gift, the ability to see things he shouldn't -- like into people's minds, into the future, things from the past.

Jack Torrance is a struggling man. Mediocrity and failure have followed him since his abusive childhood, but he has a loving wife and a good boy. After making some mistakes, he gets a second chance -- a job to get them through for a while that will also provide free lodging and food. So he takes his family up to the Overlook Hotel in Colorado so he can be the caretaker over the winter months.

They arrive on closing day, where they meet the cook, Dick Halloran, who instantly sparks with Danny. The special bond comes from what Dick calls "the shining," the gifts that Danny has above and beyond the others Dick has met.

As they settle in and prepare for winter, strange events start to unfold -- voices, lingering presences, moving topiaries, and the like.

While the snow cuts them off from the rest of the world, the Overlook stirs to collect its prize...

REVIEW: I have NEVER read a book with so much set up and build up information and storyline that didn't feel like filler or wordiness. I seriously felt that every detail King provided about this family's history was necessary to properly tell the story of what happens to the Torrances over their time at the Overlook.

The characters in this story are all very well-developed -- Danny, Wendy, Jack, Dick, and most importantly, the Overlook Hotel and its denizens. Yes, it's fair to say that while Danny is the main protagonist, the hotel itself is just as much a main character as he is.

This book masters the haunted house story, as well as the "cut off from the rest of the world" feeling, the buildup of impending dread, and the creation of a rich history surrounding the hotel and the family.

King's novel does a much better job of showing this family as a normal family -- one that has its issues but still is happy and loves each other -- and how the hotel tears this family apart than the movies do. Kubrick's film unfortunately makes Jack's character appear insane before the real story begins, whereas the novel makes you go through his transformation and eventual loss of himself. Terrifyingly sad, really. It shows how the hotel can chip away at the man's weak points and destroy him.

I seriously enjoyed this novel, and can't wait to read more of his classics. Now, I'm off to go rewatch both Kubrick's film and the TV miniseries of The Shining. This is definitely on my re-read list. :) ...more

47 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2019 ☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ rated it really liked it

Shelves: family, borrowed, 2019-barc-books, suspense, paranormal, z-nbrc-sinful-towers, thriller, fiction, book-to-movie, horror

This was wild twisted story. I enjoyed this much more than the movie. Now I’m going to read Doctor Sleep and then maybe watch both movies so I can compare or maybe complain about what they left out. LOL

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2015 Sunshine✰✰✰ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

I am sooo glad I just went ahead and read this. It was really good. At first I was thinking that I want to watch the movie (I never really sat down and watched it. Just bits and pieces) but Now I'm thinking to leave well enough alone. Danny is a great character. Knowing and understanding, but you never forget he's just a 5 year old and really doesn't understand. Even Jack. You feel for him. He tries so hard to do the right thing for his family, but seems the universe (Overlook Hotel) is against ...more

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Oct 31, 2024 Cecily Black rated it it was amazing

Shelves: turfwars, boringwheelnbrc

Okay so forever I have said my favorite Stephen King novel was The Stand but after reading this one I am not sure which one is first for me. I have seen the movie many years ago and though I enjoyed it, it wasn't amazing to me, at least not in comparison to the book. I think it reads better and creeped me out a lot more. (might also be because I live in a snowy area in the middle of no where now but I'm not sure). So glad I finally got my hands on a copy. Awesome read. ...more

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May 15, 2016 Jessie the Bibliophile ♥ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal, horror, classic, 2016, adult, read-in-english

I have great difficulty rating this book... I went into it expecting to be FINALLY creeped out by a book, since a lot of people describe this as one of the scariest books out there... I was not! And that's really what I came for. So when it comes to that, it was a total let down. There's definitely potential, a few scenes (mostly early on in the book) did give me tingles, but towards the end I didn't really find anything scary. Shocking, perhaps, but not scary.
Apart from that fact I did like th ...more

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