The Shining

The Shining by Stephen King is my second Stephen King’s book in 2010. I’ve been searching everywhere for this book, but it is so hard to find. Finally, I asked my friend, who was staying in Aussie for her education, to buy it for me. Out of 5 Stephen King’s books that are on my shelve right now, I picked The Shining as my 1st read because haunted hotel sound really intriguing.

The Story
Jack Torrance was a temperamental man, he used to drink a lot…but something stopped him. In spite of him being sober, it was still hard for him to control his emotion. His emotion finally got the worst of him and made him lose his job. His friend helped him get a new job as a caretaker in an old hotel called Overlook. He and his family, his wife Wendy and his son Danny, had to stay in the hotel during winter. The hotel always closed during winter due to heavy snow in that area.

Danny had bad feeling about the hotel. Hallorann, the hotel’s cook, saw that Danny has amazing shine. Hallorann who knew that the hotel is bad alerted Danny and told Danny to shout and call for him when he needed him, Hallorann promised he’ll come no matter what.

The Torrances were happy, at first. It felt like the right thing to come to Overlook. Things slowly changed from happy to terrifying. Jack found a notebook that slowly changed him. He started showing symptoms when he was still drinking. Danny started to see bad things from the hotel. Wendy started felling insecure.

When the snow finally closed down on them and kept them away from the town…Overlook made its evil moves against the Torrance family.

I love this book. At first, it was a bit boring…but it was still an important part in the story. The story begins to pick up when they arrived at Overlook. Reading how the hotel slowly changing this family is really interesting…but the best part is when it made its final move, when ‘everything’ comes to life.

The last 1/3 part of the book is definitely the best part in The Shining. I was reading it on the bus and I didn’t even care about everyone around me, I was, at that time, as scare as the Torrance. All my attention was drawn into the story, it carried me inside Overlook. When things begin to slow down, I can relax again. I haven’t been drawn like this since I read Needful Things. This kinda thrill is the reason why I love Stephen King’s work so much.

It’s a 5stars book for me
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I’m using this review for my Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge 2010

My review on the film is here.