I’ll admit it, I don’t really like a trend. When everyone raves about a book or a film I tend to shy away from it, and if I got there first I have childlike thoughts of not wanting to share it with anyone, so there!! And this is why I stupidly avoided the vast collection of Stephen King’s books, but at long last, and after seeing no one hovering around the horror section of my local bookstore, I delved in with the timeless classic The Shining – now I only wish I’d read it sooner.
The story begins with a cute little boy named Danny, who loves his mum and his recovering alcoholic father – and one-time abuser. You’d think that would be trauma enough for Danny, but, oh no! Stephen King has a hotel-full of frightening nightmares for him, as Danny has the gift of the ‘shining’. This means he can see glimpses of the past, see ghosts, is telepathic, and has images of the future flashed to him. However, being a child Danny doesn’t understand what he sees, although the viewer does, and in this it’s like hearing the violin strings and the striking of piano keys in a horror movie; you know Danny and his family are in danger – but they don’t, at least not yet.
Down on his luck, and needing a second chance at life, Jack Torrance (the patriarch of the family) doesn’t hesitate to take the job as a caretaker of a posh and out of the way hotel, known as the Overlook. But with its remote location in the mountain ranges of Colorado, it has to be closed off for the winter (due to severe blizzards), leaving only the caretaker and his family as its remaining occupants, and completely isolated from others– if the meaning isn’t clear by now it should be – run Danny, run!! Furthermore, the manager warns Jack the effect this isolation can have; revealing what happened to the last caretaker – he went mad and butchered his wife and two little girls. Cue creepy girls. Although they’re only seen in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation – which Stephen King hated, and for good reason. Now don’t get me wrong, Kubrick’s film is great, but it’s like he read the ingredients and formed an entirely different cake, it’s still good, but in King’s book his cake was a masterpiece and decorated with sparklers for that little bit extra. In other words, if you’ve seen the film, but not read the book – then you’re missing out.
However, this tale of the previous caretaker and his family is not the only secret at the Overlook, its years of splendour coming with many a ghastly tale, and Danny, poor Danny seems to see them all. But he’s not alone in this, for his dad, Jack, can sense the hotel’s temptation, is lured by it and by those within. Slowly the voices whisper to him, tap into his underlying fear and anger, until by the end they are shouting through alcoholic delusions to Jack – his delicate sanity being at risk.
King has the amazing talent of building the story’s tension until it reaches its peak and comes crashing down into horrific and terrifying scenes, and all the while still raising up to the tsunami of a fright. Placing questions as to what the hotel is? What happened in the president suite? What became of those guests wearing masks at midnight? Why should Danny avoid room 237? Is the hotel alive with evil? And worse yet, is that in Danny seeing them they too stare back at Danny, desiring more than anything the chance to devour him – for they want his gift, and they might just succeed. Their souls depraved and murderous when they were alive, and now they’re something far more dangerous.
The book switches perspective from each of the Torrance family’s point of view, and on occasion to Dick Hallorann – Danny’s mentor in the use of the shining and who plays out the audience’s call to action. Dick’s panic is one of urgency, blame and desperation, much like Danny’s mother, Wendy Torrance. Wendy is the stereotypical protective mother who will do anything for her son, and notices the smallest changes in him – watching with scared eyes as he and her husband act strangely in the weeks following their arriving at the Overlook, making Wendy suspicious of the hotel, despite her self-rationalising. Her cries of warning, her heart torn in two, and her justifiable worries displaying what the audience feels.
Meanwhile Danny’s point of view is one of innocence (after all he is five years old), but it’s also one of greater maturity, even as he tries (and so too does his mum) to keep a hold of his childhood. Despite being little, Danny feels the pressure of his parents worries and so regularly chooses to put their wishes before his own fears of safety; showing a greater strength of character than the adults around him. However, he’s still scared as he carefully peeps around the corners of the hotel, and we’re with him on this, for as readers we’ve seen what Danny knows and the secrets he’s hiding, and in turn they become ours – we know what the hotel is capable of.
King’s writing is at its best though when seeing the world from Jack’s point of view; the need for a drink, the desperate thirst, and the uncontrollable anger even as he fights against it. In this his addiction is portrayed intimately, and you can’t help but feel sorry for Jack, just as much as you loathe him. This makes more sense when King explained that the process of writing The Shining was a therapeutic experience for him, with the character Torrance exploring the implications of his alcoholism on loved ones around him. His own connection to the subject making the character’s voice and internal struggles real, relatable and sympathetic to the difficulties he faced as well as the exposure of his vulnerabilities.
There’s many an atmospheric and scary scene within The Shining – I even tried hiding it in the freezer, as a famous character from Friends once suggested, but the temptation to return to it overrode my fear. Many aspects of its story and horror are lovingly explored, while in contrast others are barely touched upon, thereby following the old horror rule; that fear of the unknown is the scariest thing of all, and it certainly was for me. But my curiosity was piqued, and though it might kill me, well Danny – but he’ll be okay if he runs fast enough – I wanted to know more about some of the ghosts and still do, such as what was in the attic? And in the children’s playground?? But if King had told the reader too much The Shining would have lost its mystery, and that’s the biggest talent of Stephen King’s writing; knowing how to keep you hooked throughout, the storytelling enigmatic and sinister, the characters flawed, and the heroes heroic but in desperate need of help, and in Stephen King’s books you never know who will come out alive.
Other Notable Works by Stephen King:
- Billy Summers 2021
- If It Bleeds 2020
- The Institute 2019
- Bill Hodges Trilogy:
+ End of Watch (3) 2016
+ Finder Keepers (2) 2015
+ Mercedes (1) 2014 - The Shining:
+ Doctor Sleep (2) 2013 - 11/22/63 2011
- Full Dark, No Stars 2010
- The Dark Tower:
+ The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower 2004
+ The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah 2004
+ The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla 2003
+ The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (4.5) 2012
+ The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass 1997
+ The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands 1991
+ The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three 1987
+ The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger 1982
+ The Little Sisters of Eluria (0.5) 1998 - The Green Mile:
+ The Green Mile 1996 - Misery 1987
- IT 1986
- The Talisman (co-wrote with Peter Straub):
+ Black House (2) 2001
+ The Talisman (1) 1984 - Pet Sematary 1983
- Different Seasons 1982
- The Stand 1978
- The Night Shift 1978
- Salem’s Lot 1975
- Carrie 1974
Book Edition Information:
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9781444720723
Cover Photograph: Ansgar Photography/Corbis
Presented Edition: 2011 Paperback
Background image courtesy of Quin Stevenson on Unsplash
