Telepathic girls, suburban vampires, and now haunted hotels have been added to the list of completed Stephen King topics. And ooh boy, what a ride it’s been so far!
As you can probably guess, my 3rd novel in my Stephen King read through is none other than The Shining, one of his most well known works. The fame of this story has much to do with its brilliant nature, but also owes a lot to the much loved Kubrick adaptation. I’ve read the novel before, but I had never seen the film, so during this re-read I decided to complement it with a viewing of the film. It was a very different experience, with results less than stellar than I had hoped…but I will get to that shortly.
The Shining has always stood out as one of my favourite novels that I have read by King. The combination of struggling alcoholic, supernaturally gifted children, and just general eeriness combine in a perfect way to make the story seem grounded, yet also off-the-rails.
Jack Torrance is a man who tries to be his best, despite most of the cards being stacked against him. His main vice is the ever present struggle of substance abuse, and the sirens song that is always sung to him by a glass of whiskey. King writes Jack as a sympathetic character, but also as one we are led to hate with every fiber of our being. This juxtaposition makes the story so impactful because we know that his savage side is out of his control, as the overlook has its hooks deep in him, so we can feel bad for the situation he finds himself in.
The other main character I am fond of is Danny, the young boy with a gift unlike any other. Much like Jack, we feel bad for what Danny is subjected to, and his constant misunderstanding of situations (seen in his numerous examples of reading the minds of adults and not understanding the deeper concepts he encounters) really helps the reader realize that he is a young boy; this innocent nature of his makes the bad moments more impactful and pulls heavily are our heart strings.
Stories about haunted buildings and possessions are nothing new, but once again Stephen King makes it still compelling to read. We are given snippets or information about the Overlook’s history, and get to see how it’s corruption has affected many people in the past. It’s history is so dark and long that the mere existence of it seems foul, and we wish for nothing less than a complete escape from it.
There are no true villains in this novel, not like the bullies in Carrie or Kurt Barlow, but rather we are given the same sort of menacing vibes from a building. That is not an easy thing to pull off in my opinion, so I must give kudos for that.
Before summing up my thoughts, I’ll take a brief mental detour to discuss the movie adaptation. I am by no means well versed in the art of movie dissection, so my thoughts will be limited to a comparison between media forms.
I had very high hopes going into my viewing of this film, and unfortunately I think that was my downfall. There are many great moments in the film, and iconic scenes were brought to life well, but it still missed a lot of story for my liking. I feel like the lack of historical background on the hotel made a lot of the ghosts and their actions seem out of place, and a lot of motivation was left ambiguous. I also wished Dick Halloran played a bigger role, as he was my favourite character from the novel (but that’s just a personal nitpick lol)
Final Score 9/10
Overall, the Shining is a compelling story about the human struggles of addiction, childhood, relationships, and so much more. All of these things are made more complicated and thrilling when combined with the dark nature of the conflict, and just advances many things in wonderful ways.
As always, don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts on this book, either on here, Instagram, or email (info @theliterategryphon.com).