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Monday 26 November 2012

The Shining by Stephen King

I've had a lot of time to read lately, and I finished the Shining by Stephen King a few days ago. I really loved it, however I watched the film before reading the book, and that spoilt things a little.
The Shining is about a family of three moving into a hotel in the mountains for the winter, as the father, Jack, has just got a new job there as a caretaker.
There is a little boy named Danny, who has an imaginary friend called Tony. I think he could have been Schizophrenic, but I'm not sure. He definitely has a sixth sense, which he and Halloran call 'the shine'.  His mother, Wendy, is pretty normal but she can never pluck up the courage to divorce Jack. I liked her though because she was very defensive of Danny. Jack is a alcoholic who really can't hold down a job! He got fired from his old job as a university professor because he abused one of the students. When Danny was younger, he broke his arm as a hot-headed punishment for spilling his papers. Jack is also trying to get his literature out there as he is a play-writer. However he can't do that either.
Whilst staying in the Overlook Hotel in the mountains, all is well until Jack gets frustrated and learns of the gory history that the Overlook had. Meanwhile, Danny is having visions of the hotels 'residents', such as the dead woman in room 217 and the dead twin girls. Slowly over time, tension builds between the family and Jack begins to reflect on his childhood - where his own father had been a drunkard and a abusive person - and begin to sympathise with his father's volatile actions.
He takes it upon himself to carry out punishments on his family. This includes hunting them down and beating them to death with a Roque mallet... Obviously there is a big fight and Wendy and Danny only just manage to escape with Halloran's help.
The plot overall was really creepy! And the ending of the book was just so sweet!

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