Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Shining by Stephen King

100 reviews

housedesignerking's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. That was better than the 1980 adaptation.

The book and its adaptation have the same synopsis: Jack Torrence has lost several jobs because of his anger and his drinking. He's given up drinking, but he still lost his job as a teacher because he punched a student. A friend of his has called in a favor to get him a job being the caretaker of a large hotel in the mountains of Colorado in its off season. Danny Torrence has a special gift where he knows things and learns things without even needing to be in the room. He can hear people's thoughts (like a hilarious moment where he knows a middle-aged woman is lusting after a 20-something male's behind), and according to a nice man named Dick Halloran, it's known to some people as "shining." At least that's what Dick's grandmother called it. They used to have lots of conversations by simply thinking to each other. The hotel is basically haunted by an evil presence, and a man named Delbert Grady did his immediate family in by way of murder/suicide.

The book is a brilliant work of fiction, but I did have an interesting time getting used to King's writing style when it comes to when a character is thinking or when Danny's supposedly imaginary friend was talking to him. In books by other authors, a character's thoughts are italicized. King chose to put thoughts and other voices between parentheses. Interesting choice. The cast did a good job putting the movie together, but the script leaves a bit to be desired. I've seen the movie twice now, so I suggested to my fiancé that we read the book. This is the first Stephen King book I've ever read, and it's so good that I enjoyed it because this could have been very unfortunate. One of the joys that a movie watcher has is being able to point out the differences between the movie and the book. There are a lot of differences. For one, Ullman is a nice man in the film, a total jerk in the book. For another, the movie's ending and this book's ending bear no relation to one another at all. Further, they left so many things out of the film. After reading this, I still consider the 1980 adaptation to be a 3-star film, but the book gets 5 stars. The last 90 pages of this were just epic!

Now, I await the 1997 adaptation to come in the post. I've heard it's closer to the book than the original.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

stevienielson's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gore, Racial slurs, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Murder

dannilmp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What I have always come to think of as a Stephen King classic, The Shining does not disappoint as a gripping, terrifying novel. Here we join the Torrence family as they move to an isolated hotel during the winter season while Jack works as the caretaker. In typical King fashion, things start to go wrong and Jack begins to change while Danny is left to deal with his own developing psychic capabilities.

While I didn't like Jack Torrence's character, I must commend King on being able to write a character that I hate but love at the same time? Jack's character is very well written and watching his descent into madness while caring for the hotel made shivers crawl down my spine. Certain scenes made me put the book down to process, including both the bathtub scene and

the scene where Jack still drags himself around despite his stab wound

I haven't read many King books yet but I feel like the ending to The Shining was actually sort of pleasant compared to other books that I have read. 

I don't think Wendy got enough character development, or at least she seemed like the least important member of the family during their stay. I still think she was well written regardless, but I would have liked to have seen some of the supernatural in her as well as the boys. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Alcohol

mattythebookworm22's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse and Medical trauma

itsmeyseniab's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Suicide

alaskan_bull_worm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My first Stephen King book! What do I think of it? 

I really liked the beginning and middle more than the end. I can’t really explain it, but I wasn’t as sucked in. I feel like I end up rushing near the end of a book just because it’s in sight. 
The disembodied style of the nightmare sequences weren’t as effective as they could have been. I think the looking-into-characters’-minds had the highest quality writing. (I’m not saying King was horrible in other ways. Just that you win some, you lose some.) The huge violent scenes near the end didn’t work as well with me, is what I’m trying to say. I really don’t know why. I guess my previous point was really the “why.”
I loved the parts where we get into Jack’s mind to see his slow degrade into madness (or loss of self-control, or the hotel taking over him, whichever way you see it). It was interesting to see his perception of his father shift later on. He kind of changed the story of why his father did what he did. 
I have mixed feelings about Wendy. Her personality was kind of just “mother and wife,” though she certainly was a round character. I guess it’s just that near the end we see how strong she really is (willfully, mostly) compared to her more empty threats to Jack during their relationship. I mean, Jack did lots of bad things, and she was always upset about him doing that, but she rarely did much about it. I guess I like her? 
So . . . yeah? Altogether it’s a pretty good book that I guess I’d recommend. I am likely to read more King in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

xreadingwithdemi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

writingcaia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow loved it!
There were some slow moments here and there but wow SK knows how to tell a horror story like no one and his characters are always so believable.
This not really a story about a haunted hotel, although it is, but about a broken family with a traumatised alcoholic father and a special child, one to be used the other to be coveted by it.
There’s a lot of suspense and mind games, and only towards the end does it get really brutal.
What a ride. I’m glad I still read it even though I was familiar with the story from the movie, but as always, the book is way better!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent

m_hates_reading's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

3/5 meh.
Took me over a month to get through, which isn’t exactly the book’s fault, but it’s not a plus either.
Again with Stephen King, I think there’s a lot of stuff towards the start that could have just not been there.

Really hated the way Wendy was written, but that’s nothing new with King. 

I would have liked more focus on Danny than Jack; I get that the idea is you’re following the antagonist, and your meant to watch him loose his mind piece by piece, but it just rly wasn’t doing it for me. I just wasn’t invested in Jack’s story; possibly bc I already (more or less) knew the ending, but I think a good book is one you can know the ending to and still enjoy. 

It wasn’t bad, there were things I liked. I probably would have liked the book better if there was more straight-up horror from Danny and Wendy’s perspectives (217, the fire hose, the elevator…) but again, I appreciate that’s not what King was going for with the book - he was looking for reality. “Would Jack still have done it if not for the Overlook? Was he really possessed or had he finally just snapped?”. But honestly I couldn’t care less. 
Not my favourite concept wise, and I know for an absolute fact King can and has written better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail