A review by deanna_rigney
The Shining by Stephen King

4.0

The Overlook is one freaky place. I have always been a fan of the Kubrick film, and though it hits on some of the main themes of the book, it is a very loose adaptation. I’m glad I finally read this just to find out King’s original vision, and it is also a particularly good partner read with Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, which King actually quotes. Both have a place as a main character and psychological horror is prominent in both. One thing the book does well is make you much more sympathetic to Jack Torrance from the get-go, whereas the film kind of has him as a son-of-a-bitch you don’t much trust ever (thank you Nicholson.) Torrance is basically used by the hotel to get to his son, Danny, who has crazy skills in the psychic department, also referred to as “shining” by the Overlook’s chef Dick Hallorann who also has a bit of the psychic juice his own self. Hallorann has a much bigger role in the book which I liked because it always irked me that poor Scatman Crothers goes to such lengths to help the boy in the movie just to get axed 2 seconds after he arrives at the hotel. Also the character of Wendy is blonde, leggy, and has an even keeled intelligence that saves her pretty ass in the end, so where in that description does someone think, “Hey, I know, let’s get Shelly Duvall for the part!” Really? I know I shouldn’t compare the movie and book so much because this should just be a book review, but the one is so ingrained in me that I can’t help but do so. I liked King’s ongoing comparisons of a wasp’s nest to the Overlook, with the seemingly quiet façade of an empty nest but always danger is lurking within. He makes the Overlook out to be a place that gains power and evil each time something bad happens there, but the place itself manipulates such evil and also draws it in, so it is an ever churning cycle. Freaky and fulfilling, this has gained a ranking of one of my favorite King novels.