Book Review – Stephen King’s “The Shining”

Last week I finished reading Stephen King‘s The Shining, a classic tale of horror involving isolation and madness at a haunted hotel during the winter.

It’s a great story to read on these coldest of winter nights, especially when it’s snowing outside.

First published in 1977, The Shining tells a tale of Jack Torrance and how he and his wife and young son take over the caretaker duties for the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies.  The catch is that the hotel is isolated, and when the heavy snow arrives, the small family will have to fend for themselves for quite some time.  That wouldn’t be a problem if the hotel wasn’t haunted with evil spirits.

The Shining begins with Jack Torrance interviewing and being accepted for the position of winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel.  The Overlook is a prestigious hotel nestled in the Colorado Rockies.  It’s primarily a summertime destination as winter storms can (and will) block the mountain roads and render them impassible.  The Overlook’s previous winter caretaker succumbed to cabin fever, literally went crazy, and killed his family and himself.

Jack himself is a recovering alcoholic and a person with some problems in his past.  He’s an accomplished author and has been off and on writing a play.  Jack was also fired from his previous position as a college English instructor after he lashed out and attacked one of his students.  Jack’s temper and sometimes uncontrollable violence have caused him to also hit and injure his young son, Danny.  All of those events continually haunt Jack as he tries to get his life back on track.

Jack Torrance sees the position at the Overlook Hotel as an opportunity to break free from his alcoholism, a chance to improve his relationship with his wife and son, and a chance to finally finish writing his play.  Plus, his family badly needs the income.  Jack accepts the position and drives his family to Colorado and to the Overlook Hotel.

The Torrance family arrives at the Overlook Hotel just as the last few guests are leaving.  The family receives a tour of the grand hotel, and Jack learns the importance of keeping an eye on the hotel’s broiler and not letting it reach too high of pressure.  Wendy, Jack’s wife, enjoys seeing the vast kitchen and the incredible stockpiles of food in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer.  Meanwhile, when Danny looks around the hotel, instead of curiosity and joy he has frightening visions of past events that occurred inside of the hotel.

Dick Hallorann, the head chef at the Overlook, senses Danny’s psychic abilities.  He pulls the boy aside and has a quiet conversation with him.  Dick tells Danny that his psychic ability is a gift that Dick calls the “shining.”  The shining is how Danny is not only able to see visions in the hotel, but how he can also communicate telepathically with Dick.  Before Dick leaves for his winter home in Florida, he tells Danny to telepathically call for help if he runs into trouble.  He also advises Danny not to trust the visions and that the hotel cannot hurt him or his parents.

At least, that’s what Dick hopes, though he knows that the Overlook Hotel is a lot more dangerous than he told the boy.

The Torrance family settles into the hotel and things are fine at first.  But when the winter snow begins to fall, Danny has more evil visions inside of the building.  He is terrified of a fire hose that comes to life and acts like a snake, he’s scared of the topiary animals outside of the hotel that seem to move and stalk people, and Danny is absolutely horrified of what he discovers inside of Room 217.

It’s not just Danny who is affected while at the Overlook Hotel.

Jack’s behavior starts to change the moment he’s exploring in the hotel’s basement and discovers a scrapbook containing articles and other news clippings concerning the history of the Overlook.  The more that Jack investigates the hotel’s former owners and the guests, and the treachery that occurred inside of the rooms, the more obsessed he becomes with the Overlook.

In a short while the Overlook Hotel begins to possess Jack Torrance.  It turns out that Jack also has a mental connection with the hotel (like Danny’s ability to “shine”).  This connection only causes Jack to become more unstable and to have violent outbursts.  When Jack is able to communicate with the spirits, he believes that he’s there at the hotel for a greater purpose, and not just as an off-season caretaker.  Jack knows that last year’s caretaker killed his own family before taking his life, and he sees the spirit of the caretaker.  Jack also sees other spirits, such as a friendly bartender who gladly serves Jack alcoholic drinks.

When Jack falls off the bandwagon and drinks Martinis (referred to as “Martians”), it make you wonder if he’s really hallucinating the drinks as he badly craves them throughout the story, or if the Overlook was able to manifest the drinks.  When Jack and his family arrived at the Overlook and received a tour of the hotel, it was noted that there were no alcoholic drinks in stock.  The hotel had a bar, but there was no alcohol in stock.  The lack of alcohol was seem as a benefit as Jack was trying to break his drinking habit and live a sober lifestyle.

When Jack enjoys his drinks, the Overlook possesses him even further and pushes him to the edge.  The Overlook convinces Jack to murder his wife and son.

Wendy has noticed Jack’s change in behavior, and she fears for him and the hotel itself.  She wants to take the hotel’s snowmobile and flee with Danny into the neighboring town.  The only problem is that by the time she’s ready to flee, there’s a ferocious winter storm outside and dangerous snow drifts.  The snow is so high that it would be easy to not see the edge of the road and to plummet into a ravine.

The woman also knows that the Overlook Hotel is dangerous.  She’s heard her share of strange noises.  Wendy is finally convinced of there being ghosts when the hotel’s rustic elevator operates with nobody at the controls.  When the elevator’s doors open, out pop a bunch of confetti and party decorations.  The catch is that the hotel is deserted and the party was one that occurred thirty years ago.

Wendy knows that Jack is going to attack her, so she ambushes him while he’s drinking at the bar.  She then drags his body into a pantry and locks him in there until she can figure out what to do next.

After Danny realizes the extent of the danger at the Overlook, he sends a psychic call for help to Dick Hallorann.  Dick receives the message, but when he tries to reply, he realizes that the Overlook is blocking his mental connection with Danny.  That’s when Dick drops everything and rushes from his winter home in Florida and returns to Colorado.  He then braves the winter storm and navigates the snowy roads to return to the hotel to save Danny.

Unknown to Wendy and Danny, Jack has a conversation with a ghost named Delbert Grady.  Acting as a representative of the Overlook, Delbert informs Jack that the “manager” has been displeased with Jack’s progress of killing Wendy and Danny.  Jack confesses that he cannot kill his son.  Instead of killing Danny, Delbert makes a deal and allows Jack to merely bring him Danny.  Jack agrees and the ghost unlocks Jack from the pantry.  Jack then takes one of the hotel’s roque mallets and searches for Wendy.

Jack quickly discovers Wendy as she’s sneaking around on the hotel’s main floor.  The two of them have a brief fight.  Wendy uses a knife to stab Jack, and Jack uses the mallet to strike Wendy.  Both of them are badly injured.  Wendy flees to the second floor as Jack slowly pursues her.  The chase goes into the caretaker’s bathroom where Jack tries to break down the door.  Jack stops his attack when he hears the arrival of Dick Hallorann.

The action in the Overlook Hotel reaches a climax when Jack chases and ultimately confronts Danny while on the hotel’s upper floor.  Danny sees his father and realizes that it’s not really his father but rather the possession of him by the Overlook.  Danny is able to escape when he reminds Jack about the hotel’s broiler down in the basement.  Jack becomes enraged and races down to the basement, but he’s too late to stop the broiler from reaching too high of a pressure and exploding.  Dick, Wendy and Danny barely make it out of the Overlook Hotel before the building explodes.

Outside, the remains of the Overlook briefly try to possess Dick and make him kill Wendy and Danny, but Dick overcomes it.  He uses a snowmobile to safely transport Wendy and Danny out of the snowy mountains.

The Shining ends with Wendy and Danny living in Maine.  Dick Hallorann has taken a job in the area as a chef at a resort, and he looks out for Wendy and Danny.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Stephen King’s The Shining a good book?

Absolutely!

This is a fascinating story that has its fair share of terrors, and it moves at a brisk pace.  The characters are few but strong, the hotel itself is creepy, and the hotel’s isolation in the snowy mountains adds to the darkness and terror.  If anything, I would have preferred if this story had a few more chills and moments of horror.  That’s not necessarily a negative against this story, and The Shining is still a really good book.

Of course, it helps set the mood when reading this book during the winter, especially if you’re in an area that receives snow.

If you’re never read this story or seen the 1980 movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, be prepared to spend several late nights turning the pages and wanting to know what happens next.

Now it’s time to watch 1980’s The Shining and see how it compares to Stephen King’s book.