****Spoiler Alert!****
Also things are discussed in this post that may be NSFW
Let me preface this by saying I enjoy horror movies, but horror books are a rare read for me. But, I mean, it is The Shining. A legendary book spurred on by author Stephen King’s stay at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado. It is on every must-read list, as well as a must-see on classic horror movie list! (I also had never seen the movie.) So I figured it was past time to finally check this box.
...I should have left this box unchecked...
I have read a few of Stephen King’s books and found them… a struggle… to get through but the Shining takes the cake. I get that you are in the character’s heads and they are literally losing their marbles, but some of the way the book was written was hard to get through. And not just the verbiage, but what they were talking about was a bit much. This book was full of triggers, nearly every page had me wincing. Everything from child abuse, alcoholism, death, racism, homophobia-- just to name a few. And then there is the super icky sex mentions that he slips in at the most inappropriate times. I’m sorry, if I was stuck in a hotel in the middle of the mountains in winter with my abusive husband who I suspected of just trying to strangle my son, I would not be too pleased with him trying to start up some sexy time as we sit and watch our traumatized child sleeping. Instead, nope. Boobs are out and she is wildly into it. Yikes, my girl. Read the red flags!
I’m getting ahead of myself though. In general there are four characters in this book, Jack, Wendy, Danny, and the Overlook hotel. Despite the grizzly history of the hotel, and finding out even worse things after beginning their long stay there, the Torrence family are between a rock and a hard place after Jack loses his job (because he nearly beat one of his students to death) and because nobody but an old friend can/are willing to help him out, he ends up having to drag his wife and five year old son across the country to be caretaker for the Overlook hotel over the winter after it gets snowed in. Even though he is warned by the hotel manager, Mr. Ullman, about previous cases of caretakers going literally crazy under the isolation the job provides and killing their entire families, Jack decided that he is mentally stable enough (HA!!) to not be affected. (Hindsight is 20/20, I guess).
So they get to the hotel and both Wendy and Danny have weird feelings and fears about whether this is a good idea that they totally ignore. Thankfully while there, they meet a lovely man named Mr. Hallorann who tells Danny that the place is as bad as he feels, and oh yeah, that thing you have been dealing with as a five year old and not been able to tell anyone about is called the 'shining'. Now, I didn’t know going into this why the heck the Shining was called that, but I figured it had to do with the shiny snow or something! Never did it occur to me that it was their name for telepathy or clairvoyance.
But I digress—
Now I can understand writing off certain things, like a wasp's nest suddenly returning to life, or strange noises, or seeing things out of the corner of your eye. But when your husband goes on a rampage and smashes the only form of communication and your son is found near comatose with finger-shaped bruises around his neck, maybe start to get worried! All the people in this book are wildly in denial of their surroundings.
It has been out long enough that I feel like everyone knows the ending, even if you haven’t read the book or seen the movies. But the ending, for me, was semi satisfying— Jack blows himself up trying to depressurize the boiler. In my opinion, two villains were eliminated in one, because this might be the only protagonist I was not at all rooting for.
All in all, I am glad I can finally cross this one off my TBR list and definitively say I think I have read all the Stephen King I need to for the year. It is time for books that are a little more my speed and liking!
On that note, my read for March is going to be one that I am sure you have either read yourself or heard about... well, everwhere: Quicksilver by Callie Hart!
So friends, pull up a chair and let’s find your next favorite story!
J.R. Molt
