Publication date
28 January 1977
Standalone or series
Standalone
First time reading this author?
No (also not the first time I’ve read this book).
Why I picked this
There’s a lot of reflection in the author’s note of Stephen King’s most recent short story collection and it’s prompted me another re-read of his back catalogue.
Review copy or purchase
Read using previously purchased ebook and audiobook. Also have in paperback.
What it’s about
Danny ‘shines’. The five-year-old has a combination of telepathy and precognition and sees things he can’t always understand, and when he and his mum and dad are trapped alone in a hotel with a dark history one winter the things he can see will do anything to make him one of them.
Review
One of the things that has always annoyed me about Stanley Kubrick’s production of The Shining is that Jack Nicholson seems unhinged from the start. There’s no gradual descent into madness it’s front and centre from the start. On this latest re-read of the novel I have to admit that, that’s also part of the source material. While there’s more time spent on how Jack Torrance’s own alcoholic, manically unpredictable father may have influenced him, what’s also clear is that the Jack in the book is rarely peaceful. The undercurrent of anger and hair trigger temper is clear throughout.
That still doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven Kubrick for taking the heart put of the story. The Danny of the novel is so watered down for the movie that the importance of this character is diminished. His insights, confused and filtered through the perspective of a five-year-old who has unfortunately been exposed to more violence and tension than a five-year-old should be, is the best part of the book.
Rating
⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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