The Shining (The Shining, #1) in Bookworm Buddies

Aug 04, 2012 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Finally I'm finished. It took me longer than I expected but I have this feeling of pride finishing this book. Now by no means does this mean I didn't like the book. This was a great book but not exactly what I expected.

Most of King's work that I have read is new to me and I have no knowledge going in so I can form my own versions of the characters and events. This however, was made into a movie and a mini series, both I have seen years before I got around to reading this. Both were also pretty Finally I'm finished. It took me longer than I expected but I have this feeling of pride finishing this book. Now by no means does this mean I didn't like the book. This was a great book but not exactly what I expected.

Most of King's work that I have read is new to me and I have no knowledge going in so I can form my own versions of the characters and events. This however, was made into a movie and a mini series, both I have seen years before I got around to reading this. Both were also pretty scary when I was a kid and I was really looking forward to being scared out of my mind reading this. Sadly this wasn't the case at all through this whole book. Other books by King such as It, and 'Salem's Lot sent me checking windows at night and made me scared to walk across my house in the middle of the night. The shinning didn't and even though I loved the story, since my expectations were so high, I am sticking to my four star rating. Had it lived up to my expectations and scared the pants off of me, this would have easily been a favorite.

Ok, enough of the pet peeve. The reason I liked this book is because the story is so well written and the characters are so interesting. Some of King's lengthier books that have a lot of back story and character development such as The Tommyknockers, have left me bored to tears and wishing something would just happen already. Not the case with the Shining. The characters are so well done I wanted to know every little insignificant detail about them. There was a lot of build up before they even got to the Overlook hotel and were it might have been slow at times, I still found it interesting. Each character had me feeling for them in different situations. Knowing in advance what type of person Jack is, I still felt sorry for him and wished something would change and make the ending I already knew wrong. I wished I could pop into the story and rescue Danny and his mom during some of the more intense parts.

I think I have gone on long enough. The short version is I really liked this book. If you are looking for a great story, with amazing characters this is defiantly for you. For those that are not as desensitized to the Macabre as I am, you might find this really scary and I hope you enjoy it. However, if you are like me and have read a lot of King's work and stuff just doesn't scare you as much as it used to, this is still very much worth the read. ...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Kit★ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, keep-forever

This is really probably more like 4 and a half or 4 and three-quarters stars, not just 4. The only thing keeping this book from a 5 star is the ending, to me, was a bit rushed. But hey, that might just be me, because I always want more King.
The characters were well-developed from the beginning. I could understand Jack's frustration as well as the alcoholism. In fact, the family situation reminded me of a more extreme and somewhat scary version of my own. I wanted things to work out for them, I w ...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Damali rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal, audiobook, psychological-thriller

Jack loses his mind after moving with his wife and son, Danny, to a remote hotel over the winter.

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Aug 03, 2012 Kim rated it it was amazing

Awesome! My favorite so far of Stephen King's long list of wonderful books. I am determined to get through all of them. While I have seen the Stanley Kubrick movie more times than I would like to admit (one of my favorites) and heard from many interviews with King himself that Kubrick took too much liberty with his book, I finally finished it and was surprised that the book actually was closer to the movie than I thought. Alot of the same words, conversations. I think it is all about interpretat ...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Lucy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-own

Could not put this down! Never have I read a 500 page book in such a short time!

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Nov 11, 2010 Alisha Marie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, books-i-own-that-i-ve-read

So, I totally expected to love The Shining. It seems to have kick-ass ratings and reviews, it's a haunted house story (and I tend to enjoy those the most when it comes to the horror genre), and it's King (and I've previously enjoyed three out of the five books I've read of his). Expectations were sky-high for me. That led me to be disappointed in it. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, most of the time. I just didn't love it.

My main issue with The Shining was that it dragged. Every time I put the bo So, I totally expected to love The Shining. It seems to have kick-ass ratings and reviews, it's a haunted house story (and I tend to enjoy those the most when it comes to the horror genre), and it's King (and I've previously enjoyed three out of the five books I've read of his). Expectations were sky-high for me. That led me to be disappointed in it. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, most of the time. I just didn't love it.

My main issue with The Shining was that it dragged. Every time I put the book down, I literally had to force myself to pick it back up. I think had it not been for the fact that I've read and enjoyed other Stephen King books, I would've put it down. I was just supremely bored throughout the first 200 pages. Very little of interest happened during that time. I kept thinking "For the love of God when is this book going to be OVER?!" It did end up getting a bit better after those initial 200 pages.

My next semi-issue was that I hated Wendy. That woman was a TERRIBLE mother. She was constantly excusing her husband's behavior. MILD SPOILER HERE: Her husband (who's a raging alcoholic) breaks their son's arm and she still stays with him. Covers up for him. And then when the husband slaps the son, she's all sobbing hysterically "You promised you wouldn't hit him again!" All I kept thinking was "You fucking idiot! He hit him once! DUH, he was going to do it again!" Gah! END OF MILD SPOILER. I didn't blame Jack for getting annoyed with Wendy. Hell, by the end of the book, I wanted to throttle her. I'm not saying anything Jack did was justified, but seriously that woman grated (and I have to say, I did laugh hysterically when Jack told Wendy and Danny that they could count him out of their duet/duel hysterics mostly because both Wendy and Danny were neurotic little freaks who were massively annoying).

Now that I've got the ranting out of the way, I did like The Shining. Mostly because when it was good, it was great. The creepy parts were seriously creepy (the elevator scared the crap out of me) and when the book got going, it was pretty hard to put down (but again I say it took me 200 freakin' pages). And this is King. He is a superb writer no matter how much the story drags or how much you hate the protagonists/heroes. That's someone who's extremely talented.

Do I recommend The Shining? I think I do. However, I will say that if this is going to be your first foray into King, I think you should probably pick up something else (although my first King was The Stand and I've heard some die-hard King fans say that's not the best place to start). This wasn't really my favorite book by him but from what I've read, I think this is better than Carrie and The Gunslinger. Just not as good as The Stand, Misery, and The Girl Who Loves Tom Gordon. ...more

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