The Shining

"It was good"

"i vaguely remember reading this one back in college, and mostly i remember hedge animals and a lot of drinking. i decided to try it again since i love the movie so much and i had an interesting conversation with @nona_lisa about it. aaaand i hate it. i really, really struggled to finish this one. every time i had to read about some homophobic, racist, misogynist, abuser crap i wanted to throw it at the wall. only i couldn't, since the book was on my phone. why do people like this? there's so much repetition and random word-association it felt like reading coked-up faulkner with extra racism. jack is the WORST, and i hated spending any time in his head. he talks about trying to control his temper, but never does anything about it. does he go to therapy? no. does he go to AA meetings and get a sponsor? no. does he do yoga, exercise, meditate? no. he just explodes. over and over again. i realize this was the 1970s, but C'MON. his denial of responsibility for his actions made him feel even more poisonous than the film, where he's aloof enough to keep his emotional distance. i also realize jack is the villain here, but the film felt more honest about it. i also feel guilty for finding wendy more annoying in the book than in the movie, and i hated how much delight the book seemed to take in violently hurting her and leering at her attractiveness. the hedge animals were really silly. sorry to people who like them! i like the maze more, since it demonstrates danny's intelligence without having to tell us he's smart. things i did like: halloran lives. i liked that woman he talks to on the plane. his speech to danny about how what the world ought to be like rarely matches up with reality, and we have to learn to deal with that reality, is so, so good. also, he reassures danny that crying is not bad. i really appreciated that emotional healthiness. and i guess it covers addiction fairly well. but all in all, it felt like a more meandering version of 'burnt offerings'."

"Definitely follow up with Doctor Sleep !! (Continues with story on the life of Danny Torrence, so good) "

"Classic book, very good book!"

"Somehow this is my first Steven king novel. I started it expecting to find him overrated, and maybe he is, but also I was so pulled in and loved it. The offering of so much backstory and internal thoughts/workings of the characters is stuff that I absolutely love. While I’m sure there’s a way he could be more concise, he really does offer SO MUCH content to the reader and makes it so that you’re invested in the characters and it’s really hard to miss the themes of the book, also. Far better than the movie, if you ask me!"

"Stephen King definitely is the King (pun intended) of the horror genre. He writes suspense in such a masterful way your begging for a climax by the time it finally comes. He uses tools like foreshadowing and suspense with ease and creates characters you feel connected to and who feel like themselves. This book is really good, it’s long, but the slow path to insanity is worth it in my opinion. It needs to be this long to slowly let the reader trundle down the Overlook Hotel taking over. The supernatural parts of the book don’t feel fake and the ending is insane! Solid solid book. 26/30 "

"3.5/5"

"I read this book and wrote a 17 page paper on the motifs it shared with Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death and strangely enough I had so much fun writing it. I typically don't bounce with excitement when writing papers but going through the elements of this book was thrilling!"

"A true horror classic! "

"The first Stephen King book I read start to finish and probably one of the best books o ever read. The story how a flawed character is trying to redeem himself with his family while dealing with the supernatural hotel and everything that makes the book complete. Yes, it is different from the movie but this one I just enjoy more."