Massey in room 217 to visions of a Mafia murder in the Presidential Suite to topiaries that move and fire hoses that act like coiling snakes. King has a variety of bad things at The Overlook, from the decomposing Mrs. And you have unique and incredibly scary ghosts and a twisted history that has made the location rotten to the core. You have three people living in said hotel, and one of them is slowly being driven mad, be it because of the isolation, his own demons, or something else. You have an isolated hotel that cannot be escaped once the snows come. Outside of the time I went to the actual Overlook this past summer, aka The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado!Īt the very heart of “The Shining” is a gothic ghost story, and while it may not take place on a moor in England, it has all the elements that make the genre great.

So, just in time for Halloween Week, the first up is the original, and I’m finally returning to The Overlook Hotel after all these years of being away. In anticipation of the film adaptation of “Doctor Sleep”, the sequel to “The Shining”, I decided to re-read both books to see how they held up. But on top of that, “The Shining” is a terrifying read that has gone down in literary history as one of the best horror novels of the 20th Century, and really solidified King’s place as a horror author. He was reading it in the hallway, and as someone who had already read it seeing someone else experiencing it gave me the need to be like ‘I LOVE that book!’ It was the start of an enduring friendship. I approached my best friend from high school (and still good friend today) Blake because of this book. Review: Believe it or not, “The Shining” has a deep, personal meaning for me, and that is because it’s proof that Stephen King books can bring people together.

And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote…and more sinister. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. Book Description: Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start.

The shining book