The Shining
1977
- fiction
- horror fiction
- demonology
- precognition
- authors
- hotelkeepers
- gothic & horror
- paranormal fiction suspense & thriller
- horror
- supernatural thrillers
The story
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is King's third published novel and first hardback bestseller; its success firmly established King as a preeminent author in the horror genre. The setting and characters are influenced by King's personal experiences, including both his visit to The Stanley Hotel in 1974 and his struggle with alcoholism. The book was followed by a sequel, Doctor Sleep, published in 2013. The Shining centers on the life of Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. His family accompanies him on this job, including his young son Danny Torrance, who possesses "the shining", an array of psychic abilities that allow Danny to see the hotel's horrific past. Soon, after a winter storm leaves them snowbound, the supernatural forces inhabiting the hotel influence Jack's sanity, leaving his wife and son in incredible danger. --- Also contained in: - [Carrie / Night Shift / 'Salem's Lot / Shining](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL14917547W) - [Works (Danse Macabre / Salem's Lot / Shining)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24233994W)
What it’s like
Long, slow-building dread in a snowbound hotel, rendered in King's chatty, colloquial voice: close third-person passages that drift between the ordinary and the uncanny, with dense interiority, sudden shocks, and a steady drip of unease. The Overlook itself is the sensory centre, a sprawling mountain hotel of carpeted corridors, boiler-room hum, wind leaning on windows, and the hush of heavy snowfall that cuts the world off. The mood is claustrophobic and mounting, closer to a slow chill than a jump scare, with sudden flashes of grotesque imagery and a late-book escalation that grows loud and frantic. Violence is strong and sometimes graphic, with brutal assaults, gore and scenes of child peril, and the fear is intense and sustained rather than gentle. Its emotional register is bleak, with marital strain, addiction and a fraying family at the core. It suits a late-night, lights-on reading session or a stormy evening indoors, and suits readers who want a tense, character-driven haunted-house novel with a strong sense of place.
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