THE SHINING - Stephen King

 

The Shining by Stephen King

- Stephen King - 

The Shining 

I'm sure you have all watched th movie, starring Jack Nicholson...here's Daddy! But, have you read the book? As with all books turned movie, the book is better!

I like Stephen King's style. I'm not a big horror fan, but I am a big fan of a book that has a fast paced story. That's how King writes. Not too many divergent trains of thought. He sticks to the story. In this case the story is about a dysfunctional family that take the job as caretakers of an isolated hotel. Simple enough. But, King makes the father an alchoholic who has a violent past. He makes the wife a spineless wife, but a grizzly bear of a mother. And, last, but not least, their child has the power to tap into the spiritual world...which is just great because the hotel is full of old ghosts and mean spirited spirits.

I love that this book was predictable. I mean that in the best way. I knew right from the start that this story was going to end badly. It was foreshadowed throughout the entire book. But, how bad would it get!? That's what made me keep reading. I kept asking myself, when will this Jack guy break and start using a pick axe to kill people? Will the wife finally stand up to him, with a butcher knife? Will the kid get his soul taken over by a gruesome zombie? 

You knew something like that is going to happen. That is the whole point of reading this book. I'll let you know that the last quarter of the book is a blood filled, high octane, hauntingly good cat and mouse type 'game'...do the mice escape? Well, you'll just have to read the book to find out.

So I found this book at a thrift shop and paid a buck for it. I had always wanted to read The Shining, and I thought this vintage cover looked cool. It turns out this is one of the first paper back versions of the book. I looked it up on ebay, and they are selling for $30. Looks like I won big on this one. 

Vintage The Shining Book