Like most horror fans, I’m a huge fan of Kubrick’s The Shining, an adaptation that King himself has sworn off. It’s become indelibly marked in pop culture. And is a fantastic piece of film making.

I hadn’t read the original novel since I was in my late teens so I decided it was time for a revisit. And this time, coming to it later in life, and no longer a youth, I got so much more out of it. As a teen, it was a haunted hotel, now, I see the themes of alcoholism and domestic abuse, the way the hotel works at Jack Torrance to undermine him, to push him over the edge, and kill his family.

In the film, Jack Nicholson’s Torrance is already at an 8 or 9 when we meet him. He doesn’t really seem to love his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, seems to be someone he tolerates. It’s not that much of a leap to push him to homicide in the film.

In the book, we see a struggling man. He’s trying to stay on the wagon, he does love his wife, he dotes on his son, and yet there is a darkness in there, urged on, augmented by his need for alcohol that the hotel exploits. And consequently, the book, for me, is a little scarier.

Sure there are things that can only work in the book, the topiary for one. The budget of your imagination is unrestrained, but bringing something like that to like (like we saw in the unfortunate mini-series), it doesn’t work as well.

But the themes. So good.

If you’ve been living under a rock, the crux of the plot follows the Torrance family, as they go to assume the caretaker position at the Overlook hotel in the Colorado mountains for the winter. They will be snowbound. But Jack is out of options. He was fired from his teaching job, he’s struggling with a play he’s working on and hopefully looking after the hotel for the winter will get them on the right path again. Both as a loving couple and a loving family.

Young Danny has a gift. He shines, a mix of telepathy and second sight, and the hotel, and the unseen inhabitants that reside there, want him. And they will get him though Jack, as they tempt nd push him.

The hauntings become more intense, the emotions fraught, and little Danny finds himself on a collision course confrontation with a monster wearing his father’s face.

It’s a fantastic read, and I really enjoyed digging into this one. I loved this revisit. I loved visiting this version of the Overlook, which is so different from the one we’ve seen on screen. It’s spooky, frightening, and King tells a helluva story.

Feel free to check in, but stay out of room 217.

And as an aside, I hate the cover of the first edition. It’s terrible, but the text, the text is so good. Read it!