Summary and Reflection on The Shining by Stephen King

Summary

In attempt to get past his alcoholism, temper, and abusive behaviour, Jack Torrance takes a job at the Overlook hotel as a caretaker. He moves with his wife, Wendy Torrance, and his son, Danny Torrance, in hopes to also bring his family back together and fall back into his writing. The job requires Jack and his family to stay and take care of the Overlook for all of winter….in complete solitude. In the beginning, the Torrance’s are finding their stay to be quite nice and actually bringing them together as they had hoped. Although, as the cold weather blows in, the more unsettling the place becomes.

Wendy and Jack are oblivious to almost all of the strange occurrences at the hotel at first. Their five year old son, Danny, notices these strange happenings before anyone else. He is gifted. He has, what Mr. Halloran the chef at the hotel had called, the shining. This power is a fusion of telepathy and clairvoyance. Danny has the ability to communicate with others using his mind, and can see what happened in the past or what may happen in the future. The boy has terrifying visions that take place in the hotel and this leaves him frightened, worried that his family is at great risk.

As time goes on, and the outside grows colder, Jack’s writing goes nowhere. He becomes flustered and aggravated and the littlest things irritate him. Gradually, Jack’s strange outbursts become worse and worse and his sanity deteriorates due the supernatural forces around this bizarre and sinister building. Danny is afraid that his dreams and apparitions of his dad will become a reality. Wendy is attentive to Jack’s behaviour and is concerned that her and her son are in imminent danger.

Reflection

The Shining written by Stephen King is one of my all time favourite books I’ve read. I adore horror/thriller books and this was just perfect. I liked the way it was written. It was written at a narratives perspective yet King decided to let you see the thoughts of the characters in a new way that I have never seen before. I could see the different point of views of the characters but it wasn’t written in a first person perspective. This book moved at a fast pace with a thrilling climax. It was scary and gave me chills; all the things I like. The descriptions throughout the book were impeccable and I could vividly picture what was going on in the book in my head. It was like a movie in my mind. I loved the character development as well. It was descriptive yet not too descriptive, leaving space for the reader to be imaginative. I liked every single thing about this book and I wouldn’t change anything. I will definitely be reading it again in the future.