The Shining by Stephen King
As Halloween draws closer, I feel a few horror-reviews are definitely in order! So today I present to you one of the scariest books ever written; The Shining, by Stephen King.
If ever there was a book that demonstrates the power of the author over the reader, it is The Shining. A staggering display of psychological horror fiction, this book grips you by the nerve-endings from the very start, refusing to release as it drags you through one of the most terrifying haunted-house tales ever written. Making use of the well-known situation of a family holiday, King invites the reader to join the Torrance family on a retreat designed to help father and recovering alcoholic Jack find some peace and quiet, to repair relations with his family and finish a play he has be writing for some time. What Jack doesn’t realise is that the job he has taken, as winter custodian of the Overlook, has placed him at the mercy of an murderous hotel and its population of malicious spirits– a combination that start taking over his mind and using him to do their murderous bidding.
The key plot element to the novel is Jack’s son, Danny, who has a powerful gift called The Shine; allowing him to see and know things he couldn’t possibly know. Although too young to fully understand much of what he sees, Danny is used as a supernatural medium through which the reader is given access to the Overlook Hotel’s grisly past, in a series of disturbing scenes placed throughout the novel to maintain the steadily overwhelming terror.
King’s incredible characterisation of very few subjects allows the reader to come to know the characters intimately and quickly, making their horrific situation and fear spring to life from the very outset. If you’re looking for an appropriately petrifying present for Halloween this year, The Shining is a perfect bet.
