The Shining is an impressive feet of psychological horror. Written by Stephen King, one of the only people who gives H.P. Lovecraft a run for his money. It is a horror book about a young family moving into an empty, haunted hotel.

King offers some of the most scary stories ever. Author of things like IT and Pet Cemetery, King shows us exactly where our fears lay by using childish fears like clowns, the undead and ghosts to plague our minds with fear.

The Shining surrounds the Torrence family as they move into the Overlook Hotel to be the caretakers for the winter. The Overlook is in the middle of the Colorado mountains, and gets snowed in every year, so the owner employes a family to stay there and make sure the the place is still functional.

Jack Torrence, along with his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, move in and are trapped in what would seem to be a haunted hotel. The truly impressive part of The Shining is the way it draws from your mind to produce intense visuals such as an elevator full of blood that pours out all over a hotel lobby. This part is extremely intense.

There is another awesome part that shows Jack viciously pounding on the door with an axe trying to get to his family. This part is definitely one of my favorites because of the iconic line “Here’s Johnny” said by Jack while he breaks down the door.

One of my few problems with the book is its length. There seems to be a lot of parts that do not need to be there. Although these parts do help add a serious sense of suspense and dread, they still feel odd along with the better parts of the book. Like the lengthy beginning, they do not go to the hotel till at least a quarter through the book.

My other problem deals with the ending. Though I will not spoil it here, it ends abruptly and without much explanation. I’m hoping for some explaining in the sequel book, Doctor Sleep.

One of the really cool parts of this book is how it can be interpreted in so many different ways. There are several different point of views you can look at this book like the idea that the ghosts of the hotel possessed Jack and forced him to try to kill his family.

The other part that helps lend some interesting moments is that Jack’s son, Danny, is what’s called a shiner which means that he can see the ghosts that inhabit the Overlook. This helps gives us some of the scariest parts of the book such as when Danny enters room 217 which has the ghost of a woman that drowned in it. This part is super tense and when I read it I couldn’t put the book down.

There are many movie adaptions of this book, even one directed by Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Though, none of the movie adaptions completely capture the true horror of this amazing book.

The movie adaptions seem to go out of their way to change things in the book. Everything from the ending to the room number is different in the movie from the book.

There are a lot of things people take away from this book. Such as phrases which are used a great deal in the book to mean murder because it is murder spelled backwards. As well as “Here’s Johnny,” a now famous phrase which shows Jack beating a door down with an axe, help solidify nightmares for years to come. This is a very compelling read that will keep you up at night.

Some of the best parts are early on. By the end of the book, The Shining has lost a lot of steam that built up early on. Scenes like Danny’s encounter in room 217 as well as when wasps attack the family are some of the few parts later on in the book that feel memorable.

Although by the end of the book you feel for a lot of the characters, only a few will actually stick with you. Dick Hallorann is one of those characters. Dick is the man who teaches Danny about his power and, in the end, helps save both Danny and Wendy. Most of the other characters are important but in a book that only surrounds four or five people they feel forgettable.

The Shining is amazing. It provides a great amount of deep characters with realistic and interesting fears. It really hones in on the common fears that human beings have on a daily basis.

The Shining is available for purchase on Amazon or at local bookstores for between eight and ten dollars.

Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.

For more reviews, read the Sept. 19 article, ‘Enders Shadow’ provides relatable character, storyline.