BOOK REVIEW: ... And No Chocolate Mints On Their Pillows To Boot

(Originally published 1977, Mass Market Paperback 659 pages)

It's been 35 years since I read "The Shining." I was 18, it was my first introduction to a Stephen King novel, and the thing scared the everlovin' crap out of me. (The book on the right was the original paperback cover I purchased at a small Hallmark Card store in 1978.) With the author coming out with a sequel entitled "Doctor Sleep" in September 2013, it seemed like a good time to revisit a classic. The book left such an impression on me back in 1978 that I still remember most key events from the story. Despite knowing the end results, I found the book to still be immensely entertaining and suspenseful.

Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance are between a rock and a hard place. Due to Jack's hair-trigger temper, alcoholism and other family dynamics, he winds up taking a job as the winter caretaker of a remote hotel in the Colorado mountains. Mr. King does a fine job of setting up the situation as very plausible. Being cut off from the rest of civilization due to snow for six or seven months in a empty hotel would've been a nonstarter for my wife, two sons and me. Heck, dumpster diving seems like a more appealing career move than hauling your family up into such a place. Add to it that the Overlook's haunted and you can bet your sweet bippy this chicken would've hightailed it to civilization at the first sign of something weird. The three main characters are given ample time in the story to be fleshed out and for the reader to understand their fears, hopes and motivations. You'll find yourself rooting for the family and hoping they get out of this mess. Even the father, Jack Torrance, with his awful faults is a sympathetic character.

What makes "The Shining" an exceptionally good, terrifying story is never knowing what or when something will go bump in the night. I've read about thirty of Mr. King's works and this baby is still one of my favorites.

(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #348)