The Shining by Stephen King

The Shining, by Stephen King, is a fictional horror, set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at the Overlook Hotel.

Since the hotel's birth in 1907 -1909 and on up through until the late 1970's, the Overlook has had a rocky life. She went through a variety of owners, none of whom stayed around for very long because they just couldn't "handle" the hotel.

There were dry spell years where no one made the long sketchy drive up the mountain slope to the hotel with it's large hedge animals, watching like guards over the luxurious estate. There was something about the hotel or something lurking inside, that liked to play with and torture it's guests.

Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrance lived in Vermont where Jack was a teacher. He had just lost his job and was looking for work when his friend Al Shockley a member of the school board and Jack's drinking buddy, found Jack a job as a caretaker of the Overlook Hotel out in Colorado.

Danny, Jack and Wendy's five year-old son, is worried about the trip. His friend Tony appeared to him while Danny was in one of his trance-like visions. Tony said scary things to him, warning Danny not to go. There were strong sounds of an angry voice in the vision, or shine, as Dick Hallorann, the chef at the Overlook calls Danny's and his ability to "see things". Danny couldn't place any of these things. Not until his family was settled in to take care of the Hotel for the winter.

Danny's dad, Jack, begins to change for the worse in an angry way. Danny and Wendy knew it was the hotel messing with Jack's mind, but could Jack fight it? Could Wendy and Danny help him? Would he let them help? Would the Torrance Family survive the winter?

I found, The Shining, to be one of the best Stephen King novels I've ever read! With a fast paced plot and spooks around every corner, King surely has found another way to deliver an intensifying and gripping story. I found myself lost within the walls of the Overlook Hotel and I sympathized most with Danny.

As I traveled throughout the hotel with the characters, I felt their same fear of the ominous presence inside the hotel. Some books you can't put down, but this one I had to a few times to calm my own fears. Yet I could not wait to see how the story ended.