The Shining

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Summary: What a Good Scare!!!!!!!
Review: This is one of the scariest novels I have read. King dose an excellent job of entangling mystery about The Overlook Hotel with the reality of Tournace's family histroy. I loved the theme of a haunting hotel fighting the boy with a gift called the Shining. I am a Steven Knig nut and I think that this is one of the many classic that will go down in The History of Horror

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Summary: See the movie instead.
Review: As with many of Steven King's books he starts out with a brilliant idea for a book and somehow ends up ruining it. Instead of focusing on the Overlook Hotel and all of ghosts and with the kid's special powers, he mostly deals with the father's alcoholism and tries to explain why he's acting the way he is, not what I would consider to be scary. You should only read the book to compare it to the movie, which was rewritten by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, to see how lame and unfrightening the movie would have been if it was written directly from the book. I would recommend Carrie instead, it is scary well written book by King.

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Summary: This is what HAUNTING is all about!
Review: I recently picked up a copy of this book, not having read it since it first came out and with the movie and the TV movie blurring my memory I had to reread it! Good Idea!!! This story is a great mix of the 'haunting of the mind' as well as the 'haunted hotel'. If you haven't seen either of the movies, you should read it first. The Tv version (by King) is of course truer to the book, but something always seems lost in A Stephen King novel put to the screen, (I won't even mention how many film renditions of his work are such a waste!) Even if you've read this book it's worth a reread!!!!

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Summary: Chills isolated to going down your spine.
Review: "All work, no play, makes Jack a dull boy," can only be described as words as a seemingly recovering alcoholic isloated in the mountains for the winter. A chilling tale of abuse, dysfunctional families and hallucinations due to many months away from any part of civilization. Stephen King has the knack of making those tiny hairs on the back of you neck stand with just one word. "REDRUM, REDRUM," words only a child possessed by the haunting memories of an abusive and alcoholic father, and an inner voice trying to protect him from more danger his father can bring to him. When you learn what "The Shining," really means, and really can do, that is when you realize the true horror of what you have read, and experienced.

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Summary: King's best. I was scared to death.
Review: I am a horror movie nut, however I haven't been able to find a trully disturbing flick since Hellraiser. In my search for a good scare I thought I'd try reading this. Boy did I get what I was asking for. This book is the scariest from King that I've read so far.

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Summary: My First Stephen King Book
Review: This was my first full length Stephen King novel, and it was great! The character depth and developement is outstanding, and the slow infiltration of Jack Torrance's mind is riveting with every detail. If you choose to read this book simply to scare your wits out, it might do the trick (Although, after becoming a full fledged Stephen King reader, I have come across scarier SK books), but the real joy of this book is the character development and Danny's chilling experience with the Overlook. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes Stephen King, or wants a scary book with depth!

Rating:
Summary: Have I missed something?
Review: Perhaps the concept of a haunted hotel simply doesn't work for me, but I can't find a single thing I like about this book. And I don't mean because it scared me--if only it had that would've been a point in its favour. But no single part of this book--the hotel's history, the wasps, Jack Torrance going crackers, REDRUM, the lady in the bathtub, the 'scary' hedge animals--none of it did anything for me. And the thing is King's other books are so scary--"It" is probably one of the most frightening novels ever conceived. I don't know why it's hailed as a classic--maybe it got ruined for me when that "Friends" episode told me how it ended.

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Summary: TERRIFYING!
Review: This book has to be Steven Kings best to date! I previously read "IT" and was blown away by his detail but after reading the Shining Im hooked! HE is hands down the best writer of the century! I cant say enough about this book. If you want to be scared out of your pants and lying awake at night fearing your own house (like me) you have got to pick up this gripping psychological thriller!

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Summary: Beyond Frightening
Review: I loved The Shining. I have read a few of Stephen King's novels, and I have more than my share of criticism for them, but most of the time the book delivers. One of my problems is that it takes about one hundred pages for his novels to become interesting enough for a person to refrain from putting it down. But perhaps it is becuase I was 14 when I read this novel that I didn't find it that interesting at first. But once you get your first fright, the book takes off. The mental images that King conjures up are so vivid that they stay in your head, and you loathe to turn off the lamp at night. The things that happen at that hotel are the most basic things that frighten us, and that is why it is so effective. The sense that something behind you just moved, or that someone is going to grab you are embodied by the hedge animals closing in on our leading man, the ghosts chasing his son throughout the story. This is an excellent book for a person to be introduced to Stephen King with, but it may lead to disappointment with his later books, which tend to rely on gore and stereotypes to elicit a response from the audience instead of being truly frightening. I also would recommend Misery, which manages to frighten without being supernatural, instead using the human psyche to make your skin crawl.

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Summary: Mr. King, take a friggin bow man!
Review: Ok, this book should have been the first hint that Stephen King was much more than a writer but an emerging literary talent. Think about this, the late great Stanley Kubrick agreed to direct the film. The same guy who brought us Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick must have thought the novel to be something important. Remember that. I have seen some reviews that slam this book on style and character development and there is only one thing I can say about that, those people need some serious help in the reading comprehension department. The novel gets under the reader's skin and creeps upon the mind. The alcohol child abuse theme is haunting in itself and the fact that little Danny (the psychic child who "Shines") sees things no one else can stirs the cauldron of relationship-frustration between his father and himself. There are images that are startling (although the term horror probably doesn't apply and is too wantonly thrown about)and bits of dialogue that will stick with you (Here's Johnny! not one of them mind you) such as the infamous "Redrum". Bottom line is this is a deeply moving psychological thriller that is perfect to read on the first snowfall of the year, in the house, all alone, with maybe just one light on...