The Shining by Stephen King
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The Shining

by

Stephen King

(Author)

4.7

-

44,956 ratings


#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • Before Doctor Sleep, there was The Shining, a classic of modern American horror. Jack Torrance takes a job as the caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel. As the brutal winter sets in, the hotel's dark secrets begin to unravel.

“An undisputed master of suspense and terror.” —The Washington Post

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

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ISBN-10

0307743659

ISBN-13

978-0307743657

Print length

672 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Vintage

Publication date

June 25, 2012

Dimensions

4.15 x 1.01 x 6.88 inches

Item weight

11 ounces


Popular highlights in this book

  • She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong.

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  • You shine on, boy. Harder than anyone I ever met in my life. And I’m sixty years old this January.

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  • If brains was black powder he couldn’t blow his own nose. It’s a pity the things you see when you ain’t got a gun.

    Highlighted by 2,477 Kindle readers


Product details

ASIN :

B001BANK32

File size :

3312 KB

Text-to-speech :

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Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

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Editorial reviews

“A master storyteller.” —Los Angeles Times

“Scary! . . . Serves up horrors at a brisk, unflagging pace.” —The New York Times

“Guaranteed to frighten you into fits. . . . with a climax that is literally explosive.” —Cosmopolitan

“The most wonderfully gruesome man on the planet.” —USA Today

“An undisputed master of suspense and terror.” —The Washington Post

“[King] probably knows more about scary goings-on in confined, isolated places than anybody since Edgar Allan Poe.” —Entertainment Weekly

“He’s the author who can always make the improbable so scary you’ll feel compelled to check the locks on the front door.” —The Boston Globe

“This chilling novel will haunt you, and make your blood run cold and your heart race with fear.” —Nashville Banner

“Peerless imagination.” —The Observer (London)


Sample

CHAPTER ONE

JOB INTERVIEW

Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.

Ullman stood five-five, and when he moved, it was with the prissy speed that seems to be the exclusive domain of all small plump men. The part in his hair was exact, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. I am a man you can bring your problems to, that suit said to the paying customer. To the hired help it spoke more curtly: This had better be good, you. There was a red carnation in the lapel, perhaps so that no one on the street would mistake Stuart Ullman for the local undertaker.

As he listened to Ullman speak, Jack admitted to himself that he probably could not have liked any man on that side of the desk--under the circumstances.

Ullman had asked a question he hadn't caught. That was bad; Ullman was the type of man who would file such lapses away in a mental Rolodex for later consideration.

"I'm sorry?"

"I asked if your wife fully understood what you would be taking on here. And there's your son, of course." He glanced down at the application in front of him. "Daniel. Your wife isn't a bit intimidated by the idea?"

"Wendy is an extraordinary woman."

"And your son is also extraordinary?"

Jack smiled, a big wide PR smile. "We like to think so, I suppose. He's quite self-reliant for a five-year-old."

No returning smile from Ullman. He slipped Jack's application back into the file. The file went into a drawer. The desk top was now completely bare except for a blotter, a telephone, a Tensor lamp, and an in/out basket. Both sides of the in/out were empty, too.

Ullman stood up and went to the file cabinet in the corner. "Step around the desk, if you will, Mr. Torrance. We'll look at the floor plans."

He brought back five large sheets and set them down on the glossy walnut plain of the desk. Jack stood by his shoulder, very much aware of the scent of Ullman's cologne. All my men wear English Leather or they wear nothing at all came into his mind for no reason at all, and he had to clamp his tongue between his teeth to keep in a bray of laughter. Beyond the wall, faintly, came the sounds of the Overlook Hotel's kitchen, gearing down from lunch.

"Top floor," Ullman said briskly. "The attic. Absolutely nothing up there now but bric-a-brac. The Overlook has changed hands several times since World War II and it seems that each successive manager has put everything they don't want up in the attic. I want rattraps and poison bait sowed around in it. Some of the third-floor chambermaids say they have heard rustling noises. I don't believe it, not for a moment, but there mustn't even be that one-in-a-hundred chance that a single rat inhabits the Overlook Hotel."

Jack, who suspected that every hotel in the world had a rat or two, held his tongue.

"Of course you wouldn't allow your son up in the attic under any circumstances."

"No," Jack said, and flashed the big PR smile again. Humiliating situation. Did this officious little prick actually think he would allow his son to goof around in a rattrap attic full of junk furniture and God knew what else?

Ullman whisked away the attic floor plan and put it on the bottom of the pile.

"The Overlook has one hundred and ten guest quarters," he said in a scholarly voice. "Thirty of them, all suites, are here on the third floor. Ten in the west wing (including the Presidential Suite), ten in the center, ten more in the east wing. All of them command magnificent views."

Could you at least spare the salestalk?

But he kept quiet. He needed the job.

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About the authors

Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

44,956 global ratings

Daniel Shepherd

Daniel Shepherd

5

The Master at Work!

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024

Verified Purchase

My first Stephen King horror novel. (My first SK was 11/22/63) It did not disappoint! Different from the movie yes, but in such a good way. You really get to know the characters and you can SEE the internal struggles and real life wishes and desires.

zee9

zee9

5

A must read if you are going to read Dr. Sleep

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I downloaded the sample of Dr. Sleep, having only watched the movie version of The Shining, and on the very first page I new I would have to go back to where the story of Danny Torrence started if I was going to read Dr. Sleep. Many people say "the book was so much better" and that line can be no truer for The Shining.

Immediately, the characters elicit strong emotions from the reader.

Jack Torrence, both protagonist and antagonist, compells the reader to feel sympathetic for his plight. As a "dry drunk" who has fallen on hard times after a short bit of success as a writer, he is desperate to straighten out his life for his family and feels that his last chance to do so is to take the caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel during the winter season. The reader can relate to this desire to provide for one's family. Jack's indecision - to stay at the Hotel and guarantee financial support or to leave the Hotel for the safety of his son - is very palpable. Jack's desire to be a good father plucks at the reader's heartstrings.

Wendy, Jack's wife, was not as likeable as her husband, in my opinion. She is very timid, having suffered her mother's psychological and mental abuse for years. It's obvious that she has traded her mother's abuse for Jack's quick temper and (at times) violent outbursts. She is only strong enough to stand up to Jack when their son's safety is concerned. Any other time, she dances around the issues that have plagued her marriage and is outright skittish whenever Jack's mood sours. I felt that her inability to stand up for herself made her unlikeable.

Danny, the five-year-old boy of the Torrence clan, was by far the most interesting character. He is very gifted with psychic abilities such as telepathy, empathy, precognition, and mediumship. As a child, he has very little understanding of these abilities and of the adult subject matter that he is inadvertently subjected to due to his abilities. This struggle is captured very well as it is described through his young and innocent point of view. The reader feels afraid for him as his abilities draw the attention of the malevolent spirits dwelling in the Overlook Hotel.

King does an amazing job bringing his characters to life. The reader is captivated by the Torrence family chemistry via an in-depth look into their histories, their lifes' experiences, and their struggles. These elements become crucial to the events that transpire inside the Overlook Hotel and they become fuel for the spirits that are preying upon the Torrence family, thus entwining events of the past with those of the present.

As always, Kind does an excellent job with description. Not only can the reader visualize the Hotel's various locations (the lobby, kitchen, different floors, the basement, the outdoors) but he also does an amazing job capturing the emotions and thoughts of the main characters. The reader knows what the characters are experiencing, knows what they are feeling, knows what they are hoping to accomplish.

The story moves along at a very steady pace. Told through a limited third person point of view, the present is interspersed with tidbits from each characters' pasts that bring relevancy to the current situation. As tension between family members rise and as the danger of the hotel becomes more evident, the pace steadily grows faster and faster, making it very difficult to put the book down.

The Shining was a very enjoyable book, full of human emotion and supernatural phenomena. With characters that are compelling and well-rounded and a story that captivates, this is a book that I highly recommend.

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4 people found this helpful

JCStreetSoldier

JCStreetSoldier

5

His Career Defining Decision and the Path `The Shining' Led Him

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2012

Verified Purchase

Before I read King I had assumed he was an overrated, bloated author that had way too many movie adaptations of his works--in fact he has the Guinness World Record for most film adaptations of all time (no surprise). Then I read his `On Writing' book (because I am an aspiring fiction/horror writer) and I learned a lot. Big deal though, whoopie do, I still wasn't interested in his stuff . . . but something kept on nagging and nagging at me . . . something dark and tall; it was The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. I cannot explain why; maybe it's because the book I was writing at the time seemed like it would benefit itself if I, my book's Writer, would step outside my comfort zone (Crichton, McCarthy, Matheson, Barker) and just try to read The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. I finally read it because the cover looked sweet, not gonna lie. The ever-binding, story-interweaving Todash Darkness pulled me into the world of King. For instance, the Turtle is in It, and even mentioned in his most recent 11/22/63; and Todash Darkness--that vague conceptual, slightly existentialistic evil that makes a sound like rumbling chimes--which is also mentioned in "It"; and then there's Randal Flagg, Donald Callahan, Ted Brautigan, the Low Men and the Crimson King: all the former are uniting elements in many Stephen King books. And The Dark Tower series is a gateway drug to his other novels; and his other novels are a gateway drug to The Dark Tower--it's full circle, baby!

But let's talk about The Shining, shall we, because that's why you're reading this. In his introduction for the novel King says that the decision to write (and how to write) The Shining was very crucial in terms of his career as a writer. You must understand that Carrie did not break any rules besides

(this one)

and it was very short, which is ideal for debut novels for any author. It was also original and shocking; another must-have. But Carrie wasn't necessarily epic or long lasting. Then `Salem's Lot was his second. He took risks with style, but nothing else; the pacing was fast, and he didn't get too deep into character history. What you knew about most of the characters were through immediate actions and thoughts. And the town itself was something he was familiar with, along with the people and the professions of the people. It was marketable. It worked. It was filmable.

Then The Shining was written more of a character study about how alcoholism destroys marriages and relationships between fathers and their children. Most of the horror wasn't shown on a golden platter as it was in Carrie and `Salem's Lot; instead, the horror was suggestive. It was there, in the shadows, you could choose to see it or ignore it; it was subtle, but there. Then toward the end, that's when the fireworks begin to go off one after the other . . . but still, for my generation (twenty-somethings) and younger, many will pass up The Shining just because it takes a while to pick up the pace and, hey, there's a movie, too--Jack Nicholson's in it, so they'll just watch that, assuming that they'll get the "same thing out of it"--which is a shame. Ultimately this was King's attempt to actually write a literarily respectable novel with horror aspects (and he does stay true to horror; it's just not blood and guts all the time).

I won't waste your time with the synopsis; the book is different than the film, but it's not that different and I can't say how it is even if I wanted to (which I don't), because the differences would be spoilers. It's a little scarier than Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation in principles and it had a better story; but the movie is easier to watch. However, if you don't mind a slower paced novel that builds up like tension from a rope being pulled further and further apart until it snaps like a stale jerky, then you should definitely read The Shining--and then make sure you read The Dark Tower series (at least the first four are phenomenal).

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