The Shining

I probably don't need to tell you by now that The Shining scared me when I was younger.  However, it is a book with really only one major supernatural terror with the woman in Room 217 and a few more minor ones; the rest is more human.  I don't think I really understood the story beyond the horror when I was a kid, mostly just that the hotel was haunted and it was haunted with something bad.  That being said, it still was creepy.  Also, the copy that I remember had one of the creepiest covers I have ever seen on a book:

Yikes

The Shining is definitely a book that relies more on suspense than gore, unlike 'Salem's Lot, which, after a while, had plenty of overt scares.  But I think that the root of the plot hinges more on the individual characters than what is actually happening in the Overlook Hotel.  We have a writer who finds it difficult to control his urges, whether they pertain to alcohol or anger, but who also seeks to do better.  We have a wife who is remarkably dependent on her husband--maybe this was more typical in the 1970s, but I found it jarring that she really didn't seem to do anything other than raise their son.  And we have your average, mind-reading boy, whose telepathy is strong enough to reach from Colorado to Florida.  I would describe this novel as one in which King incorporates the supernatural to provide better insights into the natural: what we really see here is a father who gets pushed over the edge and cannot return.  While his being pushed over the edge is manifested by his being possessed by the evil hotel, the ending could work without any of the supernatural elements.

Also, he runs around for a while with a knife in his back.  Remember Carrie? 

I find King's writer characters particularly interesting in his books.  This could be because I need to write for my job, so I have an appreciation of how difficult that can be sometimes.  The first writer that we see working on a project is Ben Mears in 'Salem's Lot, although his actual writing seems to go pretty well.  There are several places where his process is described as relatively anguish-free since returning to the Lot.  Jack Torrence in The Shining is not as lucky.  At first, his writing goes well, which amplifies the other elements in his life and makes him satisfied.  As he begins to break down, his writing also goes with him.  I'm not sure if his writing block is symptomatic or the cause of his problems, but I do see the two as related.

The Shining is one of the books that has proven fertile for adaptations, including Kubrick's film and a Simpsons parody entitled 'The Shinning,' which was part of the fifth 'Treehouse of Horrors' specials.  I really like the Kubrick adaptation, even though it is not faithful to the novel.  Actually, I think that it is scarier than the novel and creates fantastic visual effects, plus adds a great final moment with the photograph.  The changes that Kubrick made are logical and fit with the idea of the book while creating a version that works on screen even if it differs from the book. 

'The Shinning,' on the other hand, was just plain funny.