Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, is hired to work at the Overlook Hotel for the winter, so after being shown around, he takes his family up to the hotel to begin his job when the hotel closes for the winter season.

His son Danny though doesn't want to go, his imaginally friend, Tony, shows him things that make him fear his own father, because in those images his father is trying to kill him.

Jack's wife, Wendy, loves her husband, but she harbours an anger at her husband for breaking their son's arm when he was 3, and for letting drink almost rule his life.

The hotel itself though, that is where the problems really begin. The walls hold more than old ghosts...

The setting and feeling of the story. It's a creepy tale that never seems to get boring, instead it's like reading it for the first time each time. The characters are great, beautifully well written and described, Jack himself is a great character. Also the detail that King has written for the hotel itself is excellent, like he was there and taking pictures, excellent.

Finishing it and also the chapter layout, the chapters almost seem to overlap at points and it makes it hard to stop reading when you're tired because you want to get to a point where you can stop and place a marker without being confused. Finishing the book is like a whirlwind, you can get so wrapped up in the story that you never realise that time been moving on since you started reading, very engrossing book indeed.

Read it again, I was sure there was something I had missed. There's much written down that it's like eating a big dinner and even though you're full, you want to keep going for some reason. King wrote a lot in this story for sure.

Stiff, yet good. Ever felt like that after reading your favourite book? I have, especially when reading this one.

Do I have to explain? You must know who Stephen King is, have you read any of his books? Come on, please don't make me have to say, he's one of the world's most renowned authors in the horror genre, even though he's written more than horror over the years. If you haven't heard of him, then I recommend trying his books out. This one is one of his best.

The story is chilling, very chilling. It's hard to put down once you start and it shows his full writing talent to the full, this, in my opinion, is his best book. It's wonderfully written, well described and gripping, pick up a copy as soon as you can.

Horror might not be your thing and while there aren't any monsters as such in this story, it can be a scary book. Not exactly for the faint of heart.

This is my favourite book-EVER! I love the setting, the feelings, Jack's slow decline into madness, the characters, the descriptions, the ideas, everything. If there's such a thing as a Soul Book, then this is my Soul Book for sure, it's amazing. This is the book I aspire to, I may never be as good as King himself, but you never know, it's worth a shot. This is grade-A+++++++ reading in my opinion, a classic in every sense of the word, King at his best. But that's just my opinion.

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Created May 03, 2003 at 2:16pm • Submit your own review...