My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Horror has always been a favorite genre of mine, recently a friend from school years reminded me about the nightmares I used to give her, retelling ghost stories that I had read during our lunch breaks. It is in fact quite ironic that I read a lot of them and always end up feeling that it was not ‘horror’ enough or did not leave me with nightmares. Truth be told, I read IT at an age when I shouldn’t have and obviously the book scared the hell out of me that I absolutely steered clear of Mr. King and his books for a very long time. And of course daring myself after a few years went ahead and read Heart In Atlantis and decided enough is enough with King and his horror books, I don’t wanna scream in the night. 🙀🙀🙀

Now here I am reading a book that has made such an extraordinary success in this genre and truthfully, The Shining literally chilled me to my bone. What can I say more about a classic that has not already been said? I don’t even want to try capture the essence of the story.

I loved the fact that Jack Torrance is flawed and is trying his damn best to overcome all his follies and be a good husband and good father to Wendy and Danny, his 5-yr old son. Danny’s psychic ability to hear thoughts and see things and his determined effort to make some sense of the dreams or nightmares that Tony was showing him was touching. But above all that, what I loved best is the genuine love and warmth that shines thru between Danny and Dick Halloran. The only sore point is the number of pages in the novel, does not matter much when one gets immersed into the Overlook Hotel but while constantly juggling travelling, family commitments, work overload etc. it becomes a chore to lose yourself.

I haven’t watched the movie but have come across the posters and trailers but somehow Mr. King’s Jack and Jack Nicholson, the actor who portrayed him, didn’t quite gel. I am not an expert but somehow, had a different picture of Jack Torrance in my mind.

So now that I have proved my mettle to myself 😹😹😹😹 and didn’t scare my husband and child in the process I am gonna read more of Mr. King’s books and play catch up👍



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Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny’s visions grow out of control.

As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive?

Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel – and that, too, is beginning to shine . . .